Native American Corn

A bunch of us are trialing beans and corn in 2010 so I've been reading up on the different types and interesting varieties. Seed catalogs with diverse heirloom and open pollinated varieties often list flint corn along with sweet corn and I've always focused on the sweet corn merely out of convenience. But, I've often pondered the differences and how they coule be used. In reading through 'Heirloom Vegetables' by Sue Stickland she notes some really interesting points:

In the Native American culture, there are six colors of corn which directly correlate to what they consider their six directions: black, red, white, yellow, blue and multi-colored corns relate to north, east, south, west , zenith (sky) and nadir (earth).

Northeastern Indians use white corn for breads.

Southwestern Indians use blue corn which have evolved an association with beneficial soil fungi making the soil 10 times more efficient at utilizing the nutrients in the soil.

There are some fascinating details in this book:

Heirloom Vegetables: A Home Gardener's Guide to Finding and Growing Vegetables from the Past
By Sue Stickland
Publisher: Fireside or Gaia Books Limited, London, 1998
Pages: 191

Hamburg Parsley

Good grief! Just when I think the garden is under control another volunteer pops up making me wonder if I should or shouldn't yank it out of the ground (and normally that conflict means it stays in the ground).

Yesterday I noticed Hamburg Parsley sprouting in the most unusual of places including the windowbox which contains our Music garlic. It will definitely get replanted elsewhere since the windowbox won't be lengthy enough to enable it to grow to any decent size but the real point is - this is not exactly how I'd planned to spend the weekend! It's a great problem to have but it just musses up the very predictable program I've been trying to institute in the garden (and to that my mind says 'yeah, right').

So, anyway, as I perused the garden I noticed another stowaway of Hamburg parsley that has gone to seed...and as many of my garden friends know, we just can't pass up the opportunity to collect more seeds. It is food afterall - or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

I'll have to do a post on stowaways, aka volunteers, as I tend to have loads of them throughout the year. Last summer's cosmos have made their way back just a few months after going to seed...not sure how they'll survive our cold nights...but oh well.

The end result of this discovery is that I'll need to pass these seeds along (and in a hurry) as I have bundles of new batches forthcoming that we'll need to make room for. Send me a self addressed stamped envelope and I'll send you a packet of Hamburg Parsley.

I've also posted this on the exchange forum as well.

2010 Seed Planning

So, I can't believe it's nearly 2010 but with the new year is always the fun of planning the new garden. Now that we have the exchange forum, it will be nice to distribute seeds earlier in the year to people who have an interest, especially those with a shorter growing season.

Interested in obtaining some new seeds in 2010? If so, please feel free to list the items of interest and/or the items you're planning on purchasing as well. Please post a reply on the exchange forum if you're interested being part of the collective who will receive seeds from my purchases. Feel free to list what's on your planting/personal purchase list for 2010 here. It will be great for us to compare notes next year if we all end up planting similar items.

Tomatoes

I hate tomatoes...think I've said that before, probably too many times. But, it never fails we start more tomatoes than we could possibly ever plant or consume unless we lived on several hundred acres (okay, I'm exaggerating a bit). This year is no different. Over a week ago, after ordering 50 new tomato varieties, we planted 18 varieties and 54 seeds.

I'm considering counseling...

Pac Choi Destruction

...I should also reference the fact that my Pac Choi was abscounded, not entirely but in sufficient quantities in comparison to the number of plants previously planted out. I'd like to blame it on the heat - if we had any serious heat...honestly have no idea what happened other than the fact the majority are gone, simply gone. So, sad. Was looking forward to the consumption. Luckily, that was another one of the plants that was incredibly easy to germinate. I'll plant more and will probably provide them with a bit more security - like keeping them in a planter box that I can take inside each evening!

Oh, and I have lots of seeds in case you're interested. Send me an email and I'll gladly share. It's fairly tasty if you can get your share of the plants before the other creatures.

Weekend Planting

This was an unusually busy weekend. At least 30 additional varieties were planted; 6 peonies, 30 gladiola and more than 10 varieties of dahlias.


Asian veggies are some of my favorite to grow. Above is Pac Choi which sprouted in only a couple of days.

Peas

Everyone is eager to see how many peas get eaten this year versus those that end up in seed production. We start out picking peas on a regular basis and then end up not being able to keep up with the rapid production. Before we know it, the garden is filled with plump pea pods filled with seeds.