Gardens Need Seeds

As I try to finish putting my garden to bed for the winter, the seed catalogs lure me with their gorgeous pictures. After all, gardens need seeds to grow all those crops next season.

The Fun Part

Seed catalogs are the fun part of gardening. Each kind and variety looks so enticing. Each page is pored over, drooled over and finally flipped over to expose the next list of possible plants.

As I look through the catalogs, I start a list of seeds I would like to order. The list gets longer and longer. Window shopping is fun.

This fall I planted broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts transplants. With the arrival of cold weather, the two beds were put under plastic ‘tents’ to keep them warmer overnight and during the day. Cauliflower is much more cold sensitive and was cheerfully consumed by my Nubian buck. The broccoli is making florets. The sprouts have sprouts on them. Big tomato cages provide supports under the plastic draped over wires strung around posts. Rain does pool in the plastic in places, but these temporary shelters do work.

Reality Sets In

There are vegetables we don’t like to eat. There are vegetables I can’t grow for one reason or another.

Corn is one of these. We love sweet corn. Raccoons do too. Unless I want to spend my nights out in the garden, gun in hand, the raccoons eat all of the corn.

My garden is finite. The wish list is not. Unfortunately, the garden wins, mostly.

Time is also finite. The Ozarks does have a long growing season, but I don’t want to wait until September for those first tomatoes. Since I can’t set tomatoes and peppers out until mid to late May, those plants with long growing times won’t produce in time.

Buying Brussels sprouts is much more convenient than growing them. The plants take up a lot of room yielding not that many sprouts. However, the leaves are good to eat too. They can be shredded for stir fry or dropped into soups and stews. Of course, my Nubian goats (especially Augustus) think I grow these just for them, a welcome winter treat.

Once the wish list is done and reality sets in, the seed list gets trimmed. What will get planted where? How many plants can I fit into the space allotted? Can I use succession planting? If I grow it, will we et it? If we can’t eat it all, can I sell it?

By mid January, the seed lists need to become seed orders. Gardening season begins in late January for my garden. That’s when the leek and Savoy cabbage seeds are started. The transplants move to the garden in March.

The Fun Part

Reality Sets In

Gardens Need Seeds

By Karen GoatKeeper