We post about lawn and garden tools, with most tools aimed at landscaping and maintenance-type applications. But, judging from some of your recent comments, quite a few readers have gardening projects.
So, what will your 2020 gardening plans entail?
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Do you plan to start a vegetable garden? Plant some flowers? A fruit tree? Something else?
I’m going to try my hand at growing some vegetables this year. I planted sunflowers in containers two years ago, and aside from animals decimating my plants early on, it was a good experience.
Growing up, my father had a small garden every year, as did my grandfather, and my aunt and uncle had a small fig tree. There’s not much that you can grow in an urban environment, but every summer there were tomatoes, and cucumbers. There might have been some other small things I forgot about it.
I remember my father planting daffodils and tulips, and small other flowers at the front of the house. Starting with a marigold plant I bought in elementary school, we eventually had marigolds everywhere in the front.
I remember the long trips to the nursery, where my father would select plants for transplanting into the garden. If not for the COVID-19 pandemic and “stay at home” orders, I’d probably put my kids through the same experience now.
Every year, my grandfather pickled some of the tomatoes (you have to pick them while still green) and cucumbers, and added carrots and celery.
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I finally worked up my nerve and gave fermentation a shot, creating my first pickles nearly two years ago. I’ve had some great batches since then, and a couple of failures. I’m a little regretful that I waited so long to give it a try, but am glad I started when I did.
I was never really interested in growing vegetables, but that has changed this year. I’ve had some interest in a small veggie garden since we moved from an apartment to a house with a yard, but there are several reasons why I can’t create an in-ground garden just yet.
When I started with fermented pickles, it was after years of interest and discouragement. I always thought I needed food-safe buckets and the perfect environmental conditions. I don’t remember the details of my grandfather’s pickle-making projects, only the many years or results. The last batch of pickles I remember, he made them at our house and kept the bucket in the backyard.
I worked up my nerve by realizing there were other tools and methods – such as fermentation crocks much smaller than 5 gallon buckets – and that there’s nothing to lose by trying, except a couple of bucks in produce.
Excuses aside, this year I am going to grow vegetables.
My plan started off with the intent to growing pickling cucumbers in a container garden. When my fermentations failed, it was because I sourced bad cucumbers – either too plump or too old. I thought, so why not grow my own…? Now’s a good time for it. If not now, then when?
My plan has expanded somewhat, and will now also include hot pepper plants – hopefully. There will also be at least one tomato plant, thanks to a slight mistake with my online ordering.
(After a week had passed and I realized I wouldn’t be getting hot pepper seeds anytime soon, I placed an order for some transplants. Shipping is the same for intervals of 6, and I accidentally added seeds to my order for the last plant instead of a transplant. I called up to fix this, and decided why not try a small tomato plant.)
I’m also trying for basil, dill, and carrots, and will see how that turns out.
I’ll save a couple of containers for unanticipated plans. I was talking to someone at the local garden center, and they plan to have a lot of varieties next month once it warms up. If it’s okay to travel, I’ll see what’s there, and maybe something else will join my vegetable container garden plans.
Things are going to be a little limited, and perhaps challenging, given that I’m planing in containers, but we’ll see how it goes. There’s more to lose – time, money, effort, but I won’t know what happens if I don’t give it a try. Plus, it’ll be good for the kids to watch the plant life cycle, if the deer and rabbits don’t interfere too much.
So, that’s my plan – I’m starting a vegetable garden this year, and with some flowers mixed in for both deer prevention and because I still have my planters from two years ago and it would be nice to fill them with something colorful.
The reason for this post is to help me determine if there should be any editorial content stemming from my experiments.
Knowing what gardening plans you guys might have – or might not have – will help me determine what kinds of tools and supplies to post about and even review. Otherwise, how do I know what you might be interested in? There’s also my personal curiosity and eagerness to hear about what you guys might be working on this summer.
As for what you’re seeing here, my first jalapeno seedlings have sprouted! They’re going to be late in the ground – hot peppers need to be grown indoors for 6-8 weeks and transplanted outside after the last frost, but seed suppliers have been overwhelmed with orders. I’m still waiting on orders from 2 companies, and this point I might just have to save those seeds and supplies for next year.
There’s a lot I don’t know, and a lot I’ll have to learn “in the field” (get it?!). There will be kinks along the way, but that’ll all be part of the learning process.
So, now that you know my rough spring and summer 2020 gardening plans, what are yours?
