Garden Journal 2011: Seeds Sown Indoors

As discussed prior, I've taught myself organic gardening of vegetables, flowers, and herbs. I favor starting my own seedlings from seed so that I can have access to a larger variety of plants than are readily accessible from local nurseries as seedlings. I also am a frugal person who doesn't enjoy throwing money out the window. Why pay $3 or $4 for one tomato plant when I can grow my own seedling for 5 cents?

In 2009 I had a new reason to value starting my own seeds. Each year my husband would give in to spontaneous shopping urges and he'd come home from the grocery store with nursery seedlings in hand. In 2009, it was hard to find tomato seedlings, we were told they were in short supply from the suppliers. Later on that season, it was said that the seedlings from Mexico had soils infected with blight that were killing off the seedlings. Guess what happened to the seemingly healthy seedlings that people transplanted into gardens? The tomatoes died of blight, most just before bearing edible fruit. Worse, their garden soil was now infected. Since I was one of those gardeners, I had that problem too. What's worse is in 2010 even when growing my own seedlings, I had the same blight, caused from infected soil in my garden from the prior year's infection.

My goal for 2011 is to use seeds I already own from past over-buying of seed. I seek to save money from not buying nursery grown seedlings.The soil I am growing these in is made of ingredients I already own and my homemade compost.
I also based my garden plan on what we have access to and my past growing history. I have not found home grown lettuce to be a good value since I have access to low cost organic lettuces. I also hate picking over every single mesclun leaf looking for aphids and slugs. Two dozen bean plants yielded just two pound of dried soldier beans which is not worth the space it takes to grow them. The eggplant I grew last year yielded just one fruit for one by one foot area. Hot peppers and even bell peppers failed to yield more than one pepper per plant (taking up one square foot of garden space). On the other hand I have great luck with herbs and tomatoes, things which are expensive here for local produce and really expensive for organic varieties.

Here is the list of seeds I started on 4/17/11 to grow indoors under lights to plant into my garden in June. My shelves hold nine trays of seedlings which hold about 300. (I may double this, if I decide to do that I'll share it with you later.)


Vegetables:

Cucumber Spacemaster 8


Pumpkin Calabaza field 8

Squash 49er yellow long 4

Squash Bennings green bulb 4

Squash Garden spineless green long 4

Squash Yellow Scallop yellow bulb 4

Tomato Amana orange heirloom orange 4

Tomato Black Brandywine heirloom black 10

Tomato Bonnie Best hybrid 4

Tomato Brandywine heirloom red 12

Tomato Early Big Red early 6

Tomato Evergreen heirloom green 4

Tomato Lemon Boy yellow/red 8

Tomato Pineapple yellow/red 8

Tomato Rainbow cherry 3

Tomato San Marzano plum 22

Tomato Snow White cherry 3

Tomato Stupice 6

Tomato Sundrop Orange cherry 3

Tomato Sweetie red cherry 3

Herbs, culinary
 
Note: I already have some plants which overwintered from last year from root or that have self-sown from seed that I am not growing from seed this year. Among them is: terragon, oregano, greek oregano, several varieties of sage, mint, spearmint, fennel, lemongrass, and cilantro.
 
Basil Cinnamon 4

Basil Spicy Globe 4

Basil sweet 24

Basil Sweet Dani 4

Basil Thai Siam Queen 4

Lemon Bergamot 4

Parsley Italian Flatleaf 8

Thyme 8

Herbs, medicinal

Note: I have melissa, common mugwort, sweet grass, lavender, yarrow, mullein, and meadowsweet which have overwintered. I have access to wildcraft St. John's Wort and goldenrod on my property.

Burdock Gobo Arctium lappa 8


Comfrey True Symphytum officinalis 8

Elecampane Official Inula helenium 4

Marshmallow althaea officinalis 8

Motherwort, official Leonurus cardiaca 8

Mugwort Western artemisia ludoviciana 8

Purple coneflower echinacea purpura 4

Sagebrush, common artemisia tridentata 8

Sweet Annie artemisia annua 8

Tulsi Rama Holy Basil Ocimum sanctum 8

Valerian official Valeriana officinalis 8

Wood Betony stachys officinalis 8

Wormwood Absinthe artemisia absinthium 12

Wormwood Redstem artemisia scoparia 8

Dye Plants
 
For the first time I am growing some dye plants. I would love to start dyeing my own yarns with my own garden grown plant matter.
 
Elecampane, Magnificent Inula magnifica 8

Indigo Wild Baptisa tinctoria 8

Our Lady's Bedstraw Galium verum 8

Tansy tanacetum vulgare 8

Flowers, ornamental
 
I have been prevented from growing flowers on this property due to the overpopulation of deer and the fact that they are so bold as to walk up onto my deck and even up the steps to my front door to eat my plants! I had a large perennial garden and annual flowers too, at my former home. I might start more seeds indoors this spring with seeds I already own. I am thinking of taking a risk and planting them in the gardens in front of my house since the spaces are empty due to us having removed essentially all the overgrown shrubs that were planted by the former owner. If I do this I'll write a new blog post to share what else I've decided to grow.
 
Related Blog Posts of Mine
 
How to Build a $10 Raised Bed Tutorial (out of wood)
 
I Use Soil Blocks for Seed Starting