A Seed Saver's Garden

[Decoy1]

So many lovely new peas for this year, thanks to some absolutely thrilling seed trades!

I used to be a crazy tomato grower but I honestly think beans have bumped them out of the #1 spot, and so have peas! I am really enjoying exploring the world of rare peas as well. Rare, for my area that is. It's all relative I suppose! Anyway, I will post a full list of all the neat new ones in the 2025 lineup, but here is a picture of a few packets I took today that were readily available.

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Very exciting! These are varieties I’ve not come across in England except perhaps Verdone.
What does Markerbse indicate, I wonder? Google translates it unhelpfully as ‘marker pea’

 

[heirloomgal]

Very exciting! These are varieties I’ve not come across in England except perhaps Verdone.
What does Markerbse indicate, I wonder? Google translates it unhelpfully as ‘marker pea’

I wish I could figure that out too! There are a number of categories of peas on Deaflora with mysterious titles, maybe related to the time of the season they're grown in? Like the 'winter' peas?

 

[heirloomgal]

Have been feeling the Daucus nudge to seek out many different varieties of carrot seed lately. I've found not all carrots are created equal, some taste far superior to others. It's been so long that I did side by side carrot growing in any volume, or even grew much carrots at all, that I forget the hierarchy of taste. Since electroculture has seemed to cure my carrot growing issues I feel a little empowered to dabble with a bigger grow out.

So went out today and got a couple packets, and had picked up a few here and there before that, but could not find Kuroda to put in the experiment. The price has really gone up for carrot seed too, $4 now. Scarlet Nantes, Nantes Touchon, Danver's Half Long, Lunga San Valerio, Gigante Flakkee so far. Staying away from Imperator cause my soil has too much clay, and I don't think those taste especially good. Also avoiding white, yellow and purple carrots, find those taste like animal fodder (to me anyway) and also steering clear of varieties bred to be small like Atlas. Going to try and find seed for Berlicum still, we'll see. And when this hunting is done I'll need to find another yard to fit all these carrots in.

 

[hdan]

Have been feeling the Daucus nudge to seek out many different varieties of carrot seed lately. I've found not all carrots are created equal, some taste far superior to others. It's been so long that I did side by side carrot growing in any volume, or even grew much carrots at all, that I forget the hierarchy of taste. Since electroculture has seemed to cure my carrot growing issues I feel a little empowered to dabble with a bigger grow out.

So went out today and got a couple packets, and had picked up a few here and there before that, but could not find Kuroda to put in the experiment. The price has really gone up for carrot seed too, $4 now. Scarlet Nantes, Nantes Touchon, Danver's Half Long, Lunga San Valerio, Gigante Flakkee so far. Staying away from Imperator cause my soil has too much clay, and I don't think those taste especially good. Also avoiding white, yellow and purple carrots, find those taste like animal fodder (to me anyway) and also steering clear of varieties bred to be small like Atlas. Going to try and find seed for Berlicum still, we'll see. And when this hunting is done I'll need to find another yard to fit all these carrots in.

I've been growing the Scarlet Nantes. They do well for me.

 

[heirloomgal]

@Zeedman at some point you posted on the forum about growing water spinach, which I had never heard of. Yesterday while browsing the racks I saw seeds for that! I might just try growing that this year. If you have any insights you want to share about growing/planting I'd love to hear, and if you can get the plants to go to seed.

 

[heirloomgal]

Well, I got lucky today and found seed for the 'Kuroda' carrots! And two more that I'm not super familiar with, 'Amsterdam 2' and 'Tendersweet'. I think I got a 'Nantes Coreless' as well. Sheesh, bought so many carrot packets it's blurring. Nantes seems to be one of the most favored carrot types, since there are so many variations of it.

Sadly, the only store (Peavey) that sold Livingstone brand seeds is closing. That's unfortunate as they carried some nice varieties. They also had Mr. Fothergill's on the racks there. I did manage to find a few other places today with Mr. Fothergill's so I'm glad about that. That seed company has some of the best peas I've ever grown, like 'Hurst Green Shaft' and 'Kelvedon Wonder'.

Decided I'm going to try growing Crosnes this year. It may be one of those alternative veg not popularly grown for good reason, but I'd like to try it out and see. Pretty hard to beat good old fashioned potatoes, but who am I kidding, experimentation is half the fun. I'm also going to try my hand at Devil's Claw. Finally a seed company offers it so that'll be fun. Been wanting to try it for awhile now, though I'm suspecting it will be like Asparagus Pea, only a short window of time where they are good (read: passable) eating. lol But they look so cool!

A gardening friend has inspired me to try a couple perennial veggies, so Welsh Bunching onions are slotted in too, and some 'Stampede' sunchokes to keep the 'Corlis Bolton Haynes' company. I planted Egyptian Walking Onions last fall so I'm really, really hoping those made it through the winter. If they did I'll be impressed and without fear for future seasons. If they make it through the -45 night time dips this year they'll make it any year. I'm curious if the Earth Chestnuts made it, though I'm not holding my breath on those. Still don't think I'll venture into Skirret or Salsify, they just seem so small relative to the greenery the plants have, and poorly shaped for culinary use. Lots of that stuff is only hardy to zone 5 anyway, so they probably wouldn't survive the winters here.

Ah, such a fabulously fun time of year with all this seed shopping!!!!!!!!!