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I promised my daughter that we’ll plant some carrots seeds today. After that, I have to mock-up my design for a 30″ x 30″ cedar planter.
fred
I heard on the local news radio station this morning that (as you have mentioned) packages of seeds have replace Toilet Paper as the items in short supply. A shortage of packaged yeast was also part of that news sound bite. So I guess gardening and home bread baking are having a resurgence.
As I write this – my wife is out puttering in some part of the garden – so I can’t consult with her about her plans. But she keeps a garden journal – and took it out with her. We did purchase hundreds of new bulbs last year while visiting Keukenhof – so my “plan” is to stroll around and admire the blooms.
Randy
Hundreds of bulbs from Keukenhof? How did you manage to get those through US CBP Agricultural Inspection?
fred
Queen ships to the USA – only those varieties and packaging that are approved for shipping to the USA. When you sit at Keukenhof with a sales person they give you the USA-Approved catalog to pick from. We’ve been in the Netherlands several times in the Spring – and have bought bulbs in Amsterdam and at Keukenhof that were shipped to us for Fall planting. What you can buy is limited compared to what you might buy for planting in the EU. My wife had some particular varieties that she wanted that she thought might not be available from USA sources like Michigan Bulb. I don’t know if its any less expensive buying in Holland or ordering on line. It’s just become for us something nice to do when we visit.
https://www.queenflowerbulbs.com/
fred
I should have also mentioned that we’ve done something similar when visiting Kew Gardens in the UK and Butchart Gardens in Canada. The both sell (seeds anyway) that are approved for shipping or carrying into the USA. With Butchart – they give you a sealed package with some sort of declaration attached – that we’ve presented at the Border in Port Angeles – never had a problem
Stuart
Yeast has been sold out at my supermarket for the past 5-6 weeks, before social distancing and “shelter in place” guidelines went into place.
The problem is that once a trend appears and is reported on, the buying frenzy accelerates.
I made sure we had baking supplies before social distancing and “shelter at home” guidelines went into place, as part of my “make sure you have 2 weeks worth of food in case of positive case 2-week quarantine” preparations, and yeast was already sold out by then.
I ordered a lb of yeast from King Arthur on 3/14 and received it fairly quickly. It has been in and out of stock since then (I checked out of curiosity), but so far I haven’t seen any new inventory at the supermarket, but they could also be selling out several times over between my spaced-apart visits.
Ben
I live close enough to our grocery store to know the managers (sometimes because carts end up in our alley….). I’ve asked them about a few items over the last 6 weeks that I’ve been looking for. TP at first, then cleaning stuff. Each time they usually tell me when to show up to find that stuff on the shelf.
However baking yeast has been a ‘hard no’ from them for atleast a month. Not ‘oh, it shows up once a week on this truck’, just ‘we have none and haven’t seen any’. Unlike some other products, maybe yeast has a longer lead time for new inventory?
Bill
Yeast is an interesting topic in itself. When I was growing up, my father made wine in the basement of our house and I remember being very curious about the whole process and he was always eager to teach me. While I was fascinated with the bubbling off of the carbon dioxide in the fermentation process, I think my dad more interested in another byproduct. As many of you may know yeast (a type of fungus) is practically everywhere in our world. And we all know it really loves fruit. In fact I know that my dad, like many wine makers, never needed to add yeast to his crushed grapes as they all came with their own fresh supply, courtesy of Mother Nature. All that said, I was also getting frustrated when I couldn’t find yeast at my local grocer. I was about set to make my own when I got lucky and found a jar of yeast a couple of weeks ago. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed when I no longer needed to make my own.
Has anyone made there own yeast for baking purposes? Any ideas or tips would be appreciated.
Tony
Nurseries are closed and I feel bad for the owners (and staff) because a lot of them are small mom & pop operations that are going to have a difficult time surviving without the foot traffic needed to keep them going. Luckily, I was able to pick up several different kinds of Burpee seeds from the local Menard’s store before things got crazy. I’m currently growing marigolds from seed this year. They’ve just sprouted in some containers that I have inside my house. I look forward to planting them outside in a few weeks.
Stuart
It depends on the location? In some states garden centers are deemed essential and still open.
I stopped by today and they said they were open. Social distancing was in effect. There were a couple of customers and everyone kept their distance.
Now that I know what they have, I’ll do curbside pickup next time for supplies, except for when they get plants in next month – I’ll want to browse around if I can.
