New Seeds!

     As a part of my spring tactic #1, planting early, I ordered the last of my seeds for this year's warm weather season. I ordered some seeds from an old standby that I have used before, and a new company. I wanted to talk a little about what I am choosing to grow this year because if my garden looked unconventional before it will look downright foreign now! I guess though it depends on where you are from.

     The old standby I ordered from is Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. I have ordered from them before and I will order from them again. They have a great selection and great customer service. They also carry a lot of vegetable varieties suited to the south and mid-Atlantic. For me, their southern varieties are super helpful at getting a good  yield during our hot and humid summers. From SESE I got the following varieties:

Seeds for 2015 from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. They really do have the best seed pack art around!

Salad Burnet- a perennial herb I've been wanting to get established in some cooler areas of the yard. Supposedly it has a nice mild cucumber taste.

Garden Sorrel- another perennial herb I would like to get established. Should help fill in the gap during the winter to spring transition.

Golden Bush Scallop summer squash- The farmers at our farmers' market always have tons of these patty-pan type squash so I'm hoping to get some yields like that around here.

Tromboncino summer squash- A summer squash of the C. moschata species. Moschatas are especially well adapted to hot and humid environments so this one will hopefully do better than the traditional zucchini here in Florida. Note: The Seminole pumpkin is also a C. moschata and I will be growing some of those as summer squash as well.

Burmese Okra- A supposedly tasty and tender okra variety. Okra loves the heat of the summer and can take drought or buckets of rain. You should grow okra if you live in Florida.

Cherokee Greasy Beans- A friend of mine from work says his uncle grows these back in Cherokee, NC and his grandma makes the best beans ever from them. Can't wait to taste them. We will see how they do here in Florida.

Wonderberry- An interesting solanum berry, actually related to the notorious deadly nightshade( but so are tomatoes and peppers). Supposedly these produce copious amounts of little black berries. I'm hoping they take well to sweetening for use in jams and pies as that is my intended use.

Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato- Supposedly these small cherry type tomatoes will keep trucking right through the hottest part of summer. I read somewhere they are from a wild Mexican strain. I wonder how they will cope with the humidity here. Really looking forward to this one.

     The new company that I ordered from this year is Kitazawa Seed Co.  Kitazawa specializes in asian vegetables and they have a really good selection. The seeds were a little expensive but they did have several varieties I was not able to find elsewhere so it may be justified. The seeds arrived quickly and look good. I'll have to see how the germination rate is.

Seeds for 2015 from Kitazawa Seed Co. Some of the varieties I am most excited to try. 

      I'm banking pretty heavily this year on a lot of SE asian vegetables to keep yields high through the long hot summer. I also recently planted some shungiku seedlings, or edible leaf chrysanthemum to try and get a cool weather greens yield while we still are enjoying mild weather. The varieties that I got from Kitazawa Seed Co. are:

Calabash Long Gourd- also known as opo squash. I first got one of these from our farmers market and loved it. Very similar to a yellow crookneck or zucchini in taste and texture but they grow huge and are ready later into the summer than most traditional squash go.

Tinda Gourd- an Indian variety of edible gourd that is supposedly very quick to flower and set fruit which are small (3-4oz.), round, and squash-like. Like all gourds they take well to trellising which can help save space. This one should do well with the heat and humidity here

Buag Ngu snake gourd- yet another gourd. This one grows long thin fruit that are used like squash or zucchini. These are supposedly heavy bearers over a long season. I have even heard someone familiar with them say that if you plant them, you will have more food than you can eat.

Round Winter Melon- This is one of the crops I am most excited about. It is a wax melon which as I understand, this is the answer to winter squash in many places throughout asia. The wax melon develops a layer of wax on the outside, hence the name, that gives it a very long shelf life. I'm very excited to see how these do, and to taste them.

Numane pickling melon- These are melons that are more like cucumbers that are grown for pickling. The grow quite large, up to 12 inches and quite wide. They are also traditionally eaten stuffed with meat and baked. This is one of the few cool weather crops that I got to try out in our early spring.

Giant Bottle Gourd- This is not an edible variety, but I wanted to grow them for use as containers and to make a cool gourd water bottle. These can get up to two feet in length and be big enough around to use as bowls! I hope to get at least one good one to use as an old school water bottle for working in the garden.


     So those were the last of the seeds I am ordering for 2015. I got a bunch of seeds for Christmas from my lovely wife, and I'm sure I will pick up a few things locally before all is said and done, but I'm pretty much set for what I am growing this year. I am so excited for the warm season I can hardly contain myself. Now if I could just stay on top of planting and keeping the garden tidy!