How Does Your Garden Grow?

I love that the computer I do my writing on is sitting next to a window that overlooks mountains, with only a few houses to break up the landscape. There are advantages to living out in the middle of nowhere, mostly that I am not crowded by people, that I don't know. However, there are drawbacks, I am sitting here, on a bright sunny day and it's barely 60 degrees outside, and we had our first frost already. This presents me with a pretty large problem, we have a very short growing season, and I don't have a greenhouse...

So I am sitting here, sipping tea, and researching seeds. My goal is to grow predominantly organic heirloom seeds, because I have read enough about GMOs to know that I am not interested in letting those near me. Looking at the calendar, I am going to have to start seeds indoors, and even still, we had our last frost at the end of May, so realistically I have two months that I can rely on to stay in a decent temperature range to not kill my plants. One of my absolute favorite sites for seed on the internet is Heirloom Seeds. Not only do they have a ton of seeds to choose from, but they also offer premade packages that are pretty awesome. While I will admit that some of the complete garden packages may seem pricey, what you're getting out of it justifies the price.

So I have a list of seeds that I will be ordering from this site, and I figured I would share. I specifically selected items with a short growing season, and tried to get as many varieties of vegetables as possible. The only thing I am going to have to find from somewhere else are sweet potatoes.

The items with an asterix are available as certified organic seeds as well, and the number in parenthesis is the average days to maturity.

Tomatoes: Stupice* (55), Sub-Artic Plenty (40-60)
Pole Beans: Ideal Market (68), Sunset Runner (60)
Cucumber: Double Yield* (55-60)
Spinach: Giant Winter* (50)
Pumpkins: New England Pie* (105) [I love cooking with pumpkins, so I will make a sacrifice to ensure I have some for consumption.]
Squash: Spaghetti* (100), Black Zucchini (45)
Sweet Peppers: Rainbow Bell (68-80)
Hot Peppers: Jalapeno (70)
Beets: Ruby Queen* (52)
Carrots: Nantes Scarlet* (70)
Onions: Crimson Forest (60)
Turnips: Purple Top White Globe (55)
Sunflowers: Large Grey

I also think that I am going to opt to get some of their wildflower mixes, because it is always a good idea to have a ton of flowers around to keep those pollinators close by! They have a beneficial insect mix, hummingbird/butterfly mix and a honeybee mix that I will most likely be using on the sloped part of my lawn that isn't suitable for really much else other than flowers.

Road Side Veggies

While I will be the first to admit I can be a horrible curmudgeon, there are times when I cannot say enough good things about people. I will admit I love living in this area this time of year, harvest season, the season to scope out all of those roadside stands for fresh vegetables and fruits plucked from gardens and hand carried to where they sit on display. This is just wonderful to me, since when I go to the grocery store (and while I admire Hannaford for labeling where the produce comes from) being told the tomato I am about to buy comes from chili, makes me a little queasy. Not only because it probably means that the produce was picked before it was even ripe, but also that it spent weeks in transit, moved from shipping containers to tractor trailers. But also because I know that very little of the food imported into the United States is tested and/or sampled by food quality assurance workers to be sure the food these big companies are bringing into the country is safe for consumption. So knowing that road stand veggies are not only greener in the sense that they don't travel as far before I buy them, but also are just more lustrous in general.

Well anyway, I have driven past this one particular road side stand a few times while driving between Plattsburgh and Lyon Mountain, and I couldn't help but to notice the squash and cucumbers piled on this little fold-up table. I have a weakness for summer squash, I love it with all my little bitty heart. Well, anyway, I stopped today and was just browsing marveling at the size of the squash, and the zucchini he had was huge as well, but it was also this lovely deep dark green that was almost black.

While I was standing there the farmer came out and greeted me, and informed me that he was just about to pick some tomatoes, which, I thanked him for but was really only interested in getting a couple of cucumbers, so he went and picked some directly from the plants for me! Was just a really nice guy, threw in a couple extra because he was worried that the one larger cucumber he gave me wouldn't have as much flavor as the smaller ones. Just a genuinely nice guy, practically giving away produce because his plants are just producing a ton of them. But it's the little things like that that make me really appreciate living in a rural area.

So if you live in the area, the guy is located nearly directly across the street from the Hyundai dealership. Probably the closest road side vegetable stand there is to town. I am so anxious for apple season to be upon us.. Late summer and early Autumn are by far my most cherished times of year!