ASPARAGUS! Also, Overwintered Kale

The Jersey Supreme asparagus crowns we planted last spring came through gloriously. I gently raked away the leaf cover today and found about two dozen of these:

I'm not used to having so much fresh produce in the spring, but with overwintered kale and arugula, self-seeded lettuce, and spinach and lamb's quarters in the greenhouse, we are eating very, very well.

I planted this kale last fall, and it overwintered quite nicely. We hardly touched it all winter because we were still harvesting from the spring kale until February! Now the fall kale is greening up and growing like gangbusters. I have to remember this trick for getting fresh produce early in the season.

Seed Shopping on a Budget

I love saving seeds and using them year after year to grow my own vegetables, not just because it's free, but because I'm perpetuating a genetic line. And sometimes I get surprising results and hybridizations, which always makes me feel a bit like Gregor Mendel. But even saving seed, I always need to buy some seed, too. Some varieties I use, like Winterbor kale or Sungold cherry tomatoes, are hybrids, so I can't save their seed. Sometimes I just want to try something new.

When I do go shopping for seeds, I'm always surprised by the final bill. 20 or 30 packets of seeds at $4 each adds up fast! This year, I carefully checked across several catalogs for the lowest prices on seeds. I found that well established companies like Johnny's Selected Seeds, Territorial Seed Company, and Seeds of Change charged about a dollar more per packet. Now, one argument I've heard is that the amounts differ, so I also checked the amounts in the packets. Here's a comparison on some common seeds I priced. SoC = Seeds of Change, NGC = The Natural Gardening Company, SESE = Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Seed Variety	Johnny's	SoC	NGC	Territorial	SESE
Arugula (Roquette)	$3.95 (500 seeds)	---	---	$2.80 (1g (~660 seeds))	$2.25 (1g (~660 seeds))
Chioggia Beet	3.95 (350 seeds)	---	---	3.85 (5g (~385 seeds))	2.50 (3g (~230 seeds))
Oregon Giant Peas	3.65 (250 seeds)	$3.49 (~50 seeds)	$2.75 (125 seeds)	2.05 (1oz)	2.50 (28 g)
Garlic Chives	3.65 (200 seeds)	3.49 (200 seeds)	2.50 (225 seeds)	2.35 (225 seeds)	2.25 (175 seeds)
Veronica Cauliflower	8.95 (100 seeds)	3.49 (50 seeds)	4.50 (25 seeds)	4.30 (25 seeds)	---

Quantity can matter. If I'm planning to plant a lot of beets, buying 5g from Territorial Seeds makes better financial sense than 3g at Southern Exposure (in this case, only SESE has organic seed, so I'll buy there). But I really, really do not need a ton of garlic chive seeds. I fact, I want about five. So buying the minimum amount for the minimum price from SESE is the clever plan. And why on earth would I pay nine bucks for twenty times as much Veronica seed as I need?

So I've done my shopping and made my choices. More on that when I can figure out how to get it from csv format to HTML without breaking Blogger.

Planning a Lazy Garden

Outside, the snow is coming down fast and heavy, but inside, I'm basking in the glow of seed catalogs. Oh, yes, it's that time of year. Bear-like, I've come out of hibernation to start planning my garden. And that begins with reflecting on last year's garden.

Overambitious is the phrase that immediately springs to mind. We planted thickly and with wild abandon, and we were socked with too much food and overcrowded beds. The other word that comes to mind is disease. We had mosaic virus, early blight, and some fungal infection on the squash. So while we were swimming in tomatillos, ground cherries, and basil, we lost most of our summer and winter squash and had some mighty unhappy tomato plants.

Many of our experiments were dismal failures: the potato boxes fared very poorly, yielding less potatoes than when we planted in rows. The edamame interplanted with corn was wildly successful, but it shaded out the corn. (Pause. Think about that phrase for just a second. Edamame is a bush bean, not a climbing bean. It shaded out the corn by growing faster than the corn seedlings could.) The garlic rotted in the ground, and the onions barely produced at all. Overall, it was a lot of work for disappointing results.

This year, my plan is to be lazy.

I want to plant the simplest, easiest garden I can and concentrate only on the foods we eat most or foods we can't get elsewhere. That means no corn (takes up too much space for too little yield), no potatoes (low yield), no onions or leeks (I'm terrible at growing them anyway).

Garden Plan 2014 - Click to embiggen.

Our focus this year is going to be on the basics: beans, peas, carrots, kale, broccoli, cucumbers, and tomatoes. We'll use arugula and lettuce for weed cover and for those shady spots where it's hard to grow much of anything. Our asparagus should be ready for harvest this year, too, and we're hoping the New Zealand spinach we planted last year comes back. And of course, we have our strawberries and raspberries ready to produce under all that snow.

Of course, I can't resist a little experimentation. This year, I'm cultivating a wild plant called yerba del manzo in New Mexico, yerba mansa in California, and lizard's tail in Appalachia. Yerba del manzo has been used for centuries as a medicinal plant to treat the common cold, skin disorders, and even cancer. It likes swampy soil, so I'm putting it in the soggy southern corners of the garden. It's also a perennial, so if I can get it established this year, I don't have to worry about it again.

I'm going to try for another crop of Mexican oregano, which completely failed last year, along with celery, cumin, and stevia. I firmly resisted anything more complicated, like celeriac and sweet potatoes (given my terrible track record with root crops).

Given the terrible blight we had last year, I'm also going to try out some new tomato varieties. High on my list:

• Red House Free Standing from Seeds of Change – a rare determinate variety that requires no staking. Takes a while to mature, though (80-90 days)
• Legend from Territorial Seeds/Seeds of Change – Early maturing (60-70 days) and incredibly disease resistant. "Staking is optional." Really? We shall see.
• Abraham Lincoln from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange - “Highly recommended where foliage disease is a problem”
• Amy Apricot from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange – An open-pollinated alternative to SunGold. “Many tasters preferred Amy's Apricot to Sungold.”
• Peron from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange - “Called sprayless because the vigorous vines need no treatment.”

I'll give a complete seed rundown in my next post.