Tuesday, March 10, 2009

A Box of Garden Goodies

My William Dam Seeds order arrived today, they are a pretty large seed supplier that is within a stones throw of my fine city. I go by their operation from time to time, next time I will have to take a photo of their seed saving field to share. After realizing that my pinetree order is never going to get here on time I reordered the early sown seed locally so my crops will be sown on time. After placing the order I sent them an e-mail that I needed to seed within a week and they had them here in 4 business days, now that's service.

The first things order was 'Green Goliath' Broccoli and 'Jade Cross Hybrid' Brussels Sprouts. The Brussels Sprouts are an early producing variety that is short growing. I am going to grow six plants altogether, three will be planted early & three will be seeded in June as a fall crop. The Broccoli will be an early crop and the pinetree broccoli I will use as a second crop in July.

I then ordered BTK or sometimes just called BT which is a organic insecticide that is used to control cabbage worms on all brassicas. It is applied every 7-10 days during the insects peak activity.

Finally I order black plastic mulch for the melons & peppers. It is used to sufficiently warm the soil early in the season so the melons & peppers will flourish. I did notice that a bio-degradable black mulch was available from most seed houses. I was planing on order it but then realize I would then have to reorder it every year which uses all kinds of hydrocarbons to make and get it to me so it is actually kind of a dumb product, for a home gardener at least.

The seeds will be sown this evening and I am very happy to be sowing on time! I think in the future I will use William Dam Seeds for all the ordinary veggies and I will only order the more unusual varieties from Pinetree Garden Seeds as they are so reasonably priced.

7 comments:

  1. Cool! Let the gardening begin....Oh, you'll love that bottle of BT, trust me!

    EG

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  2. Man, I love getting boxes with all kinds of garden stuff in it! I never heard of William Dam..... I wonder if they sell in the States?

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  3. EG - I can't wait to get spraying with my little bottle of magic potion.

    Dennis - William Dam will definitely ship to the States, I believe worldwide as well.

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  4. I wouldn't even want to try growing broccoli or other cole crops without having a pint of BT on hand. Glad you got the seed order sorted out so you could plant in a timely manner. I had the same thing happen with some onions and early cabbage varieties - ended up using some saved 2008 seeds instead because I needed to start the seedlings. This is a good reputable and (usually) prompt firm - so I think all the seed companies are getting a mite overwhelmed with the surge in garden interest nationally.

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  5. Wow, that's a quick turn-around! Mine took a month and a half though I could have emailed them if I had wanted my order sooner. I've already sown some broccoli and will be starting Brussels sprouts this weekend.

    I'm debating ordering from Tomato Growers Supply in the States - not sure if it'd get to me by my sowing date of March 21st. Nirts, I just might try.

    I've picked up red plastic mulch for my tomatoes and will have to source out black plastic mulch for my sweet potatoes. So much to do!

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  6. tina - cheers

    doubled - I have heard from a few people that pinetree usually takes a while to ship. Not really that big of a problem except for the few things that I needed early. I agree that every seed house is swamped this season but I did place my order 5 weeks in advance.

    kathy - I will have to check out Tomato Growers Supply. I order most of my tom's from Tomatofest.com and they shipped really fast although that was in January. Tis the season for gardening pressure!

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