Tanemura

Tanemura is a Japanese word that a friend shared with me many years ago. It is supposed to translate into the words “Seed Village”. So charming. A sweet sentiment… “Tanemura” a little Community of Seeds.

It is that time! That’s right! It is time to make the seed orders! I do think that warrants a whole lot of exclamation marks actually!

So exciting and full of dreams and also just a little nerve wracking. So many decisions to make. There are so many new and exciting varieties, so many old beloved favourites and then the choice between the tried and true or the novel. There is just not enough space in the Garden or enough time in the season to try all of the seeds that seem appealing and it turns out that I have not gotten any better at making those decisions.

Every year it is so hard to imagine that almost the entire Garden can arrive in the small packages of Seeds and it always feels so very urgent to ensure that just the right varieties are selected. Eep.

Spoiled for choice I suppose. Territorial Seeds has been a proven winner for me since I planted two lonely little Roma tomato plants, in an old cast iron sink, way back when. Territorial Seeds has forked and now there is the Canadian based off-shoot, West Coast Seeds.

The Territorial Seeds catalogue has been “the vegetable gardening manual” for me. I learned more from my old dog-eared and sepia toned copy of the early Territorial catalogue than from any other gardening tome. Well that and old John Seymour, of course.

The West Coast Seeds catalogue is just as wonderful as I remember Territorial’s being. It includes the same wealth of information, with the addition of full colour illustrations. (When I was little and watching black and white television I did not notice that it was not in colour until I first saw a colour television. I don’t remember noticing that the Territorial catalogue was just sepia line drawings, vivid imagination I suppose.)

Can you see that lovely small fruited and very dark purple tomato in the picture below? I have very high hopes for that little beauty. It is called Indigo Rose and it contains massive amounts of antioxidants and is supposed to taste of plums! We also are giving some “blight” resistant varieties a try. I am hoping that “Mountain Merit” and “Plum Regal” will live through our cool and hazy late summer.

Late blight (Phytophthora infestans) translates as “plant destroyer”. Having had the unfortunate experience of watching rows of healthy tomato plants turn into a brown, sodden and useless mess in a matter of days definitely makes any resistance very welcome. FIngers crossed… toes too.

I read recently that all wild carrots started out as purple. We love the wild and crazy coloured stuff and so and so this page of rainbow, red, white, yellow and purple carrots received plenty of checkmarks. I am hoping that the “Nutri-red” carrot will do really well. It has a very large amount of lycopene (which is supposed to guard against sunburn) and it gets more red and nutritious when cooked….do like the sound of that.

Now to wait for the orders to arrive. Seven or eight varieties of onions, some celery and  a few varieties of scallions will go into the seed starting trays first. Next will come all the brassicas and after that – the jungle of tomatoes, peppers and hot chilies! Haberneros, thai dragons and scotch bonnets oh my!  Waiting… not really patiently :)