Nom nom nom.

[msmcknittington]

I could annihilate a bag of sea salt and vinegar kettle chips right now. Annihilate. Why did I have to be all sensible and only buy stuff I actually needed at the store this afternoon? Glucose tablets? I should have bought potato chips!

Mom and I started buying all the seeds for the vegetable garden today. We're starting out with leaf lettuces and radishes. We snagged a packet of these really cool radishes, which are called watermelon radishes because the inside is red and the outside is green. That page says that they do best in cool conditions, so I guess we should plant them soon, because it's going to be hot by the middle of June.

We also got some garlic, shallot and onion sets, along with some red potatoes. We looked for rutabaga seeds, since we both love those, but there were none to be found. Plenty of turnips, which taste like vomit, but not a single rutabaga seed. We're going to try Farm'n'Fleet and Menards before we give up, though. I suppose if we ordered some online right now, they'd be here in time to plant, since you're supposed to get them in the ground by mid-May.

We need to figure out what else we're going to plant. I was in favor of buying one of everything, but Mom nixed that idea. We're definitely going with:

kohlrabi
swiss chard
cucumbers
squash (at least zucchini and summer squash, but I'd like some acorn and maybe spaghetti squash)
green beans of some sort
tomatoes (definitely not starting from seed)


red potatoes
sweet onions
yellow onions
shallots
garlic
watermelon radishes
White Icicle radishes
Cherry Belle radishes
spinach
Salad Bowl lettuce
Summer Crisp lettuce (both of these lettuces are looseleaf, not head, lettuces)

Huge garden this year!

I'd like to try some cantaloupe as well, but I don't think our garden is big enough for all that. I also don't know whether or not we're starting any flower beds this year or the herb garden. Mom was not in favor of planting catnip. Something about the cat being crazy enough all on his own.

Has anyone else noticed a massive increase in garden seed prices lately? I swear last year they were only 75 cents a package, but this year everything was more than a dollar per package.

In sweater news, I only have to set the second sleeve and I am done. Done done done! I should be wearing it by Tuesday, because all that ribbing definitely needs to be blocked.

Comments

[beraht.livejournal.com]

Ew. Radishes. They're the only vegetables I refuse to eat. I either love or will tolerate pretty much everything else but radishes taste like spicy dirt.

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

I don't really like them either, except in really small quantities -- like a sliver. The watermelon radishes are supposed to be milder and sweeter than the usually red ones, though. And I do love planting and tending them.

[beraht.livejournal.com]

What's special about growing radishes? Do they have pretty flowers or something?

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

Nothing special! I just like growing things, and radishes only take about a month before you can harvest them.

[troubleagain.livejournal.com]

I'm growing practical stuff, like....flowers!

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

I've no idea if Mom wants to do any flower planting this year or not. I'd love just to toss some bachelor button seeds somewhere, because those things grow like weeds, but I think doing anything past digging beds and maybe transplanting things from the old garden might be too much work.

[crazycatlady76.livejournal.com]

That does sound like a huge garden!

We're pretty well sticking with corn, tomatoes, beans, eggplant, cucumbers, peas, lettuce and herbs. Oh, the herbs we've got already, and the ones he plans to buy.

I wish we had enough room for squashes. I love squash.

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

I honestly think we might have to start two patches, because I don't think the existing one will be big enough.

We plant a quarter to half-acre of sweet corn every year in the fields. Generally, we don't eat it all, but the raccoons do a number on it every year and our neighbors can have as much as they want.

I wish we had better luck with herbs. The only thing we've ever really gotten to take was sage, and you can't do much with that.

Honestly? We plant squash so we don't have to mow the hillside. I wonder if you grow it in a planter. That might work with a smaller squash, like a zucchini or summer squwash.

[crazycatlady76.livejournal.com]

A quarter to a half-acre just of corn...now I'm jealous. Our whole veggie patch is maybe 150 square feet. We'd like to expand it, but the property lines and the mountain don't really allow for that. Stoopid mountain.

It's weird that sage would do well for you and other herbs wouldn't. They all need pretty much the same conditions--all the sun, room, and water they can get. We pretty much chuck ours in a pot on the constantly-sunny patio and stand back.

I have a patch of iris and lilies (day and asian) for the same reason as your squash. Another 2-4 years, and I'll never have to have my mower at more than a 40 degree angle again! Hooray!

Actually, someone told me you could trellis melons up a fence, and make them a little sling to support the fruit. If you could do it with smallish melons, it seem like it could work with something like acorn squash.