Tony
Oh, I didn’t know that they were deemed essential in some states. I had already called some nurseries in my area on the phone to see if they were open before I drove over and the conversation would start like this . . . “by order of the governor, we are closed and are currently adhering to recommendations . . .” (insert the rest of a formal sounding statement).
Joe S
I haven’t started plants from seeds the last few years. I usually purchase plant starts in bulk from a (mostly Amish) produce auction. They are perfectly healthy plants (ready to plant), but aren’t the “show” plant starts, so they usually sell for under a dollar a piece. They have already cancelled a few of their early auctions so I’m not sure that’ll be an option this year. Knowing that I started zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, cantelope, and peppers from seed. All but the peppers are growing very well- don’t think they are viable (they are several years old and probably not stored correctly).
I will also direct sow lettuce, spinach, and carrots as the weather warms.
My raspberry plants are growing incredibly well, and I should get a good harvest. My blackberries were planted last year, so hoping for fruit this year. I’m sure berries don’t grow great every where, but I highly suggest berry bushes. Perinneinal and often low maintenance, plus berries freeze easily if they grow in access.
I’ve saved seeds from my sunflowers for the last three years. A mouse got into them this winter, but fortunately there are enough that didn’t get eaten to plant again.
I try to expand my garden a little bit each year, hoping that is the case again this year!
A W
We are expanding our vegetable garden a fair amount, from 32 sq ft to 240.
We have a toddler and a dog who would both interfere, so we’re putting in a fence, and building raised beds out of cedar and corrugated roofing panels. I’m thinking of putting in the plastic ones rather than galvanized steel. My wife doesn’t like the shininess of the steel so we’d end up painting them, which pushes the cost up.
I’m heading out to dig more holes shortly.
PETE
Love some increase in self sufficiency.
We are building a house- excavation happens this weekend, then once the concrete pad is poured in 2 weeks we have nearly 40 fruit trees that are ready to go in the ground. Thankfully before summer so they won’t get too much of a shock.
Then we have another bunch of blackberry and straw berries that are going in after that. Not many vegetables getting planed this year.
Planegrain
I’m still weighing the costs. Might just eat at restaurants, give them the business. And save the garden drama(used to love gardening, but having oil leaking atv’s driving through it). The unknown ATV driver while I was gone, Have considered planting in wheel barrows, then locking them inside when I’m gone. Covid food shortage is a worry though.
Ben V
Don’t add up the costs! It is rarely cost effective 🙂
In our old house the 5 carrots we grew cost about $20 each!
fred
Most folks do it because they have a passion for gardening – not because its an economic alternative to the supermarket. The other aspect is that fresh and homegrown may appeal more to your palate than what you can buy in the supermarket. I think that’s why so many of us grow things like heirloom tomatoes. The same may be true about frequenting local farm stands or farmers markets when fresh produce has just been picked.
Frank D
We have not started yet, as it is still too early, snow is still melting, just had a huge winter storm, … unsure what will be available at local greenhouses, since we don’t start our own seeds. Probably will scale down from recent years. Due to dry summers and slugs … it took a ton of time to water things and slugs and critters were a never ending battle.
Brian D
I had 2 espalier apple trees( fan shaped up against a wall), you can only grow one layer of branches a year, 3 years in the ants and aphids destroyed them and I had to pull them out.
I am growing tomatoes from seed again this year, (tumbling tom) had great success with the last year.
Fennel was simple to grow but didn’t know how to cook with it, smelt like liqourice.
Parsley was fairly straight forward to grow from seed too.
This year I have lettuce and rocket from seed, and some Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Will grow some mint too, it needs to be kept in a pot/container.
I have some raspberry and blackberry transplants in the garden too, to teach the kid where fruit comes from, not the fridge.
I grew strawberries with great success in previous years but am limited with space.
fred
Thin sliced (think shaved on a mandolin) fennel bulb makes a great salad – can be paired with red onion and orange slices in a light vinaigrette. As a cooked veggie – cut lengthwise in quarters it is nice braised.
Brian D
Thank you Fred, for this and all the other sage advice you give and contribute on this website.
I have been reading Stuart stuff for a couple of years now, and I always read the comments in the posts that interest me, as I’ve learned that’s where some of the best ideas: knowledge comes from.
Especially Fred comments, as I always learn something new.
So from all the readers who rarely contribute, a big thanks Fred.
Planegrain
Over this last winter, before the Coronavirus spread. I was planning a greenhouse. It would be made with 2×4 framing, covered with corrugated polycarbonate clear sheets. Might still be a summer project, a way to extend the growing season.
