Time to order seeds

[imafan26]

I started ordering some seeds a week ago. Some seeds are still out of stock and the prices and shipping costs more. You are lucky in the contiguous states you can get free shipping with minimum orders, but that is the exception and not the rule outside of the contiguous states.

I checked again today and there are still some out of stock items and some seeds are supposed to arrive in November, but they aren't here yet. So, I will check back for those. It is not worth the minimum shipping for me to order only a few seeds.

Christmas has taken over the space in most of the big box stores garden department, but I did see some seeds at home depot. I got a couple from there. I don't need or don't want to grow most of the seeds on the rack. I do have to refrain from buying cucumbers, tomatoes,and peppers. I have so many different varieties of those to check out for a few years to come. I just had to throw out snow pea seeds because they were 15 years old, but I did find some 2021 seeds to plant. The older seeds failed the germination test.

I did save Poamoho bean seeds, cilantro, and some of the marigold seeds. Some things readily reseeded so I just have to scoop them up the ones I want to save and put them where they belong. I saved some long bean seeds, but I think I planted them too close to the string beans, because some of the pods were purple fat and short. I need to remember not to plant the different varieties within 20 ft of each other or stagger the plantings so they cannot cross. I have contender, Poamoho, and Provider beans planted now, but they are different ages. Provider is under a tree net, Contender is in the open. I have Poamoho under bird netting, but it is a little farther away, but not quite 20 ft. It all depends on when the bush beans set.

I have the usual ones that are going to die on me anytime. Sage, thyme, oregano and some of the lavender are usually lost when the rains come or when it rains but not enough and I didn't go out to water either.

I planted Devotion DMR, another sweet basil cultivar with resistance to downy mildew. It looks better than the previous ones and the taste, while really not the same as Genovese basil is not overly like Thai basil. As for downy mildew resistance. It gets downy mildew, but I have been able to cut it back and it recovers and if the weather cooperates, the leaves can be decent. It is definitely an improvement over Eleanor and Emily. It has been 12 years. This is a painful wait. I can only grow tulsi and African basil cultivars without any downy mildew issues, but they have strong camphor flavor so they don't taste like sweet basil either and they are not the same in curries either. The Thai basil here will also get downy mildew but it is possible to get a harvest before it succumbs. This is one of those things that I wish they would do a GMO version to get resistance while preserving the flavor. I haven't made Thai curry in a long time.

I have saved marigolds, basil, alyssum and nasturtiums reseed themselves for the most part. I only have to fill in gaps and pull the wayward ones. I need to make a more concerted effort to save more of the seeds I really like. I don't have that much problems with tomatoes or peppers crossing, but these other things cross easier.