Trying Wintersowing Again

Last year, I tried Winter sowing for the first time, and I loved it!  I only did a few plants last year, broccoli and cauliflower.  The broccoli and cauliflower plants didn't do well in the garden... it was plagued by bugs and mites, and never ended up growing any crowns, so  I decided this year that I wasn't going to waste garden space on brassicas at all.  Waste of my time in my opinion.  But the seedlings from winter sowing were so strong, much more so than seeds started indoors. If you are a non-believer, just look at my seedlings comparison from last year.  The brassica seedlings had thicker stems and were larger than the ones I started inside.  Last year, I had volunteer tomato plants all over the garden.  Dozens and dozens of them.  Since there were dozens of volunteer tomato plants, I knew that winter sowing would work well for tomato seeds.  I have been saving these plastic juice bottles to use as mini greenhouses to plant in.  Here's a great explanation from Dave over at The Home Garden that explains how to winter sow, or check out the Wintersown.org website's article. 

Here they are all sowed and outside near the house.  I labeled each one using the plant tags that I made out of plastic milk cartons.  This is soooo my kind of lazing gardening.  Sow and let nature do it's job.  Now all I have to do is wait until spring to see if this worked!  Fingers crossed.

I'm a Liar.

Three days ago, I wrote about how I was not going to buy seeds this season. Yeah right. (haha, nervous laugh) Then this morning, I got this email from Urban Farmer saying that they are offering Free Shipping until 2/1/12.  #$%@#!!!!  Apparently, all it takes is an offer for free shipping for me to cave in and buy more seeds.  I am so pathetic! So I bought a packet of Utah Celery Seeds and heirloom Habanero seeds.  I seriously need an intervention.  For free shipping from Urban Farmer use the Promo code tom21 at checkout valid until Feb. 1, 2012.  Note: when you enter the promo code hit the "go" button to see the shipping deducted from your cart.  Happy Shopping!

I Lied, I Do Need Seeds!

I took a look inside one of my seed boxes tonight.  Gosh, what a hot mess!  I need to organize this pronto!  I thought I had all the seeds that I needed for this season, but I forgotten that I don't have any celery seeds.  Last season, I grew Utah Celery from seeds given to me by Food Garden Kitchen, and I realized that I really loved growing celery. What I loved about the celery was that the taste was totally amazing and I used the entire thing, especially the leaves in soups.  The celery was so flavorful, so much more so than celery you buy at the supermarket.  It's also super fresh and fun to just clip a few stems off the plant and let it continue growing.  Love that, it's like having a constant replenished supply of celery!  Also, it seemed like no bugs liked celery at all, so it wasn't plagued by insect bites.  I told myself that I won't buy any more seeds, but that doesn't mean I can't trade for some! Does anyone out there want to swap seeds with me?

Here is a list of what I'm looking for.
1. Celery
2. Any variety of cherry tomatoes, preferably heirloom variety
3. Pepper plants that do well in containers
4. Eggplants that do well in containers
I'm also open to try any new variety of seeds that I haven't tried before, so if you have something unique, I'm willing!

Here's a list of seeds that I have to offer.

1. Jaune Flamme Tomato - (heirloom saved seeds)
2. Persimmon Tomato - (heirloom saved seeds)
3. Rutgers Tomato -  (heirloom saved seeds)
4. Yellow Pear Tomato -  (heirloom saved seeds)
5. Cherokee Purple Tomato -  (heirloom saved seeds)
6. Chioggia Beets - (Sustainable Seed Co. 2011)
7. Alfalfa Sprouts - (Botanical Interests 2011)
8. Cayenne Pepper - (Mike the Gardener 2011)
9. Sweet Banana Pepper - (Sustainable Seed Co. 2011)
10. Purple Plum Radish - (Sustainable Seed Co. 2011)
11. Chocolate Beauty Pepper - (Sustainable Seed Co. 2011)
12. Roma Tomato - (Gurneys 2010)
13. Chinese Mao Qwa squash or hairy gourd - (saved seeds)
14. Jalapeno Pepper - (saved seeds)
15. Buckwheat (cover crop) - (Johnny Seeds 2010)


If you want to do a swap send me an email here!
Thanks!

A Chocolate Craving

I had a craving for chocolate tonight so I decided to whip up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate chip cookies are my absolute favorite cookie.  My go to cookie recipe is the one posted on Bo's Bowl called Neiman Marcus cookies.  I omit the espresso and only use 1 cup of chips, 1 1/2 cups of chips is a bit sweet for my taste.  Boy are they good!  What I like about this cookie recipe is that the cookie when cooled is not really chewy, it's more of a hard cookie, which I like.  It holds up well for dunking in coffee or milk.  Try out the recipe!  It's a good thing I have a party to attend tomorrow, I'm bringing these cookies with me.  I can't imagine all of these being in my house, I would be tempted to eat too many!