It is 44F outside though it feels at least ten degrees colder. The wind is blowing and it is raining steadily. It is a typical gray and dreary day in Western Oregon and I love it! Yesterday was sunny and I took a 4-mile hike and loved that too. But these cold, wet, dreary days are wonderful for cozying up to the fire, reading a good book, or even writing a blog entry!
It is also a good day to peruse the seed catalogues, both on paper and on line. I have been looking through the Spring 2018 catalogue from Territorial Seed Company, one of my favorites. I still have a fair amount of seed left over from last year and I also want to get some at Nichols’ Nursery here in Albany so I will not be ordering a lot from Territorial this year but I could not resist a few of them.
Since my growing space is limited I will try Mascotte bush beans this year as they promise to grow very compactly.
Though I’ve not had great success with beats I shall try Early Wonder Tall Top this year just to see if it might do better. It says perfect for early spring planting so I may get those in by mid-March if Mother Nature cooperates.
Finally I will get some Lincoln (sometimes called Homesteader) shelling peas this year. I usually plant snow peas or sugar snaps but I thought I’d try some shelling peas for a change.
Everything else will either come from starts or seeds on hand as well as what I pick up at Nichols this year. As I mentioned in an earlier post I hope to plant more intensely this year and am even thinking of a limited fall/winter garden of cole crops, onions and garlic in the fall. We shall see how ambitious I feel in the fall.
Now I need to plan the garden and I do that on paper. In the next few weeks I will start some seeds in the green house. I had mixed success last year, let’s hope it is better this year.
Happy Gardening,
Dan Murphy
My Little Organic Garden 