Seed Hunting

Its about mid December when the itch starts. Relentless research and googleing for seeds. What will 2018 harvest be? Soo many things I want to try, soo little space.

Every year I try have a theme. Tis year was tough. First, while down in Mexico, I came across a wall of seeds - lets just say I don't speak Spanish, so I landed up with a lot of seeds I needed to Google to find out later what they were. Peppers and herbs features well though.

Not only did my trip south gets me seeds, but then Tortillas were amazing. Now I grew up in a maize staple eating country, but watching the street vendors make fresh tortillas for my morning quesadilla, was enlightening. I could grow dent corn, I would love learning the process as ancient as it is. How much corn would the ancients grow? Hows that work in a square foot garden :-)

In the end I read a wonderful article on Kenyan farmers had more than doubled their harvest using pole beans. I had grew scarlet runner beans last year, plus my usual purple French bean and another I cant even remember its name. I liked the French purple as green beans - yes the purple as green, but I had never really had favorites.


So while I may grow some Mexican peppers and herbs and even some corn, this year I think I going to grow more beans. So I have

• White runner
• Cherokee trail of tears
• Flagg
• Kentucky wonder
• Kahnawake Mohawk
• True Cranberry
• Rattlesnake
• Blue Lake
• Super Maconi
• And something simply called Fava - oops not a pole bean

Together with last years, I think I have a lot of beans this year. Anything I missed? Whats your favourite bean to grow and eat. The plan is to try plant them similarly and compare their harvest. 

Ghetto Greenhouse

I have for some time wanted a greenhouse. Although I tried a few small glass or plastic cold frames, I wanted a doubled walled walk in to putter in. I also had a fig and a few plants that could overwinter in it. I had an old lean to shed on the side of the house, I was removing, when It struck me, although its on the west side of the house, it may work.

15 Minutes on Kijiji and I found some 6mm double walled polycarbonate panels and a hour later had them home. As it turned out, using the old shed frame and a bunch of panels was not as quick a job as I originally thought. The biggest challenge was sliding the panels into the plastic joiners, at perfect size to seal gaps on hand cut sheets. Lets not talk door or the roof vent! A small order online from china and I got a automatic vent opener, In the end 10' x 4' "shed" was a greenhouse...almost.

Once built, I added some built in raised beds and wire shelf and planted some kale, walking onions and a basil plant for fun. (too see when it died which turned out to be 4 weeks after the outside one). Finally a visit to Ikea for a couple HYLLIS shelving units up against the wall that can be removed in summer. ps HYLLIS shelves fit a 20x10 standard tray perfectly so that is 8 trays, plus 10' shelf and beds! Crammed - yes, but this could give me 2-4 weeks earlier start and 2-4 weeks longer season at the end.

OK that was a could, I am still not sure I have enough light. What is clear is that sharing the house wall offers thermal mass and keeps it warm roughly 4-5 degrees Celsius most of winter so far. What is more of a question though is do I have the knowledge to use it right, or will I kill my spring seedlings??? When exactly do I start planting now, if I have the ability to move some stuff out. Talk about a game changer! This was not what I expected when I first embarked on this quest. And so I find I have peppers planted with more than 12 weeks till last frost!