Favorite Seed Sources

 I originally posted this to Knoxville Area Gardening Tips on January 17, 2016.  It was modified and posted here on May 17, 2016

Here are some of my favorite seed sources, three catalogs(free on request from each company) and one on-line only seed company

Pinetree Garden Seed- They sell smaller quantities than most, at an equally smaller price. Great for someone just starting out and/or wanting to try a lot of different varieties.

 

Territorial Seed Company  - They have lots of great varieties and good reference information and charts in their catalog and online.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds - This is one of the places to go, if you want open pollinated seeds and heirloom. Their catalog has beautiful pictures of diverse varieties. They do produce several different versions of their catalog, some that are sold on magazine racks, just to confuse everyone.

Renee's Garden Seeds  - This is a delightful website with lots of interesting varieties and multi-variety packages. Her gardening help section is also very good.

These are just a few of my personal favorites, there are many more wonderful  seed companies. Add your favorites to the comments.

Other Great Seed Sources:

Johnny's Selected Seeds
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Seed Savers Exchange
Sample Seed Shop 

Plant of the Week- Lambs Quarters-

Chenopodium alba and Chenopodium berlandieri

For many years, I knew Lambs Quarters as only a weed in my garden. Then I read that it's leaves made a great spinach-like green that could be used fresh in salads when raw and as a cooked green. When I tried it I was amazed. Why doesn't everyone in the South use this plant. I suspect the problem is, it has been around too long.

I learned recently that lambs quarters(aka , goosefoot, Aztec red spinach, fat hen, Huauzontle) was cultivated by Native Americans in North America before corn was introduced to this part of the hemisphere. In a very interesting presentation earlier this year, Dr Gary Crites, a Paleo Ethno Botanist from the McClung Museum explained that, over 4,000 years ago, plants in the goosefoot family were being cultivated and harvested for seed. The plant is closely related to quinoa though the seed is quite a bit smaller. They are not able to tell if the leaves were used though they probably were.

As with all plants that come up on their own, you need to positively identify Lambs Quarters before you eat it. The leaf shape is very distinctive, but the most obvious thing is the waxy, powder that is very heavy on the newest leaves and lighter, but still present on older leaves. Make sure you have someone who definitely knows this plant, show it to you.

I don't really like it raw, but use Lambs Quarters as a nearly direct substitute for spinach in cooking. It cooks down much less than spinach, so for most recipes I find it is best to use between 1/3 and1/2 as much as the spinach called for. It also freezes well after blanching.

As far as cultivating it, I generally just leave some plants in places where they will not be in the way. The plant starts small and can grow to five feet or more. I find that the biggest leaves are a little tough, but even fairly large leaves cook down well.

Here are a couple of links if you want to learn more.

Lambsquarters: Prince of Greens

Edible Wild Foods: Lambs Quarters

Rhubarb

2012
For the past several years I have been experimenting with growing rhubarb.  In the spring of 2012, I purchased a rhubarb plant variety McDonald, I potted it when it arrived as I did not have the space prepared.  It was almost dead when I received it and put out a couple of very sad leaves before it completely died.  

2013
The company replaced that plant in the spring.  I started Victoria rhubarb from seed, planted two plants in the ground, amended soil with Blackcow cow manure. Didn't harvest anything from them this year.  The winter 2013-14 had a couple of periods of below 10 F temperatures, which is not a regular occurrence in this area.  Our winter are typically warmer.

2014
Spring, topdressed each plant with 10-15 lbs of Black Cow.  Victoria Rhubarb came up first with the McDonald showing signs of life several weeks later.  All grew to a point where I was comfortable harvesting some.  I harvested   __  lbs in ?month.  Was able to make strawberry rhubarb jam and something baked.

2015
The three rhubarb plants are planted on the north east side of the house and are sheltered from the wind.  They get morning sun until almost noon.   I dug and divided the one plant that was closest to the house.  It is a Victoria and it did not seem to be doing as well as the one that was further from the house, the air vent from our gas water heater is near there and probably adds more heat to the area than the rhubarb likes.

3-22-15 The larger Victoria

When I dug and divided the rhubarb it had taproots that went down probably in excess of a foot and a half.  I ended up breaking those to get it out of the ground.   I divided that plant  into two and planted one further out from the house and gave one away. 

 I don't know if the results I'm seeing will be characteristic as we have had colder winters look normal, with periods of time in the single digit temperatures but we will see.  Each year I have given each plants at least 10 pounds of composted Blackcow, and will continue this practice.  This experiment seems to be going well so far and I will be able to harvest quite a bit.  I will harvest 1/3 or the stalks and will report here when I have done that.

4-16-15 Mcdonald on the Left, the other two are Victoria

This is a quick into to my new blog.  It will be about cultivating, growing, planting, learning and living on a suburban half acre near Knoxville, TN.