HelpfulGardener.com

For years I have been planting blerds of seeds in one bed. Now over the last five years you see more companies selling mixes of lettuce ,radish along with different colors of carrots in one pack! Swiss chartt hree colors called bright lights!! They have lots of mixes in sunflowers I even have 10 mixes in the 1000 of sunflowers seeds I have colleted the last two years! Beside the blends the companion planting has become more popular with lettuce radish and carrots planted into the same bed! I do that every year and add kolarabi and some broccoli to the bed. I thin everything and have very healthy plants using the companion planting method! They have a niice radish blend. called easter egg mix of whtes pinks and reds!. I like some of the new tomato blends of the heirloom types so you are suprised when you get some strange looking tomato that taste terrific! Garden is fun for young and old!! Try a 2 foot wide ed with a mix o different rops you will always plant one after the first! Also thow in a few marigold seeds it will keep some of the bad bugs and even rabbits away!

I don't like a lot of surprises in my garden. I was a mildly annoyed when I bought the park seed "rainbow heirloom blend" seeds and they all came in the same packet. I assumed, albeit foolishly, that it would be a large pack containing several individually labeled packs of seeds. One big reason is because I want to know what I am eating and what I have. They tell you which 5 varieties are in the pack, but that means I have to sit and compare pictures with what I have. And thats fine for the purple, yellow or distinguishable types. But there are two or three red varieties. Good luck telling those apart.

While I agree with companion planting (even though I don't follow it) I am generally against surprises. unless the surprise is that my garden's harvest is twice what I expected.

GardenRN, I'm with you! I don't like surprises in my garden, either. I like to know what is planted where.

Not, of course, that I've never stood staring down at some "volunteer" seedlings, muttering, "What in the heck is that stuff? I don't remember planting anything there."

GardenRN, I'm with you! I don't like surprises in my garden, either. I like to know what is planted where.

Not, of course, that I've never stood staring down at some "volunteer" seedlings, muttering, "What in the heck is that stuff? I don't remember planting anything there."

This is why I'm not into seed saving, maybe one day. When I'm selling plants at the Farmers Market, I can tell them, with confidence, this is the variety and how it was grown.

Eric