The New Year Starts With New Seeds

Happy New Year!! My new year started off with some seed purchases. This year, as with other years in the past, we’re bringing in some new open-pollinated varieties to try.  We’ll certainly have a disappointment or two, but hopefully we will also find a real keeper to excite us.

This year we will be growing a new root crop — we are trying Rutabagas as another root crop to store for Winter eating.  I have also located some Stinging Nettle seeds and will scatter those here and there, hoping to start a patch that will naturalize in the woods. And this year, we will be growing a small patch of Quinoa to see if this grain is worth our time and garden space.

One of my 2013 goals is to produce even more food than before. This means I will have less time to devote to the flowers that are contained in the perennial beds that surround us. Many of the perennial flowers I grow need to be divided every couple of years — a daunting task with so many plants. I had hoped to dig many of the perennial flowers out of the large front bed during Autumn and then fill the holes and simply haul in a broader mulch cover. But with all of the rains we had, that project didn’t happen. Hopefully I can arrange this during the 2013 Spring season but as we gardeners know too well — Spring is crammed full of garden activities.

The exciting goal for 2013 at Wood Ridge Homestead is to begin seeding the understory of a small food forest area. This area is located along one area of our woods edge, just inside our deer fencing. To grow more food without expanding the veggie gardens has appeal, especially in an area where mature Oak trees are. Whether we can actually establish a new growing zone as part of this wooded area remains to be seen. We have already been working this food forest some — during 2012, we planted some PawPaw trees, grafted Persimmon trees, and Hardy Kiwi vines in this area. So here’s hoping that we can succeed with an understory of greens that will enable us to grow more foods!

The 2013 Seed List is now posted (although I may add a few more newly purchased seeds). This listing is our seed inventory for vegetables and is a partial inventory listing for herbs and flowers. Do you keep a seed inventory? I find it’s so helpful because I don’t have to rummage through the seed packets!

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