Order Those Seeds!!!

FIRE DRILL TIME!

It's time to buy those seeds for the 2021 year.  You are correct, it's only December of 2020, but you really need to buy your seeds for 2021 NOW!  I just placed my order for seeds this week and I was astonished to find that quite a lot had already sold out and the seed company's website kept crashing (eek).  I'm not sure why I was astonished at this, it's still 2020 after all and nothing should surprise any of us at this point.  Even in a non-pandemic year, December is normally when I order my seeds however I've always felt like I was one of the first ones to the game as nothing has ever been out of stock when I've ordered seeds before.  This year I felt like I was one of the last ones to the game.  I did have to adapt and order some non-standard varieties which I'm both excited and terrified for.  I've previously tried growing some "exotic" varieties and those attempts did not go well.  However now I have more experience under my belt and the soil health is increasing so I'm feeling good about it (part of me is still terrified).  But what can you do, that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes.  You really do need to order your seeds ASAP before everything is sold out for 2021.  For suggestions on where to order seeds from, check-out my post:

Seeds, Where It all Begins!

Below is a list of everything that I ordered for my 2021 season, keep in mind what I ordered is probably enough for 3 urban farms of my size and is wwwwwaaaaaayyyyyyyy overkill.  The main reason for this is I'm going to be trialing a lot of different varieties of the same veggies so I can give some better info on this blog in the future of more specific varieties to try out.  The secondary reason is I'm a sucker for plants that look and sound cool.  Kale that can grow to be 20 feet tall?!  Yes Please!!  Let's ignore the practicality of that for the moment and we'll probably circle back to that point at about mid-summer.  When trialing plants I use a few seeds of each variety and usually have a whole bunch of seeds left over.  Thus why I order ssssoooo many seeds.  If you happen to live in Longmont and you're looking for a few seeds of something then let me know and I'll see if I can't hook you up.  My neighbors will certainly be getting some seeds if they need any!

If you are trying to figure out what to order and what to grow, quite simply get what you like to eat!  If you're new to the vegetable world and you're not sure what you like then try a small assortment of a few things (garlic, lettuce, radish, peppers, tomatoes, squash) and see what happens.  If you have a small space and you're not sure what to do, go with squash.  Squash will give you the most bang for your buck, you can grow it in a very small space, you don't need to start them inside, they grow fast and are fairly forgiving.  Squash is Queen / King when it comes to growing your own food!

What I ordered for the 2021 season:

Flowers (mostly for hanging baskets aside from sunflowers):

Green Twister Echinacea

Paradiso Mix Echinacea

Blue Disc African Daisy

Macarenia Zinnia

Queen Lime Blush Zinnia

Mammoth Grey Striped Sunflower

Mongolian Giant Sunflower

Strawberry Blonde Calendula

Succulent Iceplant

Apricot Lemonade Cosmos

Scarlet Peony Poppy

Cosmic Candy Mix Black Eyed Susan Vine

Double Flowered Mix Portulaca Moss Rose

Sun Spot Dwarf Cola Sunflower

Pink Surprise Calendula

Sea Shells Cosmos

Blue Balloon Flower

Grandiflora Mix Salpiglossis

Giant Perfection Mix Aster

Deluxe Rainbow Mix Canterbury Bells

Arikara Sunflower

Persian Carpet Zinnia

Danish Flag Poppy

Cupid Mix Marigold

Camelia Flowered Mix Balsam

Gilia Globe

Black Swan Poppy

Kew Blue Salpiglossis

Orchid Cream Nasturtium

Alaska Mix Nasturtium

Greens:

Aurora Mixed Orach

Red Orach

Mizuna, Early

Japanese Pink Mizuna

Merlot Lettuce

Buttercrunch Lettuce  (tried and true variety, delicious)

Yedikule Lettuce

Little Gem Lettuce

Landis Winter Lettuce

Chinese Narrow Leaf Lettuce

Bronze Beauty Lettuce

Lettuce Leaf Basil (very intrigued and excited for this one)

Flashy Butter Gem Lettuce (has flashy in the name, had to buy)

Common Arugula

Galilee Spinach (delicious variety of spinach, bloomsdale spinach is my tried and true but it was sold out, I'm fairly certain I still have seeds left though so I'll probably still be able to grow the bloomsdale variety)

New Zealand Spinach

Chinese Multicolor Spinach

Red Malabar Spinach

Green Calaloo Amaranth

Chijimisai (brand new, super excited for it)

Green De Belleville Sorrel (not new but super excited, I haven't grown sorrel for a few years and it's one of my favorite greens ever)

Veggies:

American Purple Top Rutabaga (Brand new, never grown rutabagas before but I keep getting told how amazing they are so we'll see how it goes!)

