Well, the catalogs keep rolling in. Today I got RH Shumway's, Johnny's and Select Seeds, which is a flower catalog, no clue how I got that one. Actually I only bought some trellis netting from Johnny's and nothing from Shumway's, so they'll send catalogs to just about anyone. hehe
Anyway, it seems Patti the Garden Girl has set up a website where she posts her ezine monthly. Right now you can check out last month's edition with my first intro article in it. Soon I expect she'll update her site with this month's ezine. Of course you can always sign up for it, it's an email that comes once a month. No biggie. And she's cool to boot. Gotta love that.
http://www.urbansustainableliving.com/ (If that doesn't take you directly there, click on Patti's Ezine in the green bar under her top graphic.)
Lastly, I think I've found the spot in my house where I can easily set up a rudamentary seed starting system. No, not like my buddy EG's contraption, but a simple shelf system. As a test I moved my second wireless thermometer upstairs into one of my non-heated spare rooms. For grins I left the door open, allowing the heat from the main living area to migrate upstairs. Sure enough, when it's 70 degrees downstairs, it's 60 degrees upstairs. I figure I can keep it between 50 and 60 degrees up there, maybe warmer directly under one or two four-foot shop lights. Having that set-up will go a long way in allowing me to start my tomato plants from seed rather than purchase plants.
That reminds me. I just left a post over on Freedomgardens.org about growing 4 open polintated tomatoes in two SWCs 4 feet apart from each other. That is, 2 plants would be 12 inches from each other and intertwine, while the other two would be 4 feet away between my other two beds. My questions were, would the close proximity inhibit polination, and would it mess up my ability to save true seed for next year?
If any of those answers is you're up a creek, then I would need to make 3 more SWCs and try to issolate them from each other, not easy to do. Tis a conundrum, as Alan Greenspan used to say.
Enjoy your garden.
Can you believe I still haven't received any catalogs yet? I didn't receive any until late last year as well, so it's not really a surprise. I am having tons of fun ordering online though LOL! I placed another order today at Baker Creek. I still have a couple more places that I want to place orders at....
ReplyDeleteI'm going to list some trades opportunities on a couple of the message boards too to see if I can get a couple of varieties that I am still missing for 2009.
Guess what I found! I found some Yellow Pear Tomato seeds! They are 3 years old but I've kept them sealed in a Ziplock in the refrig so they should still be pretty viable. I got them in a trade from someone! I am going to send you 15 seeds so I'm sure one of them will germinate LOL If you have extra plants you can just give them away to other local gardeners :-)
OH, I have some info on the tomatoes.... it involves links and pics so I will just make a post on my blog. Bottom line, I think you'll be fine in obtaining pure seed from your tomatoes.
Loved your article on Patti's Ezine! That is awesome! She does such a great job too -- man, that girl is so busy!
All of my seed cataloges are in a neat pile waiting for me to have the time to look through them. I was able to save a bunch of my own seeds this year so I'll have to buy fewer. I'm also hoping to go more heirloom, so I don't know how much I'll be able to buy from all those glossy pages. Oh well, it's still fun to look!
ReplyDeleteYour light setup sounds really cool. I've only gotten one gardening catalog so far which is probably a good thing since I spent all my money on Christmas lol. Still have tons of seeds from last years seed starting attempts - will try again this year as they look pretty good still.
ReplyDeleteHow about bagging blossoms and then you worry less about distance and cross pollination. You do have to worry about material you use and making sure blossoms aren't overheated. But it does work. I used organza wedding favor bags from Joann's. Worked well for some varieties, was a tad more work for others.
ReplyDeleteI know someone who grows his tomatoes close and has been seed saving for years. He only saves seeds from the first fruits and it seems to work for him.
I've been enjoying the arrival of a variety of my seed catalogs as well. I'm planning to keep my variety down this year. I still have a composter to repair, a worm bin to troubleshoot and a garden fence to enforce. Not to mention DH wants to move a couple of beds over by 2 feet and re-do my paving stones.
Hey PG! Thanks for stopping by. Hope your holidays were great! Doh, I forgot to mention that. Both my mentor Judy and muse Jen mentioned the same thing about the sachet bags. Great minds think alike, thank you all! I also like the first fruit idea. That way it's out of the way, and I know it worked or didn't. Good luck with all your projects, they sound like fun but hard work.
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