We are so excited for spring to arrive this year! We're committed to growing a totally organic garden from seeds. We purchased a bunch of seeds from a great company called Seed Savers Exchange. They sell heirloom varieties of vegetable and flower seeds, meaning that they haven't been hybridized like the varieties you find in most gardening centers.
These are the vegetables we'll be growing this year:
Walla Walla Onion, Emerald Artichoke, Florida High Bush Eggplant, Clemson Spineless Okra, Chioggia Beet, Brandywine Tomato, Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage, Miniature Yellow and Red Bell Peppers, Bloomsdale Spinach, Calabrese Broccoli, Lettuce, Pickling Cucumber, Golden Bantam Corn, Green Arrow Peas, Charlevoix Dark Red Kidney Beans, Empress Beans, and Dragon Carrots
We're also growing two different annual "fruits"--Huckleberries and Ground Cherries. When sweetened, huckleberries taste a lot like blueberries, and are good for baking into pies and cobblers. They are much hardier than blueberries here in the south. Ground cherries have a citrus flavor and can be used for baking and also eaten raw. They have a papery outer shell kind of like a tomatillo. We're also growing Crane Melons and a neat variety of watermelon called "moon and stars."
We are also growing several flower varieties from seed this year, including Chinese Lanterns (neat because they look like paper lanterns and can be dried), Purple Coneflowers, Sunflowers, Marigolds, Johnny Jump Ups, Delphiniums, and Four o'Clocks.
We got a great deal ($7 each) on these seed starter kits from Home Depot. They come with little peat pellets that expand when you add water, so it makes it super easy to get all of the seeds started.
Here are the seeds just after they were started:
And here they are on day 7 (these are cabbage seeds):
