Diaries of a Hopeful Gardener - Reene's Seeds

The other (much larger) company to supply our garden with seeds was Reene's Seeds. I initially turned to this company to purchase a large package of mustard to use as a cover crop. We planted and watered, and it germinated and grew! It was taller than me. We may have waited longer than we really should have to till it under, so we cut it all at the base, mulched it, and replaced it before tilling. Next time we'd simply till when it reached a foot or two tall... We really did wait too long, but the schedule in the summer was limited, and we managed the confines of vacation, deployment, flights and training.

While I was looking at the rack of seed packets at the garden supply store when I went for the mustard, I couldn't resist purchasing carrots, Swiss chard and a three sister's collection. The carrots were sweet and crunchy exactly how they should be. And they were a success. We ate carrots mid summer on and have stored 22 lbs in our new cold storage.

The thing about our basement is that it's a good temperature for potatoes, onions, and garlic, (and hopefully sunflower heads but I've not heard much for direction on those) but it's really too warm for beets, carrots, turnips, cabbages, etc. We have a perfect spot in a stairwell for now, but the temperature will have to be monitored as we pass into colder weather.

The chard was not only beautiful, tasty, and healthy, it was robust, quite light frost resistant, and a heavy producer. We ate it as soon as it was ready, gave about 30 'bouquets' away and continued to eat it until I pulled it all out over two days to wash, chop and bag for the freezer. There are 20 lbs waiting for us to use over the winter! Of course one can grow green and white, but the rainbow stalks are just so much fun. They do sometimes turn your sauces (like say you're making a green curry) interesting colours (maybe unappetizing) but I don't mind mine getting a bit purple or brown.

Sadly our weather didn't see any bean, pumpkin, or ear of corn to maturity, so I can't comment on the sisters. Then again I shouldn't feel so badly about the loss since the field north of our house, planted entirely of corn, didn't see one finished ear, either.

Although I really loved these seeds, I'd rather buy Canadian, and focus on what works best in out short season. That said, I may need to plant the same carrots and chard next year, we loved them so much!

Did I ever mention our potatoes? Gift of our neighbours, we named them Wayne's Giants, a red-brown skin with white smooth flesh. Ours weren't extra-specially enormous, (the parent eyes did come from potatoes larger than I'd ever previously seen) however just as tasty. Our wee harvest from 60 square feet was 50lbs. I'd like to try them again, plus a few other varieties... (Linzer and German Butterball to be exact).