Sunday, March 22, 2009

planting surprise seeds

planting surprise seeds from Dan
surprise seed package surprise seeds in the pot

There's nothing like a good mystery.

A couple of weeks ago, Dan, a fellow garden blogger, sent me some seeds. We had arranged a trade. He sent me 6 Charentais melon seeds and 6 seeds each of two heirloom tomatoes (Hillbilly and Suddoth's strain Brandywine). I sent him 6 Delicata melon and 6 purple Calabash tomato seeds. BUT, in addition to the agreed on seeds, Dan added a package of SURPRISE seeds.

I have no idea what the surprise seeds are. They are small and round like cabbage or radish. And recently Dan told me I could plant them when I plant my broccoli. Those are the clues.

So, yesterday I planted them. I labeled them "SURPRISE". How fun. I'm really curious to see what sprouts.

Thanks again to Dan :)
surprise seeds
2009 sow-what-and-when

14 comments:

jimmycrackedcorn said...

I'll guess that you're growing Romanesco- Veronica. Time will tell.

Unknown said...

That does sound like fun. Nice of him to think to do that. Some people think of everything! ;-)

Dan said...

This is fun isn't it. I thought of it just before I sealed the envelope and after reading your 'Ideas for 2009' post. They should germinate pretty fast, within a few days.

I planted the Calabash tomato seeds you sent on Friday, I can't wait to try one of the tomatoes.

Anonymous said...

That is a wonderful idea :-) I have no idea what it might be, but I can't wait to find out. Are they all the same kind of seed, or was there more than one "surprise"?

Laura said...

What a great idea!

I used to work at a larger garden center and we would always end up with some 4-packs of tomatoes or peppers without tags. When a customer would ask what type they were I would explain that we couldn't tell and that I called them Tomato or Pepper 'Surprise'.

Anonymous said...

Maybe it's Chinese Broccoli! Similar to Broccoli Rabe. Mine is growing splendidly. Excellent germination rate.

Unknown said...

Kohlrabi possibly? Those are my favorite.

Anonymous said...

That's going to be a fun surprise. Planting seeds with a martini in hand? You're my type of gardener!

Anonymous said...

Hello Kathy -

I want to introduce myself.....My name is Ben Fairfield and I am one of the founders of The Urban Garden Project™. The Urban Garden Project™ is the initiative to encourage Americans to learn from history, become more self-reliant, save a significant amount of money, and eat healthier, all as a result of planting their own urban garden! The goal of The Urban Garden Project™ is to encourage and catalogue the creation of 100,000 urban gardens by 2020. We know that this is a sizeable goal, but we will accomplish it 1 garden at a time!

As a result of your successful blog and your obvious passion for gardening I was hoping that you would visit our website at www.urbangardenproject.wordpress.com to learn more about the project. It costs nothing to support the project; we simply need help getting the word out to the world so that we can begin to catalog existing or new urban gardens. It would also be great to be able to add you to our garden catalog and link to your site through our blogroll! The official kick off for the project is April 1st 2009 and we are busy creating videos, tutorials, product reviews and more to make visiting worth everyone’s time!

I am hoping that as a result of our shared passion for gardening you can help us in spreading the word about The Urban Garden Project™. Again, your support costs nothing. Our mission is pure and we hope that you can come along side us in this project to grow the gardening community and the number of urban gardens!

Thank you so much for your time and we are looking forward to you visiting our site and letting us add your garden to our growing catalog of gardens from across the world!

Have a great day!

Ben Fairfield

Pam said...

Cool surprise seeds! When are you setting out your lettuce and broccoli seedlings? I'm in Arlington, just down the road, and I'm itching to get plants in the road, but it just seems like it's still too cold...

kathy said...

Ben,

It would be great if you add me to your blogroll. Its a super goal!

kathy said...

The surprise seeds are all one type (it appears). Romanesco Veronica or Chinese Broccoli sound great! Kohlrabi would be a new one for me. We'll see.

The seeds sprouted today. Fast!

kathy said...

Pam,

After today, I don't even want to go outside myself. Don't know if it got over 30*F. Brrr.

I'm thinking I'll plant peas and favas as soon as I get my home garden raked out. But I'll probably wait at least a couple more weeks to set out anything. And then probably under row cover. I'm not in any rush yet.

Anonymous said...

On the "warm" days we've had in the past few weeks, I've taken my lettuce, spinach, bunching onions and broccoli outside for some fresh air and sun. The lettuce, spinach and broccoli seem to really like that since they've really taken off over the past week or so. I can't wait for it to warm back up towards the end of the week again!