I think it’s mostly all there, yet it seems short. What am I missing? Anne has already pointed out the lack of swiss chard in a rainbow of colors. We might have some seed remaining from last year though – I need to check on that. Same goes for spinach and radish. I now wonder if I shouldn’t order another variety of sweet pepper. I purposely left off pumpkins. We finished last year with too many squash beetles – I’m hoping that taking a year off will confuse them.

I am a bit saddened that the hot lemon pepper seems to have disappeared from the catalogs this year. It was a great spicy pepper. Also still need to order the mushroom plugs, but if I understand the recommendations, these need to be dealt with upon receiving so they will need to wait for March or April.

SUHYO TK CUCUMBER
BIG RAINBOW TOMATO
KELLOGGS BREAKFAST TOMATO
TOMATOBERRY GARDEN TOMATO
DETROIT BEET
DRAGON LANGERIE BEAN
Antohi Romanian > Sweet Specialty Peppers
Fairy Tale Eggplant
Carson Beans, Bush > Yellow, Round Pod
Amadeus Broccoli
Habanero
Hot Paper Lantern > Hot Specialty Peppers
Skyphos Lettuce > Butterhead/Boston > Red
Allstar Gourmet Lettuce Mix
Amethyst Improved > Basil
Genovese > Basil
Nelson > Carrots
Sunburst > Squash > Patty Pan/Scallop
Sugar Ann > Peas
Fall Green Manure Mix > Cover Crops/Farm Seeds

Special thanks to Nick and Jamie for the gift of Johnny’s Seeds this year. The garden thanks you.

Behold! The awesome yellow power of the lemon pepper!

Okay, you have that beheld? Good. You can stop now. I know, it’s difficult to turn your gaze away from the starburst tint that gives this pepper its name. The color is certainly lemony, but the flavor is so hot I might be missing out on what others describe as citrus tones. The hot lemon pepper rates surprisingly high on the Scoville chart. Some rank it akin to Cayenne while others place it nearer the mighty Habanero. If enough ripen before the heavy frost, they will make for an attractive pepper jelly.

In addition to the fiery lemons, I also planted sweet bells, purple cayenne (they start purple and green and ripen red), and habanero. The bell peppers ought to have been red (big red), but they are ripening orange/yellow. Either I planted some old seeds and mixed up my planting (entirely possible) or the red pepper seeds I ordered were not very red. The peppers have been sluggish this year.

Part of the sluggishness was gardener error. I planted them out before it was really warm enough and before the seedlings were big enough. That likely shocked them a bit. The bells also had too much competition from poppies. As pretty as the poppies were, I should have ripped them out. Or maybe that wouldn’t have made any difference. The green habaneros in the photo were picked from a casualty limb. All the pepper plants are heavy with peppers and without caging or staking, limbs will snap. All the pepper jam might come out green this year – maybe with a hint of purple.

I never knew poppies could grow so well in Iowa – particularly the wispy orange California poppies. I thought they were only suited for drier climates; I was obviously misinformed. And that’s fine by me. I rather like them. I think they are one of my favorite flowers to photograph. Not as flamboyant as sunflowers and not as long standing either. I suppose their short bloom time makes them less ideal garden flowers (if you want lots of long blooms), but this also makes me more appreciative. After the bloom is done the seed pod forms for post-bloom interest. I’ll be sure to add more to this slide show as the seasons continue.

Want to add some poppies to your garden? Not sure if it’s necessary, but we usually sprinkle the seeds toward the end of winter. All the better if it’s snowing a little. The silvery, jagged-leaved seedlings emerge early in the spring.

A new plant combination we have enjoyed this year: Wild Lupine, Mourning Widow Geranium and Perennial Bachelor Buttons.

Mourning Widow also looks good with Spiderwort.

Spiderwort looks fantastic this year. There was a cat fight in the clump pictured below, and it fared ok- better than one of the cats. We are learning that male cats are still territorial, even after being neutered. Peaches, our indoor/outdoor cat, and Doppel, our outdoor cat, spend hours each day staring each other down. We find it’s best to break it up before they get too close. Poor Dops usually loses.

Here’s a close-up of that pink oriental poppy pictured above. We grew this from seed in ’08 and are thrilled that it is still with us. Both pink and red oriental poppies are difficult to grow in Iowa clay- pink being more difficult. They must be started from seed if you want them to come back- in our growing conditions anyway.

I planted the first round of peas, lettuce, spinach, carrots in the garden yesterday.

I’ll try some successive planting this year. Rather than plant all packages of peas and spinach, I only planted a few. Give them a couple weeks head start and then plant another batch. The theory is ripening and harvesting will also be staggered. For crops that do not really keep, like lettuce and peas, this makes good sense. Maybe not so much for carrots. I have so many carrot seeds though, it’s a nice experiment to see how they do when planted this early.

The seedlings of 2011 have begun to emerge. It’s an exciting time even though it adds to the general responsibilities. Seedlings are coddled. They cannot be let to dry out, but shouldn’t be dripping wet either. Peaches must be kept at a safe distance; The light shelves all have plywood doors attached. Now that the workshop is mostly assembled, I should think about building more attractive light shelves.

Now I am supposed to write about the potential of Spring and hope for things to come. Too cliché? I think so. More to the point, I want to eat a tomato. A really good tomato. I also want the garden space to be clean, planted and growing. And since I am making wishes, I would like the wind to stop for a few moments of stillness.

