A New Start

The beginning of the year signifies an opportunity to start again in so many ways. My husband thinks, "so what? It's just another day", but to me it always feels like turning to a fresh page in a sketch book. You get to start all over again if only in your mind. I always forgive myself of my past failures and remember a motto I learned to live by a long time ago: "You can't make deals with the past, but with the future everything is negotiable."

So at the beginning of this year I'll congratulate myself on my past success, forgive myself of the failures and look forward to trying again and tackling new challenges.

I do believe setting and writing down goals is important to realizing them. I smiled as I looked through an old sketch book of mine. My sisters happened to be close by and I pointed out to them a rough sketch I had done of my "dream garden" and the computer generated drawing I had painstakingly rendered, printed and place between the pages of my sketch book. The date was January 2004. Here six years later I am in the final stages of realizing a completion of this dream. We slowly installed the garden one stage at a time and I am closing in on the final stage.

If there is any complaint I have about myself it is my tendency to start a new project before the last one is finished. This year my motto is going to be: "Start it. Do it. Finish it."

I'm going to find all my projects in the "Do it" stage and I'm going to finish it. I'm going to find all the projects in the "Must Start it" stage and start, do and finish them. Must is the key word here. I only want to start those projects that must be finished.

For example I "must" start my seeds indoors to have a nice crop of tomatoes. All other "Start it" projects "must wait" until the "do its" and "finish its" and "must start it" projects are done. In other words I'm not starting anything unnecessary this year until I wrap up all the loose ends!!! I could have said that to start with right!

My first exciting "Must do it" project is to plant my tomato and eggplant seeds. Mission accomplished! Also I "must" order my new seeds for this year. Done did! And I am so anticipating their arrival any day now!

Some seeds are best started indoors before they are ready to be placed out. I finished planting mine a few days ago. In our zone 9 you can start tomatoes and eggplants indoors in December. I like to start them as early as possible to avoid a lot of the pests that come along with the hot temps. Once they sprout I am going to keep them under grow lights this year. Last year I grew them on my front porch facing southeast and protected them when cold temps threatened. They did well, but I am starting them even earlier this year so I am going to try using grow lights. When I plant them outside I am going to use row covers to protect them if necessary.

I start seeds in peat or plastic pots using seed starting soil. They can be started in large trays and then divided and placed individually in their own pot, but I'm not doing that this year. I placed at least three seeds in each pot. I'll thin them down to the strongest one.

I like to buy my seed from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I really enjoy their catalog and the descriptions of each plant.

Here are the boxes I use to sort and store my seed. I store them alphabetically by type...tomatoes, eggplant, greens, beans, peas, carrots,...etc...

This is a pic of the things I dehydrated, and some of the seeds I saved from last year. I'm doing my best to save seed from year to year. I didn't have to order many types this year because I saved seed.

Here is a list of seeds I ordered:

(The ones in bold are varieties I have already successfully grown)

Asian Winged bean

Blue Lake Bush Bean

Golden Wax Bean

Red Seeded Asparagus Bean (a long bean variety)

Bull's Blood Beet

Crapaudine Beet

Long Island Improved Brussels Sprouts

Bacalan De Rennes Cabbage

Nero Di Toscana or Black Palm Tree Cabbage

Cosmic Purple Carrot

Jaune Obtuse Du Doubs Carrot

Parisienne Carrot

Tendercrisp Celery

Chires Baby Corn

Dakota Black Popcorn

Rainbow Sweet Inca Corn

De Bourbonne Cucumber

Suyo Long Cucumber

Long Purple Eggplant

European Mesclun Salad

Georgia Southern Collards

Tom Thumb Lettuce

Green Machine Melon

Sleeping Beauty Melon

Sakata's Sweet Melon

Vidrines Midget Cowhorn Okra

Red Creole OnionAnaheim Pepper

Coban Red Pimiento Pepper

Emerald Giant Pepper

Quadrato D'Asti Rosso Pepper

Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach

Bennings Green Tint Scallop Squash

Crookneck Early Golden Summer Squash

Black Beauty Zucchini

Green Striped Cushaw

Brandywine Tomato

Cherokee Purple Tomato

Moneymaker Tomato

Pineapple Tomato

Yellow Mortage Lifter Tomato

Boule D'or Turnip

Moon and Stars Watermelon

Crackerjack Mix Marigolds

Giant Primrose Sunflower

Bright Jewels Cactus Flowered Zinnia

Some Seed Varieties I have saved and will plant:

Broccoli

Curley Mustard

Arugula

Purple Hull Peas

Silverline Melon

Striped Marigolds

Caledula

Zinnias