Steve
Whatever I put in, I’m going to make sure each plant is six feet apart.
Planegrain
Too funny!
ktash
Well, that means I’ll have to put my containers 6 feet apart, thought they can have up to 8 plants in them. But they are all in the same family. 😉
Leonard
We plant a garden every year. It consists of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and assorted other vegetables and herbs. It will depend on our mood when shopping.
We also have strawberries and black berries. This year was a bit of a challenge but we happened to get everything before the stay at home order was ordered.
So for us nothing has changed other than I am able to tend to the garden more. We also planted a couple of more fruit trees last year and made sure to fertilize the existing ones. We have 100+ lemons so we either give them away or my neighbor bakes lemon bars and cookies.
I learned to love veggie gardening as a kid. I wasn’t aware the reason we grew so much was because my parents didn’t have much money. It was just a way to feed us. Dad still has his garden and so does my brother. Now, it’s a competition to see who can grow the biggest tomato.
Good luck to you all. Stay safe and well.
aerodawg
We’ve got a 50×100 plot going so far. Probably double that by the time we plant melons. Tomatoes, crookneck squash, okra, 3 varieties onions, sweet peppers, hot peppers, sweet corn, field peas, and a few other things my wife tossed in I don’t remember.
Robert
Not exactly about gardening, but I purchased the DeWalt 2x 20v XR lawnmower (what a mouthful) and have used it three times to cut my 3/4 acre lawn so far. This last time I got 99% through when it clunked and started smoking. Took it apart and found that the heat had melted the pulley that the belt goes around. It is to be noted that my grass was about 4″ tall and I had it in mulch mode. I went through (2) 9ah batteries and (2) 6ah.
Seems like all the stories are true about this mower (eats through batteries, overheats, and has problems with the pulley). Anyone else have a cordless lawnmower they like?
George
Yes. Our Ego is awesome. I got one and two of my neighbors followed suit. The battery makes it through about 45 min of cutting and edging (have the string trimmer too). Don’t need ear protection and a battery charges in less time than the run. I don’t miss my gasser one tiny bit.
Bill
I’ll second George’s experience with the Ego OPE. I now have several years of experience with their mower, LM2102SP, Multi-head system (with 3 attachments) and the carbon fiber shaft string trimmer. The mower came with a 7.5Ah battery and it usually lasts for about an hour of cut time, which is sufficient to mow and bag my 1/3 acre lot. I never use the self-propel feature, which would reduce your run time, as there aren’t many hills in South Florida and I need the exercise.
I’ve only had two issues so far and each time EGO responded with great customer service. The first was a minor split in the mower catch-bag, which they replaced, no questions asked. The other time involved the self-loading, they call it PowerLoad, head on the string trimmer, was not working properly. They sent me a new unit under warranty and I returned the defective one in the same box at no cost to me. So in short I love the power and performance of my EGO equipment. It’s so nice to have, essentially, no maintenance.
Paul
Everyone has had great luck with the Toro 60 Volt Recycler. It’s the same mower as the gas version with an electric motor instead of gas.
Michael
Victory gardens were a big thing in WWI and WWII. They cropped up (couldn’t resist) as part of an effort to allow food supply to be diverted to the war effort and deal with rationing. The home vegetable garden became a big deal again in the post industrial era. This could very well be there beginning of another resurgence in home gardening.
We’ve planted several containers and a 100 sqft raised bed with vegetables this year, all of which were destined for ornamental flowers before the current turn of events.
Ben V
We have 80 sqft of cedar planters I build 4 years ago. We rarely fill them all but this year we are going all in 🙂
Under grow lights we have a bunch of starters growing:
Sugar Rush Peach Peppers
Blush Tomatoes
Atomic Grape Tomatoes
Chestnut Chocolate Tomatoes
Rugosa Friulana Squash
Sweet Dumpling Squash
Bush Baby Squash
Clarimore Zucchini
Chiffon Zucchini
Raven Green Zucchini
Beit Alpha Cucumber
Persian Pickling Cucumber
Mexican Sour Gherkin
Lime Crisp Cucumber
Pepinex Cucumber
I’m hoping I can find some herbs and japanese eggplant soon, I’ve been putting off going to Home Depot!
I’m also crossing my fingers that our olive tree, which is five years old , will finally produce this year 🙂
Finally we have grapes, kiwi, gooseberry, raspberry and figs that are budding nicely, so these should give us some good produce this year.
