If I can keep the routine going, I can harvest a dozen or so carrots pretty well most weeks of the year.
I’ve learned, if I lose a variety, the best insurance is a fellow gardener who has kept the gene line going.
Onions and garlic are pretty well the only fresh foods that I regularly eat out of season.
I’ve planted a tray of Telephone peas, one of Oregon Dwarf Snow Peas, one of Diggers Climbing Snow Peas, and one of Aquadulce Broad Beans. The Aquadulce were chosen because they are an early variety, and this far north our broad bean season is short.
I thought I might share this little trick with you, because it took me a ridiculously long time to think of it. It’s such a simple little trick, but it saves so many failures.
t’s one of the things I like about the lunar planting calendar, that it pushes me to rescue my gardening from the “things that can be put off for a week or so” pile. And that, in turn means I’m tempted to cook with what is fresh and green and gorgeous out of the garden and the packaged and frozen supermarket shortcuts are no competition.
Isn’t sex an amazing thing? That chromosomes split and crossover to create a totally new and unique being? Not once, but every single time, so that every single life is totally unique. Which means that, when I find a good variety, that works well in my microclimate and is resilient in the context of the little ecosystem that is my garden, I try very hard to remember to save seed.