I actually love this time of year. While most people I meet are complaining about the cold weather, I am basking in the glories of the many seed catalogs that grace my mailbox during the dark days of Winter. Planning for Spring seems to make Winter more tolerable for me.
My wife accuses me of treating the process of picking out seeds for the new year like it was the NFL draft. OK. Maybe I obsess a little. I choose to view it as time well spent.
The catalog search was preceded by my annual seed inventory. With nearly 100 packets of seeds to keep track of, I have resorted to creating a spread sheet which lists the variety, the year purchased, the current quantity or approximate quantity , the supplier and a column for listing seed starting dates. Updating this report gives me the opportunity to revisit the success or failure of a particular variety, check the dates on the seed packets to make sure that I don’t have any seeds past their expected viability and determine which favorites need to be replenished.
Two factors are causing me to be a little more thoughtful about garden planning this year. The first is a PBS program I watched recently called “In Defense of Food” hosted by Michael Pollen. His basic message was that we should be eating a more plant based diet with less red meat. The second influence on my current garden planning is an old copy of “Nutrition Action Health Letter” that I rediscovered while reorganizing my home office. In this particular issue was a chart rating vegetables on their nutritional content. I thought that this might be worthy of sharing.
My wife Catherine and I are working on a plan to utilize more of the top rated vegetables in our garden as well as creating meals that have more vegetables by volume and less meat. The ideal is 80% vegetables – 20% protein source: more about that in future posts.
One hopeful sign that Spring is not that far away is that our chickens are starting to lay eggs again, now that the days are beginning to get longer. We’ve also started some herb disks, which means I’ve set up the light stand in the home office. We’re about ready to ‘rock’. Yeah, let’s get some seeds ordered. Here’s hoping that you are enjoying planning for the new growing season and that it will be your best garden ever.
All the best,
Greg Garnache
Greg, have you ever used the seed tape for carrots? I often find I don’t have time to thin out the carrots and therefore lose a lot of them. I’m thinking about using seeds tape, which has the seeds properly spaced out this year. Thanks. Pat and Tom
Hi Guys:
To answer your question, no, I have not tried seed tape. However, I am now using pelleted seed whenever I plant carrots. The pelleted seed is much larger, therefore, easier to handle. The seed coating is white so it’s easier to see them while planting. If you’re not going to have time for thinning, space the pelleted seeds about three inches apart. You may also consider planting two different varieties at the same time but with different maturity dates such as NELSON (55 days) vs BOLERO (75 days). All the best,
Greg