These little stems will not have to brave the wind for a few more months. Yep, I will coddle these for months. It seems crazy in a way. They will need some re-potting at some point. I’ll shuffle them in and out of the house, and hopefully into the hoophouse at some point. Eventually, I’ll need to find a spot to plant them. And then I’ll need to be watchful for signs of disease. I’ll use plastic mulch this year to keep the soil off the plants. Always adjusting the experience of the tomato.

I try to contain myself when flipping through the 2011 seed catalogs on a zero degree morning. The sun comes out and warms the room, but outside it remains painfully brisk. The warm photos in the catalog entice our gardening minds to wander toward possibilities and good intentions. I intend to weed and water more frequently this season. I intend to protect my garden from molds and pests. I intend to mulch and fix up some row covers. I intend to plant some cover crops and enrich our soils.

Who knows what will really happen? At this stage, who cares? Let’s just dream for a while.

Our Pinetree Garden Seeds order:

SCARLET SPINACH (F1 hybrid 40 days)
HABANERO HOT PEPPER (heirloom)
BLOOMSDALE LONG STANDING (heirloom)
STARBURST BLAZE SUNFLOWER (F1)
DELICATA SQUASH (heirloom)
ARACHIS HYPOGAEA PEANUT (120 days)
JACOBS CATTLE DRY BEAN (83 days heirloom)
KELLOGGS BREAKFAST TOMATO (79 days)
PACKMAN BROCCOLI (F1 hybrid 52 days)
TENDER SWEET CARROT (heirloom)
PURPLE RUFFLES BASIL
BIG RED PEPPER (75 days)
BEER FRIEND SOY BEAN
LEMON CUCUMBER (65 days heirloom)
ORANGE SUN PEPPER (81 days)
HORN OF PLENTY SUMMER SQUASH (F1 hybrid 45 days)
HOMEMADE PICKLES CUCUMBER (54 days)
MATTS WILD CHERRY TOMATO (55 days)
LAVENDER TOUCH EGGPLANT (F1 hybrid 66 days)
EARLY GIRL TOMATO (F1 hybrid 60 days)
FANTASIA MIXTURE SUNFLOWER(F1)
REDBOR KALE (F1 hybrid 55 days)
PINETREE LETTUCE MIX
MINNESOTA MIDGET MELON (60 days)
SUGAR LACE II SNAP PEA (65 days)
PURPLE CAYENNE PEPPER (70 days)
ITALIAN LARGE LEAF BASIL

I also purchased some Burpee seed packs today:

BIG MAX PUMPKIN
HOT LEMON PEPPER

Please indulge a little introspection. I am not much of a planner – while I enjoy puzzling things out from every conceivable perspective, I don’t ever really want to begin. To begin would mean all perspectives have been exhausted, and how likely is that really?  I have learned/inherited some pack-rat tendencies. Thanks M & D! “I might need this” is etched into my bones.  I’m nowhere near hoarder status, but I sympathize with the psychology. And I am certainly a good consumer – a sucker for seed catalogs in the Winter or any time of year.

Red Burgundy Okra Seeds and Pods. Click image for larger view.

With all this in mind, I collected seeds today. This appeals to the perspective seeker and saver in me. It disrupts the good consumer, but I’m okay with that. As a Midwesterner, I am certain my consumption is well beyond my needs.

Cleome Seeds and Pod. Click image for larger view.

Seeds are relatively inexpensive and hold much promise during those cold Winter months. Low cost and promise is marketing genius.  Their shapes and sizes are as interesting as they are extreme. The general size of the seed tells us little about the size of the plant. And each holds the genetic key to an entire plant that might grow over 100 feet tall. The tobacco seed pods hold hundreds if not thousands of tiny little specs of seeds. I have a feeling we will see some volunteer tobacco next year, but I saved some seeds anyway.

Tobacco Seed Pods. Click image for larger view.

From the tiny to the large – the sunset pole bean wasn’t my favorite fresh green bean, but the blooms were a subtle salmon color and the seeds are dark with bright pink blotches. The seeds appeal to me, and so they win the game of natural selection. This is a plant I am actually considering growing again for the seeds themselves! Yes, the blooms are nice, but the seeds are even better.

Sunset Pole Bean Seeds and Pods. Click image for larger view.

It was our first time. We were virgin bean shellers. And I’m afraid it showed. Our technique needs some work. Shelling these two pints of Dragon Tongue bush beans took us over an hour.

Click on the image for a larger view

Beans are amazing. They produce frantically and for an extended period of time. They can be harvest fresh, they are good frozen or canned, and they can be dried. That’s crazy versatility. I can completely comprehend the Dave Ramsey’s beans and rice economy diet in terms of production quantities. At least I can speak to the beans half of the equation.  It would be interesting to plant a rice patty some day.

Click the image for a larger view

I’ve read of gardeners slamming the entire bean plant with dried pods against the sides of a metal garbage can. The seeds presumably fall to the bottom, and I’m sure much of the chaff would too.  I didn’t look very hard, but I couldn’t find any metal garbage cans lying around.  And most of our beans are pole varieties, so pulling out the entire vine is not a great option.  Shelling by hand, one bean at a time, was fine – just time intensive. It would have been nice to have an air compressor to spray the chaff off the seeds. That could work. Or maybe just a strong fan. The amount of beans we grow can certainly be done by hand in a few hours so I don’t plan on running out to buy an air compressor tomorrow. Then again, we did lose our tire pump the other day. What would Dave Ramsey say to that?

We had a nice showing of sunflowers this year. Most of them were volunteers, and most blooms are done now. I do enjoy a good volunteer. The birds seem to like the dried blooms. We will most definitely be feeding the birds more sunflower seeds this winter. Sorry to mention that season already.

(Here is the sunflower set on Flickr if the above slideshow doesn’t play for you.)