Ordering Some New Seeds for 2016

Now that it is 2016 and the garden season will soon start in another month or so I thought it would be good to buy the seeds I needed for this new year.  I have a few new things that I plan on growing this season, but nothing that I can’t handle.

I will be saving some money this year from seeds that I have saved from the previous season.  I actually saved some amaranthus seeds that came from both the green and red varieties.  As always I saved at least one ear of corn that I left on the stalk to dry and then brought it inside once it was ready.

Melons

For the past few years I have also been saving cantaloupe seeds since they are probably one of the easiest to dry and save.  I did save seeds from my Georgia rattlesnake watermelon a couple of years ago, but I decided to buy some new ones instead.

I don’t plan on growing a Carolina cross watermelon this season, because I have bad luck with them.  I will probably only plant one seed of these watermelons and the others will be the Georgia rattlesnake variety.  They produce decent size melons and are much easier to take care of.

I am planning on growing a new honeydew melon this year which should be much fun.  I plan on having just one row of melons that include all three watermelon, cantaloupe, and now honeydew.  Although I think I will have to do an extra row just dew to the large spacing these plants require.

Tomatoes

I am sticking with the same plan with my tomatoes this season.  I will plant a few cherry and steakhouse tomato plants and an entire packet of super sauce tomatoes.  I found last year that this worked quite well.  As long as it works I am not going to change it.

Cornflowers

Flowers are going to be the same for the most part, but this season I am going to add another flower to the mix.  Cornflowers are also recommended for attracting beneficial insects.  You can never have enough nectar rich plants for these incredible insects.  The more you have of these flowers the more help you can attract.

Fall Crop

For the fall season I think I will plant an equal number of broccoli and cabbage seeds/plants.  I am also going to add kale into the mix for the fall as well.  I didn’t grow kale last year, but the previous years I did.  They are great for freezing and both kale and cabbage can be used for kale soup which is one of my favorite soups.

Celery

In the Spring not only will I have onions in totes and possibly in the ground, but I think I am going to plant some celery as well.  I found some seeds that I bought last year that I forgot to plant.  The package wasn’t even opened and they should be good for this year.  They usually last a couple of years if unopened.  I would say about a half a row is a good enough amount of celery to grow.

Carrots

I also bought some more carrots seeds because last season I had a horrible carrot harvest and that was mainly my fault.  The first seeds I planted didn’t sprout and the second batch of seeds I planted didn’t do well either.  I also didn’t feed them by giving them fertilizer and this played a big part in the poor harvest.  This is very easy to rectify and I plan on growing two rows of carrots this season if possible.

Other than that I will be growing the same vegetables and fruits as I did last season.  Hopefully this year my blueberry plants will produce fruit this year because last year they were attacked by gypsy moth caterpillars and ruined the entire harvest.  Once the plants produced buds all the buds on most of my plants died.  This year I am going to check all the plants for eggs and caterpillars to avoid what happened in 2015.