Seed Scarcity and Planting Begins

It isn't too soon to start planting for next summer. Given our disappointment with our pepper crop last year which simply never matured, it seemed like as good a time as any to get started. Seeds left over from our King of the North pepper packet from Seed Savers Exchange went in in bog-rolls full of potting soil under the Sun Blaster T5 florescent light in the greenhouse. 

(The other half of the box is full of cilantro for winter salads.)

I can't think of King in the North without 

my mind going to Rob Stark in Game of Thrones.

It was totally unfair what happened to him.

He should have stayed north of The Neck and 

defended himself instead of attacking.

After reading an article about planting for next season that mentioned difficulties with shipping delays and finding some seeds sold out already, I thought we should look at our seed supplies and see how they match up with our garden plans. 

We have many of the seeds we need for next season already. But not all.

And so I went to some of our favorite seed purchasing sites and found that yes, indeed, you just can't get a lot of things. Or the shipping prices are outrageous.

We decided to break out our survival garden seed pack that we'd purchased last year from Pure Pollination. I recommend these. We had good luck with germination. They're heirloom seeds. They're said to be good for five years. We keep a pack with our emergency survival supplies. 

The seed packets are just little foil affairs - not the big paper things you get from more boutique places. But the seeds inside, as I say, work just fine. 

We ordered a replacement for the packet we're going to use this year. 

This left just a few things on the list - more white clover for replacing the turf grass, pollinator flowers, and strawberry plugs (that should be delivered the week of May 3).

We also purchased another of the T5 Sunblaster grow-lights for the greenhouse. At about $30 a piece, we'd need $180 to fully outfit the greenhouse, but it seems to make sense to do that in phases.

Next week, after the new light arrives, I'm thinking banana peppers and maybe some tomatoes. 

It's begun.