Seeds!

Yup - it's that time of year again!

I'm pretty well stocked on most seeds from previous years, but each year I've got to try something new, or get something I'm pretty much guaranteed to use up all of by the end of each year (ie beans).  Last year we enjoyed edamame, and used the entire pack of seeds, so we're doing it again, with a different variety.

I guess I'll be trying okra again.  I've had great years, years I've skipped, and crap years.  Last year the potatoes and green beans were running the length of a 12' bed, the potatoes down one side, beans down the other.  I honestly thought I could grow okra up between them - only the okra got off to such a slow start they were completely smothered and forgotten.  I thought they were flat out dead, until I ripped out the beans at the end of the season, and there were TINY little wimpy okra plants holding on.  They were tossed into the compost - no way they could've made up for lost time.

This year I'll be trying something Andy & Kelli taught me - cut the end off a bag of (potting mix? peat? garden soil?), and slip it out as-is on top of the location where I want to plant beets.  So you basically have the fat, bag-shaped, ~1 1/2' x 4' x 3" bag of soil, minus the bag!  Instant fresh seeding layer.  It's thick enough to slow down or stop any weed seed sprouts in the original soil, and is a light, fresh soil for starting the beet seeds in.  They need zero competition, loose soil and lots of space - perfect!

I expect I'll need to be starting those onion seeds REAL soon down in the basement.  My dad taught me years ago that you get them a super early start, and then any time they look leggy, just trim them back (like you're mowing the grass).  That'll encourage more sturdy growth...

I got a pea seeds combo this time - so there's a sugar snap variety, a snow pea variety, and a shelling pea variety.  Here's hoping we have good luck and enjoy all three.

Trying some new varieties of tomatoes, bush beans, etc.