seeds are here!

In case you can't read the Andy Rooney quote on the tomato packet there:

“The federal government has sponsored research that has produced a tomato that is perfect in every respect, except that you can’t eat it. We should make every effort to make sure this disease, often referred to as ‘progress’ doesn't spread.”

notes: 2009 seed order

After getting and perusing a whole buncha seed catalogs (Burpee, Kitchen Garden, Cook's Garden, Seeds of Change, Baker Creek, Rocky Mountain, Territorial), discussing with Bram what we'd like to (try to) grow, and cross-referencing between all the catalogs, I decided to place our whole order with Baker Creek:



These guys are crazy amazing. The head of the company is a 27-year-old who's built a seed business he started at 17 into a heritage farm/natural food demonstration village, music festival, and magazine. Did I mention this guy is only 27? They only sell open-pollinated, non-GMO, and heirloom seeds.

Here's what I ordered:
BN103 - Henderson's Black Valentine Beans
BT102 - Golden Beet
CR103 - Little Finger Carrot
CU103 - Lemon Cuke
CU104 - White Wonder Cucumber
OML107 - Tigger Melon
RD124 - Munchener Bier Radish
SQ118 - Rouge Vif d' Etampes Pumpkin
SQ159 - Honey Boat Delicata Winter Squash
TM122 - Principe Borghese Tomato
TM178 - Roma Rio Grande Tomato
TP104 - Black Prince Tomato
TS113 - Tigerella Tomato
FL240 - Sensation Mix Cosmos

the current state of things

Here's a simplified schematic of the yard as it currently stands:


[click for larger]

Front yard: The big tree north of the driveway is a locust, the one on the other side is an apricot. Shrubs in the front yard are (clockwise from the corner of the drive + sidewalk): chamisa, another chamisa, a sad lilac, forsythia, and two horrible junipers.

Back yard: Trees and shrubs (along the perimeter, clockwise from the northwest corner): another chamisa, crabapple, Russian Olive, 3 cypress things, an even sadder lilac, and a 3-leaf sumac. The tree in the middle of the lawn is an aspen.

Qui transtulit sustinet

He who transplanted still sustains.
— Connecticut state motto



Sunday evening found us at Stacy and Jim's, planting some Maximilian's Sunflowers in their backyard.

Earlier in the day, we had M+D over for some brunch — and some housework. The adirondack chairs outside had suffered from a year's worth of exposure and needed a fresh coat of stain, so M and I tackled that. Monica had decided that the sunflowers outside the office window needed to be moved, so she and D started digging.



The flowers were occupying a raised bed that gets good sun and water, a space that we could better use for growing herbs and vegetables. Plus, they were always getting caught in the window.

The sunflowers are all over the place around Santa Fe in late summer, tall and beautiful. I requested that we retain some in our yard. Mon and D cut down the stalks, dug out the plants and roots.

One batch went to the opposite wall in our yard. Another got bundled up in wet paper towel and a trash bag for M+D to take back to Connecticut with them. More got bundled up and packed in a box to go to Monica's mom in Maryland. The largest pile got brought over to Stacy + Jim's where, in the waning daylight with Bernice looking on, we quickly added them to their garden.

A few more transplants among the transplants.

[post by Bram, cross-posted from G2NM]