I am finally done! I realized that if I waited for "me time" my seed order would never get off to a start, so I just let things in the house go to hell and did it anyways. They'll live. It took me several days, since I try to research more and be smarter about this every year. Not sure if it's working...In the interest of my New Year's resolution about paying attention to the finances and where the money is going in the suburban homestead, I have listed my expenditures for this year's order. You may say "Wow, she did great!" or "Holy crap!", but I will say that the amount is significantly less than last year. This is due in part to saving seeds and storing old seeds properly, but much of it is honestly looking at what I can handle and past experiences. I am sure that I still went a little overboard, but a little progress is better than none! Most are heirloom varieties, and this year I am doing annual flowers for the first time selected from the lists of "The Beekeeper Guy" that visited our class during MG training. Many can be directly seeded outdoors, so that's a bonus.
Here is is for 2010:
Roninger Potato Farm - $21.00
Red LaSoda
Red Pontiac
Rose Finn Fingerlings
*may interest southern gardeners, they will ship in time for our early March potato planting dates - most places cannot)
Bountiful Gardens - 3.95
Soybean Innoculant
Fedco Seeds - 28.17
Dragon Langerie Bush Wax Bean
Beer Friend Edamame
Fish Hot Pepper
Paul Robeson Tomato
Gigante dItalia Parsley
Lemon Balm
Carpet of Snow Alyssum - flowers
Flashback Calendula - flowers
Osaka Flowering Kale- ornamental
Red Peacock Flowering Kale - ornamental
Tashkent Marigold - flowers
Persian Carpet Zinnia - flowers
Bells of Ireland - flowers
Jobs Tears - flowers
Panorama Red Bee Balm - flowers
Burgundy Gaillardia - flowers
Burpee 51.75
(I know, I know..., but they were selected for certain traits I wanted)
Early Sunglow Hybrid Corn - short stalks
Heatwave Lettuce - this blend performs all summer without bolting here
Sugar Baby Bush Watermelon - 3 ft vines!
4th of July Hybrid Tomato
Orange Wellington Tomato (the first hybrids I have grown)
Be Sweet Soybean - huge yields
Pesto Perpetuo Basil - variegated, patent pending, only avail as expensive plants for 3 yrs now!
Verbena Bonariensis - flowers
Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. 39.95
Purple of Romagna Artichoke
Golden Wax Bush Bean
Cosmic Purple Carrot
Parisian Pickling Cucumber
Japanese Climbing Cucumber
Mexican Mint Marigold - flowers
Craig's Grande Jalapeno
Val d'Orges Lettuce
Quadrato D'asti Rosso Pepper
Sweet Yellow Stuffing Pepper
Hollow Crown Parsnip
Vorlon Tomato
Red Zebra Tomato
Red Malabar Spinach (for those of you in hot areas where it's hard to grow spinach, check out this link... it climbs, won't bolt, tastes just like spinach, widely available)
So there it is! The 2010 Honesty Total = $144.82.
I still have other heirloom tomatoes, herbs, etc that I saved from last year that will be planted as well, saving a ton of money there. New vegetables making their debut in my garden are: Watermelon, Parsnip, Artichoke and Corn. There are many more companies I am becoming interested in and have requested catalogs from (especially our VA based Southern Exposure Seed Exchange), but haven't arrived yet so they lost out on this year's business, but I am sure to branch out and investigate them the next time I order.
