It's garden planning time!

Gardening is a year 'round activity. Here we are almost New Year's Day and what could be a better time to plan for another year of renewal than to get online and order the next seasons garden seeds? In preparation for the apocalyptic end of the Mayan calendar in just 1089 days, I am buying pure seed strains, no hybrids. Hybrids don't breed true so you can't be sure what you'll get if you try to save them. My garden is only 24X32 feet at the moment. Last season it started to spread into flower beds around the house. I plan a small addition of about 16X16, but Christmas kind of blew the budget (we're talking practice apocalypse here!). Here's a list of seeds I just ordered this morn:

I ordered lots of seed from Territorial Seed Company in Cottage Grove, Oregon last year and was very happy with what I got. They stock lots of heirloom varieties and pure strain varieties. Here's the selection for this year:

• Apollo broccoli produces prolific side shoots for a long season
• Cool Breeze cucumbers for slicing or sweet pickles
• Baltimore carrot, a sweet carrot about 1 inch by 6 inches, I'm planting this in a sandy spot I've had difficulty with in the past. Too shady and dry so I'm getting desperate.
• Merida carrot can be planted in the spring or fall. I may split the seed and try some both seasons.
• Simpson Elite Lettuce, a slow bolting lettuce variety that should extend into the summer.
• Italienischer Lettuce, a variety that gives my spell checker fits, can be sown spring to fall.
• Purple Viking potatoes, are unique looking - purple! The last time I grew potatoes, I had to fight the fire ants for them. For some reason, this last year we had almost no fire ants, I didn't have to poison them once. Maybe, I'll be lucky again in '10.
• Purple tomatillo is another unique variety. I've been experimenting with salsas lately, and tomatillos are often used in salsa. Forgot to put my last 1/2 dozen in the salsa I made last night, but it's not a requirement. Last season's tomatillo produced a lot of blooms and very small tomatillos, but very few survived to mature. Better luck this year, maybe.
• Ancho Magnifico peppers are another requirement for the garden. don't recall if this is the same variety as last year, but the ancho peppers produced huge quantities of pepper. As these things go, they are a rather mild pepper, only 1-2000 on the Scoville scale. This compares with jalepeno at 2500-8000.
• Anaheim College 64 peppers sound really smart! A new variety for me, but these peppers likewise yield great. They range from 500-2500 on the Scoville scale, so they add a little more bite than ancho.
• Ascent peppers are new, too. They are a small red Thai pepper. According to this source, they run about 50-100,000 on the Scoville scale. I've grown similar varieties, so I should have lots to give away (hope it's legal).

I'm ordering seeds from another company in Randolph, WI. I've not ordered from Vermont Bean Seed Company before and haven't a clue why they are in Wisconsin, but I'm giving them a try. They have a good selection of varieties going far beyond just beans. I'm trying to spread my business around a bit since a lot of small companies have gone out of business the last few years. I've nothing against Park or Burpee, but the small companies are much better at stocking heirloom varieties or pure strain varieties rather than hybrids. The loss of the small companies means the loss of a lot of varieties and a loss of genetic diversity.

• Hurricane Bush beans are said to be good for canning and freezing. I did a lot of that last summer and hopefully this will produce well this year.
• Florida Butter Speckled Lima beans are a mouthful, aren't they? These are really "speckled butter beans" but who in the north could figure that out? Butter beans are good any way you make them, and they are a good, hardy southern plant.
• Spacemiser Hybrid Squash. OK, I did order one hybrid, but their description sounded so good. Last years squash were humongous plants with a so-so production. I missed some of the squash until they were way to big to pick because I couldn't find them under the plant. The spacemiser name caught my eye on this one. 
• Holy Mole peppers are another pepper I fell in love with last summer. This is another hybrid, but it seems hard to find a pure variety. Reported to be around 700 on the Scoville scale, it is a rather mild pepper. I haven't tried to make mole sauce yet, but it has worked well for me in salsas and soups.

Only one more set to go! Totally Tomato is also located in Randolph, WI. Now I realize why their online order site looks just like Vermont Seed Company. Wonder why I had to pay two shipping charges? Hmmmm. Lots of tomato varieties, but they also have a lot of peppers and several other garden seeds. Another first time purchase for me.

• Box Car Willie tomato, has a unique name. Wonder who comes up with these? Supposed to grow to 10-16 oz. Last years tomatoes didn't can very well and seemed to have too much juice and not enough pulp. Could've been the way I did it, but I'll find out this year because this variety is supposed to be a good canner.
• Climbing Trip-L-Crop tomato is another tongue twister. This is supposed to produce 3-4 bushels per plant! And the plants are supposed to grow up to 25 ft! I may be overrun.

That's the total that I ordered this morn, $85.95 worth. Forgot the okra, but I can probably pick it up at the feed store. Almost waited too late last year and had to buy overpriced organically grown seed, but at least I got some. And they did produce well.

I've just bought four onion sets, two sets of red and two sets of white. I also bought garlic at the grocery store. I'll have to remember and order garlic much earlier next year as the companies only ship them in September and October. Getting them online will let me experiment with several varieties instead of the single variety at the grocer.

Anyone else out there garden? I can't imagine not having one any more.