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Heritage Tomato Seeds in New Zealand

red-strawberryFabulous list of heritage tomato seeds available from Bristol Plants & Seeds in Wanganui. They’ve been busy at work with Mark Christensen from Central Tree Crops Research Trust to grow and test heirloom varieties for superior levels of nutrition. I haven’t seen a report on the results but they do have a very impressive 170 varieties on sale within New Zealand for $3 a packet through the website.

This list is worth a gander just for the names alone. Who wouldn’t want to grow some Big Rainbow, Old Ivory Egg, Hawaiian Pineapple, Super Sioux Lakota, Zapotec Pleated.

Pictured: German Red Strawberry Tomatoes from Bristol Plants & Seeds.

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It’s Seed Catalogue Day!!!

Possibly the most exciting, empowering, heart-wrenching, drama-filled, comedy-laden (for everyone around me), garden-geekiest day of the year – today I am Empirial Ruler deciding what shall flourish in my domain this coming season. The catalogues have arrived, the paper and coloured pencils are out, the day is cleared and the tea is brewing. Today I choose my seeds.

This year’s Seed Catalogue Day is brought to me by:

EcoSeedsKoanga Institute
Kings SeedsKoanga Gardens

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Welcome to the weekend

seedy1Alright, I’m prep’ed and ready go. The very first Seedy Sunday happens this very weekend. Apart from the horror of having to get up and talk in front of a group of people and the few technical difficulties we are having with the videos, I’m surprisingly calm.

So a quick list of what I’m taking for the swap table: Shoofly seeds (said to scare off white moth), Marigold seeds (the ones best for nematode control), Pumpkin Jack-be-little (they’re so cute!), Jerusalem artichokes for planting, and some organic produce – lettuce, oregano etc.

Nervous but incredibly excited about the possibilities! I’m really hoping this will be a positive step in building a community of people who share, care and promote gardening and healthy eating. If you are near Kapiti drop on by.

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Growing food: How long do I have to wait?

Borlotti beans: wonderfully tasty and homegrownGrow your own food! But be patient – this is how long it will take. The chart looks at how long you can expect to wait for your vegetables to grow from seed. These are estimated times – climate, soil conditions, water supply, different cultivars, farming methods can all give different results.

There’s no time like the present to start growing food, especially when you see how long it takes for veges to grow. The economy is going insane, nobody knows what’s going to happen… you need a little security in your life. Being able to grow food to feed your family is really the best security you can get. Then you know that if you lose your job, or the supermarkets run out, or your country goes bankrupt you can eat.

It’s a baseline to work from – you need to eat. If you grow your own food (or even just some of it) :

—  it will save you money;
—  it will give you mana, strength, self-worth;
—  it will give you better health, keep you active, help you lose weight.

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Springy-shiny seeds

It’s a beautiful Spring-shiny day here on the Kapiti Coast. I’m celebrating with a lovely glass of chilled Brown Brother’s Dolcetto-Syrah (to ease the passage from winter reds to summer whites) and planting seeds. It’s just lovely. My nose is filled with berry bouquets and I still retain some dirt below my fingernails, making me feel all like earth goddess and urban-tech sophisticate at the same time. Lovely, I tell you.

So, I’ve scrabbled around and found a whole range of seed and thought it was about time to get some things on the go. Then I can take a serious look at my Kings Seeds catalogue and decide on a few other flavours for the garden.

To dampen my abilities to go overboard, I limit myself to 10 lots (read pots) of seeds at a time. This forces me into planting a diverse garden that doesn’t all come on at once. Since it is so mild here, I can get a really good growing season with a little patience.

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