Seeds Seeds, Seeds!

We finally ordered our seeds and just received them in the mail yesterday. We ordered them from The Cottage Gardner.

We ordered:

Brandywine Tomato: (75-85 days) An Amish heirloom dating back to at least 1885, this is probably the best-known old variety. There are many types of Brandywine available - ours is potato-leaved. Large, reddish-pink fruits have an incredible taste.

Brandywine, Yellow Tomato: (80 days)Indeterminate, potato-leaved - 1900's. This late-maturing tomato provides large, 1-2 lb meaty fruit with an intense flavour, almost tart. A beautiful, bright yellow, this variety is loved by gourmet restaurants, due to its delightful taste. Although it's late maturing, it's quite drought tolerant.

Brown Cherry Tomato: (75 days) Indeterminate. Another wonder tomato from Russia! The fruit is a rich brown/copper-green colour, and is large for a cherry tomato (11/2”– 2”). It’s packed with great taste and is very prolific, continuing to produce well into the fall.

Small Shining Light Watermelon: NEW FOR 2010!! (80-90 days) A very old Russian variety that is perfectly suited for our short northern summers! Fruits are round, 10-12", with a dark green rind and sweet red flesh. Keeps for several weeks after picking.

First-Time Gardener Collection: NEW FOR 2010!! It's difficult being a first-time gardener - there's so much to know and there are so many choices that's it's hard to know where to start. Each year, we advise many new gardeners on the best approach to starting their first gardens. So, we thought that this year we'd put together a collection that was 1) easy to grow 2) could be all sown directly in the garden (no starting indoors) 3)would provide as broad a variety of veggies to experience as possible and 4) contained no "finnicky" or "fussy" plants. So here it is: a ready-made garden that contains tried-and-true heirlooms known for their taste and hardiness: Royal Burgundy bush bean, Ireland Creek Annie's dry bean, Specialty Beet Mix, Colourful Carrot Mix, Specialty Radish Mix, Heirloom Leaf Lettuce Mix, Dwarf Grey Sugar Pea, Sutton's Harbinger Pea, Black Beauty zucchini, Waltham Butternut Winter Squash, Mid-East Prolific Cucumber, Russian Red Kale and Galilee Spinach. (Save $6.50 off the cost of buying the packets individually)

Our seeds have arrived and we plan on starting some seedlings in the house in mid March. All we need to purchase now is some soil and a heating lamp and we are ready to plant. I am glad we are finally getting things going. I was beginning to worry that we wouldn't find the time since we are planning for a new baby and Owen is a very lively 18 month old.