It is a mystery

 This is one of my favorite things, lots of seeds arriving a lot. I got my package from Baker Creek Seeds, which was my largest order. The bunch on the left I ordered for my mom since it was silly to order them separately. I also received free seeds from them!




I got from them: Black Nebula Carrot, Kyoto Red Carrot, Amish Paste Tomato, Martino's Roma Tomato, Ba-Ye-Qi sorghum, Leutschauer Paprika Pepper, Buena Mulata Pepper, Rose Red Soba Buckwheat, King Tut Purple Pea.

Free seeds were Brunswick Cabbage, which I had some of already and have been trading it to people and Black Vernissage Tomatoes. I'm not big on leafy greens or tomatoes that aren't for making sauce so ehh, I might trade those too. 

I just got the notification that another order shipped too!

My garden is going to be big and I've got a couple of different goals for it this year. 

1. I want to grow my own food.

As of right now I have around $150 invested in it, with another $50 to go. I will also invest a ton of time and work in it but doing so should provide a huge chunk of my groceries in the months during and after. Beyond the actual monetary savings (and for me it would be saving money), I love love love my own produce. It tastes a ton better than what I can get in the store and I eat a lot more fruit and vegetables when I don't have to buy it. Besides that, I'm going to be making sauces and drying chilies so I can make things that work for my digestive system instead of buying sauce. 

2. Maintaining varieties

I'm picking up a bunch of different varieties of various crops and I fully plan to grow them out at least a couple of years and distribute seed. One of the major issues I've run into with this crop plot is finding grain varieties. There are so few out there of each type. I feel like more folks should grow their own grains but that's a whole other thing. So I'm going to grow and maintain the varieties I can get my hands on

3. Plant breeding and adaptation

The growing season where the crop plot is, is around 140 days with a five day leeway on either side with risk of frost. I've got sorghum varieties that are 110 and 120 days. These are excellent producers and hardy but I don't know if they will grow in that climate. But I've found some shorter season grain sorghums. I'm going to simply evaluate all this year and then potentially breeding them to get shorter season varieties. I'm also just going to keep growing the seed stock out and choosing what thrives to adapt the varieties to my region. Maybe some will be useful to growers and gardeners north of me, maybe not. But I want to have crops and varieties that work in my area and for my tastes. Possibly I'll be doing some landrace creation work but only if I get sufficient seed stock.  

Coming to you with another garden update! It's been two weeks since I posted the last one (yes I checked) and holy shit has the garden exploded since then. I think the weather has been hot and humid interspersed with cooler days with rain so its been giving the plants both hot weather but enough cool that they're not dying.

The last month has been busier with work but I think I've found what works for me by building the irrigation system and using it on a frequent basis. I probably should water a little less actually but things aren't drowning so its all good. Overall I've been keeping up well with the garden since I mulched almost all of the garden and I have the irrigation system, even when work was busy and I didn't really get out into the garden except on the weekend.

I've started picking things which is SUPER DUPER EXCITING. I've gotten three zucchini off the same plant which ended up being around nine cups of puree and I'm making more zucchini muffins tonight and I'll freeze the extras. I pulled the first cucumber last night and I'll get two more tomorrow. The cilantro yielded a whole bunch that I froze and I'm letting the rest go to seed for coriander. The corn is in tassel now and I should have ears in two weeks or so. The tomatoes have finally started ripening!

The basil has taken off but I want to make a whole lot of pesto so I planted some more, some in the garden and some in pots. I think I've finally figured out that the rosemary is drowning and I need to find some rocks for better drainage in their pots. And probably plant more. I'm not sure where I'm going to get rocks because the area has basically no rocks which is still bizarre.

Today I ordered the plants for the fall garden, things that will go in when the plants there start dying and things cool down. I've got peas, carrots, cauliflower, emmer wheat, celery and winter rye. The rye is going to be a cover crop, something that both organic farmers everywhere and conventional farmers on the delmarva do. The emmer wheat is going to be an experiment. Its an older grain, with a different structure, so I might be able to eat it. If not it'll just get used as a cover crop and just as something to grow over winter.

I've also got an instagram where I post a lot of these pictures and some others: @soreshorescout

So pictures below the cut.

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So I've got this garden right? 

Well, not really yet.

We moved into the house at the end of February. When we moved in, the garden and yard was a pretty big mess. There were so many leaves, all over the yard, weeds like crazy and the garden plot (a L shaped area that used to be a garden) had been neglected for long enough that there were literal trees growing in it.

I don't know if the pictures will come along when it cross posts to tumblr but there are before and current-ish pictures here

Before:







After:





So I did a lot! And it's spring and we should be frost free! Which is exciting! A month or so ago, I got my early seeds started and now I've got six enormous cherry tomato plants along a who bunch of other things. The parsley got planted. Things are being transplanted and planted in two days. 

But now I'm thinking about neeeeext year. Already. I want to get around for next year when I haven't even been through one season of gardening here in maryland, and I haven't had a garden since I was in high school. Especially since I haven't tried gardening and keeping something alive with my work schedule, whiiiich is so many. On that note, I won't be around as much since it's summer! I work a lot of hours! In fact I'm working tomorrow, saturday. So I'm doing probably 50 or 55 hours a week right now and its only going to increase.

So I guess this is a waiting game for me, about me. To see if I can plant and maintain a garden while working so much and such a physical job.

Garden projects! Or Picking Up The Materials For The Garden Project Because It's Supposed To Rain/Snow On Saturday Like What The Heck April

The first thing is mulch, which I'm going to use in the front yard and two of the beds in the back. One of the beds will only be partially covered I think but who knows? I've never done much with mulch so I shall see.

I also need to pick up some kind of material for a trellis for my tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. There's so many cool mystery plants in the backyard right now.