sowing the seeds of love

after many frosty & chilly days in kentucky

i sure am wishing for springtime right about now…how about you?

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flowers of kentucky 2011 by oliveloaf design

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i can’t wait for the flora & fauna to return.

and i am especially looking forward to working on le homestead garden 2.0!

the mister & i decided to take it up a notch this spring

so i’ve been perusing heirloom catalogs & ordering seeds

and studying & taking notes on growing techniques.

i’ve been inspired greatly by two thorough readings of

*animal, vegetable, miracle* by barbara kingsolver & her family

this book has been a great resource for a beginning gardener like myself

and ms. kingsolver is from kentucky {and farms in appalachia}

so many of her planting recommendations are apropo

to the area where i’m developing my green thumb

{and thankfully it’s indexed online}

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there i found a very helpful diagram:

the vegetannual:  an imaginary plant that bears over the course of one growing season

a cornucopia of all the different vegetable products we can harvest.

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i’ve been collecting heirloom seeds from a couple of etsy sources {see list below}

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and testing them in the greenhouse {aka backroom/porch}

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i’ve been completely enamored with a few beautiful heirloom seed catalogs

&  eager to start growing some of the wonderful seeds i have ordered ~ like:

 sweet dumpling squash

corne de belier snow peas

five color swiss chard

moons & stars watermelons

blue curled scotch kale

extra dwarf pak choy

listada de gandia eggplant

atomic red carrots

stevia

boule d’Or melon

pink oxheart tomato

and many more…

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in case you’re interested ~ here’s a list of the heirloom shops i dig:

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

D. Landreth Seed Company

Annie’s Heirloom Seeds

Cubits Organics

Heirlooms R Us Seeds

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happy gardening!

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hey wait! as i was going to press with this post – mr. mailman showed up

with a box of seeds from baker creek {super fast shippers!} yay!

looky!

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