Was it just a week ago I mentioned that I was going to buy established herb plants this year instead of starting them myself?

I’m seriously missing my herbs!

This past weekend I had some rare time all to myself to peruse the seed racks at my favorite garden center.  I took my time- I was alone after all.  I picked up a few varieties of herb seed that I knew I didn’t already have, as well as a few radishes, an organic orange delicata squash, and a chiogga beet.    I just couldn’t help myself.

If I attempted to grow all the herbs from seed that I already have seed for… well, I would have about 14 varieties of herbs (give or take).

Which has me re-thinking seeding some herbs. (Can you see me rolling my eyes here?) I’ll tell you, what I wouldn’t give for a good 14 feet of undisturbed south-facing window.  Then I could line the windows with 12 x 12 pots, fill ’em up with soil and seeds and start on some herbs.  In a perfect world, they would do fine in the pots in the cold weather, and then once it got nice out, I would set them outside.  As cold weather comes back in the fall, the plants would come back inside.  In my mind, this idea has merit.  And a lot of it.

I just really, really am missing fresh herbs.  Mostly parsley, interestingly enough. And while I can buy that reasonably priced, it just doesn’t last long enough.

Maybe I’m just yearning for spring.  But just for fun, these are the herb seeds I have:

• Sweet Basil
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Winter Thyme
• Dill
• Italian Parsley
• Chervil
• Summer Savory
• Marjoram
• Lovage
• Cilantro
• Genovese Basil

Of these, I know the dill won’t do too well in pots, and rosemary is tough to start from seed.   Sage and thyme will winter over just fine, so if I can get them established in the ground I won’t have this dilemma year after year.   It just occurred to me that I don’t have any chive seeds.  I will have to fix that, as my chives never popped out of the dirt last year.  It didn’t affect me too much, I simply used a bit of scallion in place of the chive.  But still.  I’d like to pick up some chive seed and some more specialty herbs.  Things like Thai basil, lemon thyme, and cinnamon basil.  I would give my right arm for a bona-fide tarragon plant- but those cannot grow from seed.  Real tarragon grows from a cutting.  I don’t care too much for oregano, so I’m not sure I want to be growing that.

I feel like there’s something missing… what am I missing?

The first year I cracked open my Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog, my chin literally dropped.  As I leafed page after page and saw heirloom tomato after heirloom tomato, I was instantly smitten.  I wanted one of each.  There are literally hundreds of varieties from all over the world!  It can be so easy to just randomly order a few handfuls of seeds to try, but I have found over the last few years that there are a few things key when it comes to selecting varieties to grow here in Wisconsin.

The main thing is to look at the origin of the seeds you are looking at.  Chances are if the location they are grown in says “warm climate” or “tropical” or “favorite in the south” it might not do so well here in the frozen tundra.   Tomatoes that are bred for Texas or Florida or New Zealand may not do so well here.  On the other hand, I have had amazing success with tomatoes from Siberia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.   And of course, ones bred right here in Wisconsin or next-door Minnesota.

I find this true with many plants other than tomatoes, sadly.  Exotic Asian eggplants don’t seem to like our weather too much- it just doesn’t get hot enough.  My experiments with okra proved less than desirable.  If I had space to grow several dozen plants I could get enough okra to do something with, but growing one plant and yielding five little pods is hardly worth the gardening real estate.

It’s all trial and error- and it’s not to say that maybe YOU won’t have some success with that beautiful Israeli tomato seed, but your odds of success are better if your tomato seed comes from a region with a similar climate.

Oooh, have to come back and add something.  If you’re not like me, and you don’t have an addiction to starting your own tomato plants from seeds, there is nothing wrong with buying your plants already started.  If you go to a reliable garden center near to you, they should have plants that will grow well in your climate.  Ask if you have any questions about it.  If the people working there can’t answer your questions,  find a different garden center until you find someone who can answer your questions AND assure you that the plants they have will grow well in your climate.

My tomato plants are doing very well.  They started out terribly slow.  After the sprouts emerged, it seemed to take forever for real leaves to appear.  It occurred to me that a lack of heat may be the cause for this, so I took my sprouts and put them in an empty cheese-ball barrel, which served as a mini greenhouse.  Bingo- the leaves emerged, and I was able to pot up my seedlings.

The seedlings went back into the barrel and have been growing like gangbusters.  Today I had to take them out of the barrel, and I added supports to two of the plants.

Tomorrow I will trek out to the shed and see if I can find some slightly bigger pots.  They would like to be potted up I think.   The ones that I added supports to were leaning up against the sides of the barrel- with the barrel removed, they kind of want to flop over.  If I can put them in bigger pots, I can bury those stems a good four more inches.

It’s pretty exciting to see the growth on these.

In other news, today I went through my seeds.  I have 31 varieties of tomato seed to pick and choose from this year.  It will be a task to pick and choose- I have a few for certain that I want, but other than that, I will see which way the wind blows.  Of those 31 varieties, 2 I don’t care for, and 3 my brother is starting, so that reduces my total to 26 varieties.

I went through my Baker Creek catalog with my seeds today to really see what I had, and discovered that one of my favorite varieties from years past was not in this years catalog.  German Red Strawberry is missing from the red varieties of tomato, so that is one that I will be growing for absolute certain.  I will need to save seed from that one, because it is one of my favorites, and I don’t want to lose it, or not be able to find it anywhere.

Peppers and tomatoes are on my mind, as the seeds will need to be started in March and the beginning of April.  Everything else I will direct sow this year.  We will be moving during this time period, and the less plants we move, the better.   I think I have ordered everything I am going to order this year.  In the weeks to come I am hoping to make a stop by Steins to pick up random seeds that I am missing.

This year I will also be purchasing my herbs from Steins as plants.  Except maybe parsley, that one did well for me from seed.

In the weeks to come, I want to help out my fellow Wisconsin gardeners with some tips from years past.  What works here and what doesn’t seem to work- or hasn’t for me at least.  Stay tuned.  Gardening is on the brain, and I’m happy to be back.