My mother is a florist, so I was brought up in the garden!
Brandon
Keep in mind, some herbs grow very quickly – even from seed. You aren’t too late to get some of the easier ones going if you can find some seeds. Some, mainly dill, you’ll probably want to plant every week or so pending on how you plan on using it to keep a constant supply. The only herb I try to grow from cuttings is rosemary – that one sucks to grow from seed. Thyme and sage can be tough (and slow) but not too bad.
I have some ~5 year old basil seeds I tossed in some starter plugs to see what grew. To my surprise, I still had nearly 100% germination from them (as well as my Thai basil, dill, and parsley seeds). That being said, the cilantro, chives, and sage seeds had a whopping 0% germination rate, so take it for what it’s worth.
Brandon
I actually started my hydroponic system back up. I had a simple deep water culture ‘storage tub’ that I used for herbs a few years back. It had gotten overgrown and I just put it away for now. That thing provided months of fresh herbs – faster than I could use them.
This time around I’m converting a small ‘well room’ in my basement over to be a long term indoor greenhouse. It’s too damp due to it’s location to be used for much else, and the size (~6’x4′) is ideal. I’ll have a 4’x2′ flood/drip tray on each side of the door with a tub at the end for greens.
I’ll have to run grow lights and most likely a small heater, but I’m looking forward to having year round fresh food downstairs! So far I have some herb seedlings growing their way towards a ‘harvestable’ size and just put down a seed starter for some hot pepper varieties, hybrid gherkin pickling cucumbers, and a few other herbs.
Enjoy!
suspecterrain
Same garden as every year — approx 2,000 sq. ft. of assorted greens/veg/tubers — seed starters on grow mats indoors now and others in situ as zone 5 permits
Flotsam
With the COVID crises I believe there will be shortages and costs will be way up
I am anticipating growing more than i might have
there have been a number of meat processing facilities that have been shut down because of the crises as well. ( 430 cases in pork processing plant in south dakota)
I obviously can keep livestock but i may buy a large freezer to store stuff
fred
In my village – we are allowed to keep horses – at a level of 1 horse per acre with minimum property size of 2 acres. I don’t believe that cows, pigs or other livestock is permitted. We had a mayor who once quipped that there were more horses in the village than there were people and that she liked some of the horses better than the people. While I agree that some people are akin to horse’s posteriors, she did not get re-elected. Our only “livestock” are the koi in our pond – and I trust that it will not get that bad that we need to eat them.
Matt
That’s called breaking the law in Michigan and a $1000 fine if you’re caught purchasing garden supplies/other non essential items.
Stuart
95% of what I acquired for my garden this year was purchased online. So far, regulations and guidance references in-person shopping, with many stores actively encouraging online ordering.
Matt J
I managed to get the majority of my stuff in before the world shut down. Built two 4×12 raised beds and have planted tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, kale, carrots, beets, squash, beans, strawberries, and herbs. I also built a soaker hose irrigation plumbed to the beds with 1/2″ pvc and using a B-Hyve smart hose timer. Works great, learning a lot. Glad we had this in the works pre-covid happening!
Neil Heuer
I had fond memories of growing a garden with my dad. Some of the fondest memories of my childhood and my dad. He loved giving away more produce than eating it himself!
I have SO many rabbits I’ve thought about doing a hydroponics garden with some pipe cut down the middle and pumping the juice all around. I haven’t found a really good tutorial.
Mahalo
I’ve got a little “square foot garden” going which is great because it’s accessible and easy for the kids to help plant, water, etc. and you get a large yield in a small area. Big fan of that method for a little garden. In about 8 square feet I’ll get 4 heads lettuce, 9 green bean plants, 2 cucumber plants, 9 spinach, 4 swiss chard, 2 basil plants, and some marigolds (companion plant/pest prevention). Not bad for 8 square feet. Usually these are built 4 x 4 as 16 square feet, so you’d double the output of what I listed above (at least, since I left one square unplanted and will add more beans in about 2 weeks).
Dave in MD
We always do a small garden with raised beds in an effort to teach the kids how to grow our own food.This year we tripled our efforts, planted seedlings very early indoors, moved planters to more desirable locations. Choose vegatables to produce at different times of the season.
