I got seeds and fertilizer!

 We were able to pick up a gift of seeds from a friend and I now have a glut of choices! She has a lot more room for a garden bed than I do so she was very generous.

She had no lettuce seeds but that's okay. The two pea packets are not full and that's okay also, but I have six varieties of carrots to choose from, five radish, red onions and multicolor bell peppers. I also have of my own green peppers and the pintos. Which I am now questioning as I seem to recall pintos being speckled dark and light brown and these are all brown. After research the answer is yes they are pinto beans but they have darkened with age. 

These are two different varieties of pintos, the one on the left is a newer variety developed from the one on the right. They were harvested at the same time and as you can see, have colored differently. Things I never knew about beans! 

"According to the USDA, dried beans are considered non-perishable. This means, that though they should be consumed within a year or two for ultimate freshness and quality, they will never spoil." So this also means they are still viable for planting as my previous experiment showed. But... also with any seed the fertility of the seed declines over time. The 'best by' date on this bag is July of next year. As a food item and because it is that they had to put a date on it. No telling how long the person had them before I swooped them off the table but now, I know they are pintos and very possibly a variety called 'Lariat' which is the brown variety on the right. Not truly a bush variety but not huge.

Enough of the beans already! Those and the peppers are warm season anyway!

I was at Walmart getting other things and decided, what the heck, go get some fertilizer while I'm out. So luckily they had some dry organic vegetable/tomato food. Not top of the line but you get what you can.

 

And once again formatting defies logic

As I have elaborated before on ingredients the 'Guaranteed Analysis' is the major nutrients and what is in there. The other side (sorry for the blurriness) is the extra stuff like the 'Non-plant food' ingredients that are a bonus, microbes and such. As you can see the three biggies are at 3-5-6. This should be sufficient for getting things going especially if I'm starting with seeds. I do still need some organic components to mix in but I'm good with having fertilizer at this point. Bbecause this is organic fertilizer it can degrade and the viablility of the microbes and ingredients can dissipate, hence look at the date on it. Good for two more years if kept in a cool, dry location.

Now then, what to plant where. I need graph paper. I tried looking for a gardening app but the type I need had mixed reviews and honestly, I can plot it out on paper just as easily and will journal all that right here. Just realized that I CAN buy veggie seeds and plants with EBT since it's considered a food item and isn't taxable but have to find a store that will take it. Home Depot and all them aren't a 'food store' so they don't take EBT.

I asked if she had short carrot varieties because I don't have the best loose rich soil they usually like. Luckily she had a few to choose from. Little Finger, Thumbelina (round type), Danver's 1/2 long..Danvers is the typical carrot variety in stores so these are a shorter growing variety. Gosh so many choices and so little time and space to grow them! We get hot so fast here I need to get things going with the peas and root crops tomorrow!

Now to my bed sizes. North bed is against the wall of the building and I measured 'plantable area' at the time as 5' x 30", now that I've dug and tested all the way to the wall I have to reduce that to 20". Not even two feet so very small bed but still can get two peppers in there and a row of radishes and maybe carrots.

Plenty of room

 

The south bed I can do the peas and maybe The peas I got are Green Arrow and Little Marvel, both are listed as being no taller than 30" so if needed I can use an inverted cage. Carrots in front of them because the sun will be hitting the front of that bed more and more. Something I need to remember about the south bed is because it gets shade sooner, as my zucchini showed, things get mildew easier as well. Peas are subject to mildew. Sigh. 

Even more room.

 

The south bed is only slightly bigger at 2'x3'. Still big enough for two or three peas at the back, a row of carrots or two and a row or two of radishes. Have to remember to mark what they are when I plant.

All this starts tomorrow with a good sprinkle of fertilizer and watering.The cilantro is still going as far as I know and have to be careful with that as well. Exciting to have some progress for the garden and the weather cooperating makes it so much nicer. I saw bulb packages in Costco and sighed.. no room.