With last year’s drought a distant memory I am preparing for this year’s garden. Things are pretty soggy outside and have been for some time. I am sure the trees are loving this moisture. It hasn’t been very cold but fortunately cold enough to keep things dormant so far in my yard. This wet and mild in the winter and hot and dry in the summer is reminding me of where I grew up in California. Out there the summer was known as the brown season and the winter was green. A taste of things to come? Who knows.
Just in case we are in for another summer like last year I decided to investigate some varieties that are more tolerant to the dry conditions. I also decided to try my hand at growing a little bit of corn for corn meal. There is nothing like freshly ground meal for corn bread. In my search, I ran across a site called Native Seeds Search. They are located in the south west, not known for its abundance of water during the growing season. I picked up a couple of packets of Tohono O’odham 60 day flour corn seed. 60 days is very quick for a non sweet type corn. As I understand it, the area gets early summer rain then nothing for some time, hence the quick growing variety that has been adapted over time. I also picked up some Anasazi beans from Adobe Milling. I’ve heard that they are supposed to be more tolerant of dry conditions. There is a lot of folk lore about these beans, not sure anyone knows the real story but they are grown in the same general area and have been for some time.
Last weekend I cleaned out my float bed and prepared things for some seed sowing that went on today. I seeded some sweet basil, lemon grass, Safir Celery, Red Winter lettuce and scarlet globe radishes in the 72 cell float tray. The radishes and lettuce could grow to maturity in the tray but more than likely both will be harvested early for a salad and to make way for some tomatoes that will need the spaces. I fired up the aquarium heater to warm up the water a bit. The basement is a chilly 55. As long as I can keep the soil warm the plants don’t mind the cool air temps and even seem to prefer it as they tend not to get so leggy as can happen growing veggies indoors.
I’ve never grown the Safir celery before. To look at it you would think it was parsley. It doesn’t grow in a bunch like regular celery and only gets about 12″ high. Since the stalks are very tiny it is used more for a flavoring than something to spread peanut butter on.
I also seeded some radishes in a half barrel I have outside. They will come up when the weather is right and since they are raised off the ground the soil will warm up a little sooner than the garden which is too wet to get into right now anyway. I have another half barrel that will end up with flowers in it later in the season. It will get some more radishes planted in it when the ones I planted today start to make a showing.
I am almost finished sewing the 4th row of the scrappy quilt. The whole thing is going so much faster using the needlepoint frame. 2 more rows to go…