First Seeds of the Year

radish

The very first seeds to be sowed in my brand, new garden are these little Radish seeds. I even broke out my new set of white, wooden row tags and carefully wrote the word ‘Radish’ on there. I resisted putting the variety on there since I’ll be reusing the tags but the variety is Cherry Belle.

Category: Sowing & Seedlings     Tagged:

8 Comments on “First Seeds of the Year”

  2. Hi,
    Welcome to Oregon! I hope you find your gardening adventures to be bountiful.

    Since you have learned about Territorial Seeds, you should know that there are few others that night be worth exploring.
    1) Nichols – from Albany, Or.
    2) Johnny’s – from Maine
    3) Fedco -from Maine

    Territorial”s seed is top quality, and the varieties are well adapted to our area. Fedco has good prices.

    You might want to read the books written by Steve Solomon. They cover growing veggies in Cascadia. Steve was the founder of Territorial Seeds.

    Though our climate is sunnier and warmer than the UK in summer, warm weather crops benefit from items like Walls O Water and heat conserving mulch. Melons are possible in the Portland area. However, you may be philosophically opposed to the use of plastics in the garden.

    Cold frames are great items, and you will find that they will increase the odds of a gardening and harvesting through the winter.

    Insect pests can be problematic. The cabbage root maggot, cabbage caterpillars, and leaf miners are my biggest headache. The OSU Extension and Steve Solomon’s books have good advice.

    Raccoons are also a problem. They love my grapes. However, if you dog patrols the garden, they might bot become a problem.

    A good source for bulk, organic fertilizers is Concentrates NW in Milwaukie. Buying in bulk allows you to make your own blends on a much cheaper, per pound basis. Steve Solomon also has a recipe for a blend.

  5. I’m totally jealous….after spending the weekend clearing pathways through over 11 inches of snow (that fell in just one night, I might add!!), I think it’ll be a while before I can start sowing seeds.

    I was reading back through my gardening journal from last year, and I saw that I started sowing seeds on the 26th of February 2012, after 2 weeks of lovely weather – which made me feel even worse! The groundhog might not have seen a shadow this year, but Spring’s still a long time coming, here in Austria!

    Please keep us posted.. until I can get started in my own garden again, I’ll have to live vicariously through you and your garden.

  6. Wow Mark – great advice. I will be following up on some of your tips.

    Thanks so much.