Navone Yellow Cabbage Turnip

White Soul Alpine Strawberry (adding a new strawberry patch, hopefully)

Regina Alpine Strawberry (adding a new strawberry patch, hopefully)

Tronchuda Kale

Thousandhead Kale

Blue Curled Scotch Kale

Dazzling Blue Kale

Red Ursa Kale

Dwarf Siberian Kale

Jagallo Nero Kale

Walking Stick Kale

Russian Red or Ragged Jack Kale

Purple Peacock Broccoli (new, excited about it)

Wasabi Arugula (scared for this one, but excited, arugula generally kicks my taste buds butt as-is, without there being "wasabi" in the name)

Aka Hon Chirimen Shiso (Perilla) (new, shiso is amazing)

Round Black Spanish Radish

Chinese Red Meat Radish

Pusa Jamuni Radish

Malaga Radish

Purple Plum Radish

Pusa Gulabi Radish

Danvers 126 Half Long Carrot (tried and true, amazing carrot, doesn't grow too deep, easy(ish) to harvest)

New Kuroda Carrot

Half Long Guernsey Parsnip

Stuttgarter Onion (new onion varieties, my tried and true varieties were sold out)

Ishikura Onion

Tropeana Lunga Onion

Wethersfield Red Onion

Common Chives

Bulgarian Giant Leek

Tankuro Edamame (new variety, grown edamame with lots of success in prior years)

Broad Windsor Fava Bean (tried and true, amazing)

Carouby De Maussane Snow Pea (new variety, oregon sugar pod is my tried and true and I'm really sad it was sold out, excited to try this one though but big shoes to fill of the oregon sugar pod)

Blauhilde Bean (tried and true, amazing)

Calima Bean (new)

Dragon Tongue Bush Bean (tried and true, amazing)

Dar Cucumber (tried and true, amazing)

Muncher Cucumber (tried and true, amazing)

Lemon Cuke Cucumber (tried and true, amazing)

Black Cherry Tomato (tried and true, amazing)

Sunrise Bumblebee Tomato (new)

Blue Cream Berries Tomato (new)

Mushroom Basket Tomato (tried and true, amazing)

Cherokee Purple Tomato (new)

Painted Mountain Corn (not sure if I'm going to grow this, might though, I've grown it before and it's really cool, I'm a bit jaded towards corn in general at the moment though)

Blauer Speck Kohlrabi

Early White Vienna Kohlrabi

Oriole Orange Swiss Chard

Umaina Japanese Swiss Chard

Detroit Dark Red Beet

Golden Beet

Albino Beet

Monty Standard Broccoli

Belstar Standard Broccoli

Marathon Standard Broccoli

Laurentian Rutabagas

Blueberry Plant Collection Blueberry

Freedom Blackberry

Red Raspberry Plant Collection Raspberry

Rover Round Radishes

Easter Egg II Round Radishes

Full-Size Onions

Rossa di Milano Full-Size Onions

Deep Purple Bunching Onions

New York Early Full-Size Onions

Stone Mountain Watermelon

Jarrahdale Pumpkin

Tokyo Blue Squash

Kajari Melon

Glory of Enkhuizen Cabbage

Tete Noire Cabbage

Violaceo di Verona Cabbage

Premium Late Flat Dutch Cabbage

Brunswick Cabbage

Kalibos Cabbage

Red Express Cabbage

Rober Cauliflower

Amazing Cauliflower

Purple of Sicily Cauliflower

Romanesco Italia Broccoli

Jing Orange Okra

Clemson Spineless Okra

Dishcloth or Luffa Gourd

Japanese White Egg Eggplant

Antigua Eggplant

Astrakom Eggplant

Rosita Eggplant

Listada De Gandia Eggplant

Red Savina Hot Pepper

Biquinho Yellow Hot Pepper

Death Spiral Hot Pepper

Criolla De Cocina Pepper

Jalapeno, Craig's Grande Pepper

Cayenne Long Thin Pepper

Aji Charapita - Hot Pepper

Corbaci Pepper

Shishito Pepper

Rewia Pepper

Zulu Sweet Pepper

Ozark Giant Pepper

Cubanelle Sweet Pepper

Anaheim Pepper

Poblano Pepper

Big Jim Hot Pepper

Nagasaki Late Chinese Cabbage

Purple Lady Bok Choy

Green Tatsoi

Yellow Scallop Squash

White Scallop Squash

Red Kuri Squash (Hokkaido)

Kabocha Squash

Zucchini Fordhook Squash

Butternut-Waltham Squash

Boston Marrow Squash

Blue Hubbard Squash

Honey Boat Delicata Squash

Pineapple Squash

Buttercup Squash

Early Prolific Straightneck Squash

Aunt Molly's Ground Cherry

Potatoes:

Huckleberry Gold Seed Potatoes

Prairie Blush Seed Potatoes

Berries:

Raspberry

Blueberry

Blackberry

Alpine Strawberry

Herbs:

Bouquet Dill (tried and true, amazing)

Cinnamon Basil

Genovese Basil

Blue Spice Basil

Lemon Basil

Lemon Bee Balm

Common Chives

Slo-Bolt Cilantro

Dwarf Lemon Cilantro

Green Lemon Balm

Lavender

Anise Hyssop

Moss Curled Parsley

Rosemary (Rosy)

Broad Leaf Sage

Bullseye Toothache Plant

Wild Thyme

Vulgare Oregano

Wild Bergamot Bee Balm

German Chamomile