The planting of garden 2018 is one filled with experiments. From our first time starting the seeds as seen in our Prepping for Garden 2018 episode, to building the containers around our yard and trying some companion planting, this year is one for trying new things and taking notes.
With the seedling starting, our major knowledge gain was ‘turn the light off, stupid!’ We had been leaving the grow lights on 24 x 7, thinking more light was a good thing. Apparently it’s not, plants need to ‘sleep’. Once we started turning the light off at night, the seedlings did seem to flourish more, but it’s hard to know the damage we did. Some seedling loss is expected, and the pepper plants we tried fared the worst. We only ended up with four of the seedling plants actually going in the ground; three Carolina Reapers and one Paradicsom Alaku Sarga Szentes. Since they are super hot, though, we’re all good…Steffan’s really the only one that will eat them, so we don’t need that many. We did end up with a nice variety of the rest of the seedlings with the Purple Brussels Sprouts doing the best…I think anyway, some of the labels got mixed up in the planting. We will find out at some point though 😀
With the containers we built, (by ‘we’ I mean Steffan), we are more than pleased with the decision. Hauling in 14 cubic yards of garden soil for the boxes and our main garden helped, as well. I mean, spoiler alert, but we actually have eaten radishes from our garden this year! Last year, well, they never turned into radishes. Everything is doing so amazing this year, it’s pretty exciting. (If you follow us on Instagram, you’ll see nearly daily updates, btw…)
We also got a ton of heirloom variety tomatoes and more hot peppers from a local nursery, the Hugo Feed Mill. It is hard to not want to try every variety, they have so many. We’ll take notes on what we like best this year and adjust to try some new ones next year. That’s part of the fun!
As far as the companion planting goes, I’m really like the marigolds amongst the veggies, but we have some notes for changes that we’ll share in our ‘Lessons Learned’ episode in July.
I also promised I’d share a list of everything we planted, so here it is. I got almost all the seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and the plants from the aforementioned Hugo Feed Mill.
Seeds:
- Japanese Hulless Popcorn (from Hugo Feed Mill)
- Red Rubine Brussels Sprout
- Mammoth Red Rock Cabbage
- Purple of Sicily Cauliflower
- Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli
- Romanesco Italia Broccoli
- Early Purple Vienna Kohlrabi
- Butternut Orange Squash
- Delicata Squash
- Costata Romanesco Squash
- Tendergreen Burpless Cucumber
- Orach, Red
- Merlo Nero Spinach
- Vulcan Swiss Chard
- Scarlet Kale
- Red Russian Kale (Old Seed I had)
- Vates Collards
- Golden Beet
- Chioggia (Bassano) Beet
- Black Nebula Carrot
- Kyoto Red Carrot
- Carrot Cosmic Purple
- Jutrzenka Radish
- Malaga Radish
- Purple Teepee Bean
- Blue Podded Blauwschokkers Garden Pea
- Sweet Garden Peas (Old seed I had)
- Carolina Reaper Hot Pepper
- Paradicsom Alaku Sarga Szentes Pepper
- Yellow, Red and White Onions (seed onions from Hugo Feed Mill)
- Yukon Gold, Viking Red, Kennebec and Pontiac Red Potatoes (seed potatoes from Hugo Feed Mill)
Plants:
-
Tomatoes
- Amish Paste
- Indigo Blue Berries (cherry tomato)
- Pineapple Hawaiian
- Millionaire
- Aut Ruby’s German
- Pork Chop Yellow
- Snowball
- Grandma Oliver’s Chocolate
- Dark Galaxy
- Black Beauty
-
Peppers
- White Bullet
- Super Chili
- Satan’s Kiss
- Ecuadorian Devil Breath
- Basque Sheep Herders
- Birjit’s Locoto
- Inca Red Drop
- Aji Red
- Aji Crystal
- Tiburon Poblano
- Garden Salsa
- Chichimeca Hybrid
- Herbs
- Cilantro
- Oregano
- Thyme
- Basil
- Sage
- Rosemary
- Mint
- Lavendar
We hope you enjoy the episode…let us know what you think with a comment!
Happy Living!
Kelly (& Steffan)
