Blue Pod Capucijners - Garden Peas

Here is a nice picture of a garden pea variety that I tried recently. They were pretty unusual. Most of the plants had purple pods, although a plant or two had greenish purple pods, one is shown in the foreground. I tasted a couple fresh and they seemed pretty good, maybe not as sweet as new pea varieties, but I mainly grew them for seed the first year to get more seed. The packet only had maybe 25 seeds in it. They did pretty well and were productive.

Spring Planting Guide for Vegetables (Burpee Seed Starter Book)

The Burpee Seed Starter Book has some useful information for planning your garden. You can take your last frost date from the Victory Seeds website http://www.victoryseeds.com/frost/ and then look up the planting times for all of your vegetables in this book based on that last average frost date.

Here is an example listing of planting times for a last freeze date of March 30

Beans, Lima    Apr 15-Jun 20
Beans, Snap    Apr 1-Jun 1
Beet    Mar 1-Jun 1
Broccoli (plants)    Mar 1-20
Brussels Sprouts (plants)    Mar 1-20
Cabbage    Feb 15-Mar 10
Carrot    Mar 1-Apr 10
Chard    Mar 1-May 25
Corn, Sweet    Mar 25-May 15
Cucumber    Apr 10-May 15
Garlic    Feb 10-Mar 10
Lettuce, Head (plants)    Mar 1-20
Lettuce, Leaf    Feb 15-Apr 15
Okra    Apr 10-Jun 15
Onion (plants)    Feb 15-Mar 15
Onion, Seed    Feb 20-Mar 15
Onion, Sets    Feb 15-Mar 20
Parsley    Mar 1-Apr 1
Parsnip    Mar 1-Apr 1
Peas, Garden    Feb 10-Mar 20
Peas, Black-eye    Apr 15-Jul 1
Pepper (plants)    Apr 15-Jun 1
Potato    Feb 20-Mar 20
Radish    Feb 15-May 1
Shallot    Feb 15-Mar 15
Sorrel    Feb 20-Apr 1
Spinach    Feb 1-Mar 20
Squash, Summer    Apr 10-Jun 1
Tomato    Apr 10-Jun 1
Watermelon    Apr 10-May 15

Average First and Last Frost Dates by State

http://www.victoryseeds.com/frost/

This website will help you plan your planting dates for a spring and fall garden.

Seed Exchange Website

Learning to trade seeds with others is an exciting way to try many new varieties without the high costs of purchasing seed. It isn't totally free you have to pay for postage. If you are budget strapped stick to flat seeds that won't get smashed in the mail rollers. Small seeds like tomato and pepper seeds can be mailed in a #10 envelope with one stamp and a napkin folded in half for padding if needed. Beans are an example of a seed that would need a bubble mailer. You can make your own with manila #10 envelopes and a small roll of bubble packing material. Just cut out the bubble packing material twice the depth of the envelope and fold it over and put the packet of seeds inside. It should ship fine.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/exchind/
Under the Plant Exchange, the Tomato Exchange and the Hot Pepper Exchange are particularly active. You would have to create a free account and exchange addresses to exchange seeds, see the instructions. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/exchind/#instruct

High and Low Return Crops

(Values based on pounds produced per square foot, retail value per pound at harvest time, and length of time in the garden.)

Intensive Gardening Methods http://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/426/426-335/426-335.html

Top 15 High Return Crops: Tomatoes, Beets, Green bunching onions, Carrots, Leaf lettuce, Cucumbers, Turnip (greens + roots), Peppers, Summer squash, Broccoli, Edible podded peas, Head lettuce, Onion storage bulbs, Swiss chard, Beans (pole, bush)

Low Return Crops (Not recommended for small gardens):

Corn, Winter squash, Melons, Pumpkins

Here is a picture of a 2008 intensive garden. Notice that the rows are too close to effectively till between the plants. It may be more work to weed, but it keeps the soil moist and allows you to grow a lot more food in a small space. My garden was 30 x 15 and produced a lot of produce especially greens and tomatoes. This picture is just about 1/4th of the garden area.

 

How to Save Seeds

1. Online: International Seed Saving Institute http://www.seedsave.org/issi/issi_904.html
a.       Beginner Vegetable Seeds: Bean, Lettuce, Pea, Pepper, Tomato http://www.seedsave.org/issi/904/beginner.html
b.       Experienced Vegetable Seeds: Corn, Cucumber, Muskmelon, Radish, Spinach, Squash/Pumpkin http://www.seedsave.org/issi/904/experienced.html
c.       Expert Vegetable Seeds: Beet/Swiss Chard, Cabbage Family, Carrot, Escarole/Frissee (Endive), Onion, Radicchio/Endive, Turnip/Chinese Cabbage http://www.seedsave.org/issi/904/expert.html

2. Book: Seed to seed: seed saving and growing techniques for vegetable gardeners, by Suzanne Ashworth, Kent Whealy

How Rare is Your Seed Variety?

This is a fun website when you are looking through the seed catalogs. At Seeds of Diversity - Heritage Plant Database you can look up the seed variety to see how rare or common it is. It can be fun to try rare or endangered varieties like this tomato that I found through Seed Saver's Exchange membership. It grew

http://www.seeds.ca/hpd/hpd.php

e.g.

Mormon World’s Earliest

Status: Endangered

Distribution: Poor

Not currently propagated by Seeds of Diversity's seed-savers. Available from only a few mail-order seed companies. Very difficult to find. Not maintained by the Canadian gene bank. Not maintained by the U.S. gene bank.