gardening mania!!!!

[chhotii]

It's seed catalog season! drbitch's Fedco catalog has arrived, and I have gone through it and made a list of seeds to order. Here's the list from memory, I left my list with drbitch to combine with her order since we might share some packets:

peas
carrots
zucchini
regular tomatoes
cherry tomatoes
paste tomatoes
peppers
eggplant
okra
cucumbers
brussel sprouts
spinach

luffa (not for eating in my thinking, although you can eat them-- Sweetie was just so intrigued by the idea of growing a plant that you can make soundproofing material out of)
pumpkin
butternut squash

mint
basil
rosemary (may be an inside project in this climate)

French marigolds (both pretty and said to keep some pests away!)
clover for lawn (maybe it will do better than the grass in some spots)

granite powder (to address the K+ deficiency that the soil lab claims to have found)

OK, this is an insane list, I realize. But, eh, small seed packets are cheap, and I want to try growing a little bit of each of a bunch of things to see what works out well. Definitely will be planting lots of tomatoes, though.

Maybe I should get some fertilizer too? I'm not clear on how much fertilizer one needs if the soil has lots of nutrients plus there's lots of compost on-hand. Fedco has a lot more options for *organic* fertilizers than the local gardening centers.

Hmm, should identify south-facing windows in the house and think about where to start seedlings. When the seeds come, must figure out when frosts end and how long ahead of that to start seedlings. Especially tomato seedlings, I think they can grow to a fair size before transplanting. Must get used to New England-- I'm sure I'll be shocked to find out how late the growing season starts. Once there's a bunch of little seedlings in my care, they will guilt me into dealing with the onerous task of figuring out how we are going to fence in the garden plot. I've had enough of doing hours of weeding and planting just so the groundhog can have a little side salad.

I'm waffling on renting a Rototiller in the spring and digging up the garden plot in the spring. A couple of sources say that if you're adding enough compost yearly, you don't need to dig an established plot. OTOH, last year most of the plot was fallow, and is covered with weeds-- especially grass, which is hard work to dig out by hand.

Whee!

Comments

[candle-light.livejournal.com]

O'Connor's rents roto-tillers. We're breaking new ground for a garden this year, so might be interested in sharing a rental if you'd like.

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

That could work.