Today is the coldest day of the year to date. What better day, then, to have an order of garden seeds arrive?
Now that we have a bigger garden, we will need more plants. I initially suggested buying established pepper and tomato plants from a farmer's market or local garden center, as we continue to have a lot of ongoing projects. As winter wore on, I ordered a few seed catalogs, with the intention of only looking at the pictures. Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) is my favorite. We have ordered seeds from them on and off for years, and still have fond memories of the shop they had in Madison. I still remember the miniature yellow and red bell peppers I grew from seed when our son Henry was a toddler. The peppers were full of seeds, but they sure were cute. Beam's Yellow Pear tomatoes were also a constant in our urban garden. I also love the SSE mission: "Seed Savers Exchange stewards Americaʼs culturally diverse and endangered garden and food crop legacy for present and future generations. We educate and connect people through collecting, regenerating, and sharing heirloom seeds, plants, and stories." They specialize in heirloom, open pollination plants, which reproduce true to type. How could I not order seeds from them?
There is a bewildering selection through SSE - 84 types of tomatoes and 56 peppers. I picked five types of tomatoes, going for a mix of paste, slicing, and cherry (Italian Heirloom, Sheboygan, Trophy, Tommy Toe, and, of course, Beam's Yellow Pear) For peppers, I ordered four kinds for a mix of bell, hot, and frying (Chocolate Beauty, Jalapeno Traveler, King of the North, and Tolli's Sweet Italian).
While waiting for the seeds to arrive, I spent some time selecting dates to start the seeds. In years past, I always seemed to start too early. The planting schedule from UW-Extension is very helpful. It was one of many useful resources I found going through the Master Gardner program. According to my calculations, and ignoring the prognostications of the groundhog, I will be starting peppers on March 28, and tomatoes on April 10. That April date seems a bit early, as I look at it, so I may need to revisit those calculations.
While referring to the SSE website to write this article, I noticed that they had reached their daily order limit, imposed by pandemic handling restrictions and the pandemic-related high demand of seeds. Self-sufficiency continues to be in vogue. I guess we should save some seeds from this year's crop, and continue the cycle.
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