A Seed Diet

In my last post I mentioned that, in an effort to achieve a better balance, I was going to re-evaluating what I grow, specifically when it comes to the veg garden.  Although I would love to grow everything (and numerous varieties of everything!), I simply don’t have the time to devote to growing more than what we truly need.  Well, to be completely accurate, I do have the time but would prefer to spend it on other things such as hanging out with family and friends as well as simply enjoying the garden instead of being in a constant frenzy to get things done.

'Black Knight' Scabiosa from Botanical Interests
This was one of my favourite 'new to me' ornamentals grown from seed last year

Just because you CAN grow it doesn’t mean you SHOULD grow it.  Have I said that before?  Numerous times?  Yes??  Well, it bears repeating anyhow, so there 😏

Case in point – when I began harvesting tomatoes last year, I still had around half of the prior years crop in the freezer/pantry.  That tells me I'm growing WAY too many tomatoes for our use.  Now, if I had the time that would be ok as there are always people and/or places that will take them off my hands.  The problem was I was taking the time to grow, pick, clean, weight and process boxes of “extra” tomatoes (above and beyond what we actually needed) while neglecting other things that were higher up on my priority list.  Cutting back on the number of tomatoes I grow would still give me everything I wanted – experiencing the joy & yumminess of growing a variety of tomatoes and having plenty to last us all year – without it being a huge drain on my time.

I'll be cutting back from 3 to 2 beds which will still provide plenty of room
for lots of different tomato varieties

In addition to tomatoes, I’ll also be cutting back on a few other things that I always seem to have in excess, such as lettuce.  I harvest lettuce using the “cut and come again” method and it’s amazing how much you can get from a relatively small amount of space.  Without fail, I always overplant and then end up with much more than we can use at any one time.  And since lettuce is relatively short lived before it becomes bitter or bolts in the heat, the “feast” is usually followed by famine as what I don’t end up doing (once again because of lack of time) is succession plant.

My first year growing lettuce, I planted an entire 8'x4' bed...
we were literally drowning in lettuce!

When it comes to cutting back, however, which veg and/or varieties to grow is often a tough call to make.  I look at all the glorious packets of seed in my collection – all 300+ of them – and I just want to grow it all!  But this year, the name of the game is restraint.  I still have dozens of packets that I haven’t even cracked open yet…and that’s why I’m going on a diet.  A seed diet.  This year I am purchasing zero seed.  That’s right…ZERO.  I know…crazy, right?

Well, maybe not so crazy as when I look at my seed collection, I could probably fill all my beds with “new to me” varieties without spending a cent.

A small portion of packets that I purchased

or received last year that are as yet unopened

So it has been decided.  I’m using what I already have this year, and that’s that.

The only exception may be onions as they have a very short shelf life, but I’ve noticed that this improved dramatically when I started storing them in the freezer.  If I do end up having germination issues, I’ll grab a few packets from a local seed house…and I’ll make sure to put on some proverbial blinders in an effort not to let temptation take over as I’m faced with rack upon rack of seed.

So much temptation!

After narrowing down my grow list, I’ve ended up with 3 spare beds (out of 18), two of which will be used for ornamentals such as cutting flowers and trial plants.

The third bed will be used for dried beans which is the only crop that I’ll actually be growing more of. Why?  Because I can’t get enough of them!

'Wild Goose' is a relative newcomer to the dry bean lineup

While growing more of a crop may sound counter-productive in terms of my goal, in this case it’s really not.  Dried beans are one of the easiest, low maintenance crops in my garden, especially the bush varieties.  Sow the beans, let them grow all summer with minimal care (thanks to the drip irrigation!), then harvest them all at once.  No trellis, no pests to worry about (which means no netting, making weeding much easier) and no picking until they mature and start to dry out.  There's no hurried prep once they are picked either - I just lay them out on newspaper in the garage to dry out.  Can’t get to shelling them for a month or two?  No problem!  A bit of extra time means they'll be nice and dry for storage, which is exactly what you want.

Dried Vermont Cranberry Beans

So that’s the grow plan, in a nutshell.  Now comes the hard - figuring out which varieties to grow and (perhaps even more difficult) which to forgo.

Side Note
When we were cleaning out my in-laws house last year, it was incredibly sad to see all the things that they had accumulated over the years, many of which they never ended up using or simply had way too much of.  The amount of stuff that we had to get rid of, either to charity or the garbage dump, was incredible.  It really made me take stock of all the things we had accumulated over the years, especially those that we “might” need someday or were "saving" to use later.

Since then, a few car-loads of our excess stuff have been donated to Goodwill and I have been on a “use up what I already have instead of buying something else” binge.  My seed diet fits perfectly with this mentality.  I’m really looking forward to choosing what to grow from what I already have and I have a feeling that I’ll end up growing just as many new varieties this year as I do when I purchase seeds 😊