Ordered My Seeds!

I just ordered a bunch of seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds so I can get started on starting the seeds indoors!  Last year I didn't order the seeds until Feb. 12th so I am a full three weeks ahead of where I was last year at this time and am planning on having a much better strategy this year which should produce much better results.

Before I list all of the seeds that I ordered I want to go over a few lessons that I learned for anyone that may be starting seeds indoors.  These may be things that are common sense for an experienced gardener but you never know what you may learn.

1. The first thing that you should do religiously is label EVERYTHING!  Last year I started out doing really well labeling my seed starts but by the end of the year I had lost track of what was what.  I could pretty much tell the difference between a number of different plants but where the difficulties came in was determining what  type of pepper plant or tomato plant it was.  This led to some late re-planting when I had too many of one variety and reduced the overall yield for each plant.  Not this year!  This year I am going to label everything methodically from the very beginning and carry it through until I transplant them into the garden!
2. The second lesson that I learned from last year when seed starting is that over watering is just as bad, if not worse than under watering.  Over-watering can lead to  a dampening off problem where fungi and other water issues may kill off your plants.  I learned this early on and had to restart some of my seeds.  This year I will have a strict watering schedule and will be checking the soil conditions in all my seed trays prior to watering.   A method of watering that I found works really well is if you slowly pour your water into your seed trays and then allow all the seed pods to soak of the water that they need from the bottom up!  If there is any standing water left over after you do this you can use a clean sponge of cloth to remove the excess water!

There were a few other minor errors that I can think of but these were the two worst offenders that killed off a good portion of my seed starts last year.  If I can eliminate these two items alone I know that my starts will be healthy and ready to be transplanted come spring!

Okay so now for the list of seeds that I ordered!  Here goes!

1. Boston Pickling Cucumber
2. Marketmore 76 Cucumber
3. Blue Lake Bush 274 Bean - Last year I planted pole beans and they were tough to keep under control.  Hopefully this bush bean variety will produce well for me!
4. Chinese Green Noodle Bean
5. Waltham 29 Broccoli - Last year had problems with cabbage moths.  They ate all the leaves and killed the broccoli.  This year I will use floating row covers to combat the moths.
6. Ground Cherry - Delicious fruit that is sweet and tart.
7. Russian Red Kale
8. Autumn Giant Leek - New veggie that I am excited about growing!
9. Oregon Sugar Pod II Snow Pea -  New veggie that I am excited about growing!
10. Lemon Drop Peppers - A different variety of pepper for this year!
11. Tam Jalapeno Peppers - Got to have Jalapenos!
12. Italian Pepperoncini Peppers - These thrived for me last year and are delicious in salads!
13. Orange Bell - Same variety as last year and am hoping to they are bigger this year with more rainfall.
14. Sweet Chocolate Peppers - Replacing the purple bell peppers from last year that were small and a bit on the bitter side.
15. Ozark Giant Red Bell Peppers - Last year I did red lipstick peppers that were delicious but a bi on the small side.  These should produce bigger peppers
16. Beefsteak Tomato - I grew Ilinni Star tomatoes last year that are by nature a much smaller tomato than the Beefsteak.
17. Amish Paste Tomato - Looking forward to making more tomato paste this year and it should be much easier with this variety of tomato.
18. Riesentraube Tomato ( A Cherry Tomato ) - Great in salads.  I also enjoy eating them straight off the plant when I am working in the garden.
19. White Tomesol ( Yes a white tomato ) - This variety caught my eye and can't wait to try them.
20. Moonglow Tomato ( A yellow tomato ) - Should be an interesting year for tomatoes in my garden.
21. Basil - Can't ever have too much basil.
22. Lunar White Carrot - I guess I fell in love with white vegetables this year.  Replaces the purple carrots I grew last year with mixed results.
23. Apple Melon - an ancient Chinese variety of melon that is about the same size as a large apple and is eaten like one, skin and all.
24. Little Gem Lettuce - A smaller variety of lettuce similar to an iceberg lettuce.  Last year most of the lettuce was eaten by the cabbage moths.
25. Outredgeous Lettuce - A vibrant red leafy lettuce!
26. Missouri Gold Melon - A cousin to the cantaloupe that I grew last year.

I also have a number of seeds that were left over from last year like onions, cabbage, corn, peas and a few more that I can't think of right now.  My next step before the seeds arrive is to prepare a garden plan to know exactly where each plant will be placed in the garden and I will go over that in detail in my next post.

The picture above is the beginnings of my indoor light set up for starting my seeds indoors. As you can see right now it is just a table and one adjustable light stand that I purchase from amazon. I decided that I needed two lights with two different types of light for my set up and made another light stand that you will see in another picture coming soon!

That is all for today. Hope everyone is doing well and is as excited as I am for the up and coming growing season!