Seeds, Seeds, Seeds

I finally made it to the garden center. What a treat! Hundreds of small packets with colorful and flavorful promises! Some of them have beautiful illustrations. While I was home adding tasks to the garden calendar I noticed a sign in one of the packets saying Artist: Marjorie Leggitt. My friend Silvana introduced me to her drawings a few years ago, and that's why the pictures looked so familiar! I wish she lived closer to be able to take a class with her.

The first packet I picked up was a selection of wild flower seeds called "Fairy Meadow", and with a fan of Tinkerbell at home, I could not resist! The picture even has three fairies. Then I moved on to the vegetable seeds, that after all, that was the reason to go to the garden center.

While browsing through the seeds, I noticed a different brand, with much larger glossy packets, and in the back they had a sticker with a sell by date of 2010, but through the sticker I could see another date underneath of sell by 2009. Maybe they just recycled the wrapper... just in case, I didn't buy those.

I bought Romaine and Mesclun lettuce, two kind of heirloom carrots some finger size and some regular ones. A blend of red, orange and pink beets, cucumbers, summer squash mix with 7 different kids: round oblong, yellow, striped... a trio of string beans (although they don't have strings any longer...) green, yellow and purple, heirloom tomatoes, of course, 2 kinds. I also got spinach, onions, peas, flat beans, leeks and fava beans. Ah, I also wanted to grow something I never ate before: kohlrabi. I sound like the elephant in Puff, Puff, Chugga, Chugga. Except that I only bought the seeds, and I didn't sneeze!

On my way to the checkout, I saw some tempting orchids at reasonable prices, and it was a warm day, so they wouldn't suffer on the way home... but I just bought 18 packets of seeds, and maybe I'll leave the orchids for when there isn't much to do outdoors!

Once the kids went to bed, I sat at the computer and wrote in the garden calendar the to-do list. There is sowing indoors and outdoors, and repeat after 3 weeks, and sow again in late summer for fall crop, soak before planting... I think I got them all.
Here is where my inexperience leaves me wondering what some phrases mean. Some packets said plant in early Spring 3-4 weeks before last frost, while others said 4-5 weeks before last frost. That wasn't a problem, since the last frost here is around Mother's day. The problem was when it only said "early Spring" or even better, "very early Spring". Other variations included late Summer, that for me means the semester is about to start, and what about all I was supposed to do during the Summer... but I have no clue what it means in the garden calendar. I'll have to ask some of my old friends from the garden club.