Friday, January 25, 2008

My Seed List

Proven Varieties

Vietnamese Red Amaranth - Lovely plant; good tasting leaves with only minor insect damage.

Lime Basil - A lime fragrance to die for; makes a great tea.

Short 'n Sweet Carrots - Of 4 varieties said to grow well in heavy soil, this was the most productive.

Chichiquelite Berries - Great tasting, sweet 3/8" berries fresh off the plant.

Chives - A small bed of this perennial will provide fresh chives year round.

Garlic Chives - Much like chives but with flat leaves and a slight garlic taste.

Cherokee Pop Corn - Very productive 5' plants are great for decorating or popping.

Black Eye Cowpeas - I abandoned parts of my 2006 garden because of drought; everything died from lack of water--except my Black Eye Peas, they stopped growing but remained green. When the rains returned the peas began growing again and made a nice crop.

Bouquet Dill - Carefree except for the occasional parsley worm.

Luffa - Seeds from a volunteer that took over a 6' x 20' cucumber fence after the cucumbers finished. The one vine produced 24 2' Luffas.

Mixed Mustard Greens - From a Territorial Wild Mustard mix. I saved seeds from the most productive 10 that were slow to bolt. I expect some crossing.

Texas Hill Country Okra - A beautiful plant with red stems and lime green pods blushed red on the south side. Texas Hill Country has poor soils and frequent summer droughts like my garden.

Mixed Parsley - Both Italian Flat Leaf and Triple Curled did well for me. I saved seed from both and expect some crossing.

Oregon Giant Snow Pea - Large succulent pods are delicious and productive.

Carwile's Peanut - Southern Exposure Seed Exchange said this peanut would do well in heavy soils. They were right.

Aconcagua Pepper - One of the larger frying/stuffing sweat peppers. Plants should be staked or caged as they carry a heavy load and are prone to fall over.

Lemon Drop Hot Pepper - A baccatum that doesn't cross with regular peppers. Makes wonderful pepper sauce (stuff a jar full, add pinch of salt, and top off with boiling vinegar. Cover and let sit for a few weeks. Makes any greens dish taste better.

Giant Cape Gooseberry (Physalis) - Lots of 1" yellow fruit, Fruity, sweet, and tart. Plants grow 4' tall and don't mind pruning. The tips from pruning root readily.

Ground Cherry (Physalis) - A sprawling plant with sweet 5/8" fruit.

New Zealand Spinach - Very productive with no bug or disease problems. A great summer spinach.

Delicata Squash - My favorite winter squash for many years.

Yellow Pear Tomatoes - Like many of my favorite plants (chichiquelites, ground cherries) this tomato grows like a weed.

Golden Midget Watermelon - The only melon to set a crop last year. I didn't even see it till it turned ripe (yellow)

FLOWERS

Purple Coneflower

Heavenly Blue Morning Glory

Kossack Gold Marigold

Proven Varieties I no long plant from seed.

Yellow Crookneck Squash Grows well for me but it's a pepo just like my Delicata.

Early Jalapeno was very prolific even on poor soil. Alas it crosses with my favorite sweet pepper, Aconcagua.

Hot Banana Pepper (Hungarian Wax) I hated to give up these little plants/big peppers but they also cross with my Aconcagua.

Long Red Cayenne An attractive plant, I may have to find a way to grow it in a flower garden away from my Aconcagua peppers.

Greek Oregano This grows well for me but I probably won't save any seed as it's easy to propagate with division.

Lemon Balm Grew well from seed. Like Oregano I'll use division for further planting.

Chocolate Mint Grows well here but not from seed.

Horseradish Grows well but not from seed.

Varieties in testing for 2008

VEGETABLES

Arugula

Anasazi Beans, King of Garden Lima,

Cataloupe, Minnesota Midget and Collective Farm Woman

Beet Berries (Chenopodium capitatum)

Roman Chamomile

Cilantro

Corn Salad

Collards, Vates

Cucumber, Gherkins

Cowpeas, Purple Hull, Red Ripper, Mississippi Silver, Mississippi Cream, Yard Long, Vining Pink Eye.

Eggplant, Slim Jim

Litchi Tomato

Oriental Greens, Mizuna and Tatsoi

Welsh (Bunch) Onions

Purple Orach

Naranjilla (Physalis)

Purple Tomatillo (Physalis)

Malabar Spinach

Summer Squash, Zucchino Rampicante and Cucuzzi

Winter Squash Sweet Dumpling

Toothache Plant (Spilanthus acmellla)

Tomatoes Amana Orange, Kellogg's Breakfast, Santa Crus Kada, Lemon Drop, Green Grape, Brown-Black Cherry, Wapsipindcon Peach,

Turnips Golden Ball

Watermelon Osh Khirgizia, White Sugar Lump, Cream of Saskatchewan, Blacktail Mountain, Melitopolski, Takii Gem, Chatchai 185, Gold Baby, Thai Rom Doa,



GRAINS

Millet

Broomcorn

Sorghum

Amaranth, Manna de Montana, Hopi Red Dye

Quinoa

Buckwheat


FLOWERS

Nasturtium, Cherry Rose, Empress of India

Tithonia

Borage

Scarlet Runner Beans

Sunflowers

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Spring is coming.



My tomato and pepper seeds are started and will go in my Boston Mountains garden about April 6.

The photo was taken Nov. 1, 2006.