The best part is all of our neighbors got into planting as well. We semi-coordinated so that not everyone was planting tomatoes, and a everyone is experimenting with new things like watermelon and potatoes so we can share information for next year.
fred
I have a neighbor who has been growing potatoes in hillocks made from earth piled up inside of old tires. He says that its is a good way to go – but I have yet to try this out. From the mid-17th century – to about the end of the 19th century – my village was mostly potato farms – many owned by descendants of the original Quaker families that settled the area. I wonder what they would have thought about old tires and potato farming.
Bill
Using old tires as planters would leave me with two concerns. The first would be the potential for toxic chemicals leaching from the tires into the soil and the second would be the potential for heat gain into the soil. Given the exposed surface area of a typical car tire sitting atop the ground, compared with the volume of soil inside the tire, I would think the heat gain could be a problem. Particularly as we head into summer.
Craig
The biggest local nursery here has started an online ordering system for curbside pickup. it has its flaws but I’m glad to see they are doing their best to stay in business while keeping employees and customers safe.
For our family garden, I have herbs, chard, kale, tomatoes, bell peppers, snap peas, and potatoes started. Radishes are approaching first harvest and we have some carrots that finally decided to put out true leaves after a couple weeks of doing nothing. I’ll also be transplanting some of the better “volunteer” tomatoes that have begun sprouting from what fell on the ground last season. I have about 20 Red Sails lettuce that sprouted unexpctedly this year too from what went to seed early last spring with our early heat. We’ll be starting okra, beans, butternut squash as well as summer squash from seed in the coming days or weeks. We are also trying to grow red onions from sets but not sure we have long enough days here for them to get as large as supermarket varieties but i’ll be happy to even get a 2″ bulb. We were hoping to rent a tiller and start another small plot, mainly for corn, melons, and more winter squash but with Covid I don’t think i want to deal with the rental department again ( I had to rent a large sewer snake a couple weeks ago to clear some tree roots from our house to street and it was crowded) so we are using space near the driveway that isn’t very visible from the road to expand so HOA doesn’t cry too much. Maybe i’ll feel up to removing the grass by hand once extreme boredom gets the better of me. We were also hoping to get a drip irrigation system set up but haven’t gotten around to it yet but the constant watering in the South took a toll on the water bill last summer with the drought. We had planned on getting some fruit trees to replace the old trees we need to cut down but, again, with the virus the tree-cutting plans have been put on hold due to uncertainty with future income. My girlfriend laughed at me last year when i planted more stuff than usual and now she is seeing the benefits of not having to go to the store as often for produce assuming things don’t go back to normal this summer.
ktash
I have 9 Earthboxes that I’ve used for over 10 years. They really give me a lot of produce each year, enough to eat and also some to dehydrate or freeze. This year I’ll use them all plus some “global buckets” based on the same system. These are made from 5 gallon buckets, mine are pickle buckets. Nearly all will be planted from seeds, unlike previous years. These were expensive to begin with, about $40 each, though now they’re much more. But they’ve held up despite living on the deck all winter with soil in them, including the polar vortex years. Original “soil” too. Actually it’s planting mix with fertilizer added each year, then removed.
The other thing I’ve done is winter seed sowing, which are made from plastic water or milk jugs, like mini greenhouses. I hope to get some viable seedlings from these, though I started late this year, not anticipating the virus.
If I can get some seedlings I’ll plant what I can find. I used some old seed for the winter sowing and hope it germinates.
One variety was Quarantina Raab. I laughed when I found that one. I test germinated some 10 year old chard seed, and it sprouted pretty well. I expect the 10 year old tomato seed that I saved will work, since tomato seeds keep viability pretty well. Also some old basil seeds seem to be sprouting.
ktash
Oh, and for worm castings, Stuart, you should try making your own. I did this for quite a while. It can be an educational project for your kids. All you need is a rubbermaid tote (with dark sides, not the translucent kind), torn up newspaper and starter red wriggler worms. You throw in some soil (just a bit) and feed them food scraps. You have to punch holes in the lid of the container.
I got started with this and got a lot of worm castings and worm tea. (Yuck, I know). After a while you can start a second bin since they multiply depending on how much you feed them. Youtube should have a lot of videos, though I learned from a class I took. There’s a book by “the worm lady” that can tell you the sources for the right kind of worms. Very easy. You can keep them in the basement or garage, though they make more castings in warmer settings.
Stuart
I’m not quite ready to start a compost bin or worm composter, but perhaps next year.
There are so many things to research, learn, and practice right now, I’m not sure I can take on any more in parallel.
ktash
Yes, I feel your pain. Right now I’m trying to learn how to cut hair!