Hello! And welcome back to winter! Last week we talked about how to properly store all of your leftover seed from last year. Remember? Store them in a cool, dry, dark place. Use silica gel or dry powdered milk wrapped in tissues as desiccants or de-humidifiers.

Well, I hope as you packed away all of your leftover seeds, you took stock of what seed you had, and what quantities you had. Have you ever heard the term “Stop! Drop! And roll” ? Well, today I want you to Plop, Plot, and Plan your garden for this coming season.

If you haven’t done so already, so it now! Plot yourself down and prepare a seed inventory! What kinds of seeds do you have? Which kinds do you plan to get? Do you plan to stay with the same old varieties that you’ve had forever? Or do you want to try something new? Is there a certain kind of vegetable that you’ve never grown before that you’ve been meaning to try? Is there a different variety of that vegetable that you want to try? What a bout a different color, of different shape, or different flavor?

Even more questions . . . Examine your conscience now and tell the truth! Be honest! Which vegetables will you direct seed right into your garden in spring? Which ones will you start early so you’ll be able to transplant out into your garden in spring? Which transplants will you buy either from your favorite store or grower or from the Lowville Farmers’ Market in spring? Come on now, plan this all put! Get organized! Do it now when the spring spirit is moving you, or if this How Green Is My Garden segment is nudging you. Plan - plan – and plan some more!

Well, if you do in fact have all of the garden varieties that you need – do you have enough of that seed? For instance, say you always plant snap beans in your garden. Well, for a 50-foot row of those green beans or yellow wax beans, or magic purple beans, you are going to need 4 to 8 ounces of bean seed, which translates to between 400 to 800 bean seeds. (Come on now, those bean seeds get planted really close, like 3 to 4 inches apart, so you will need a lot, and everybody simply loves beans!) So, do you have enough bean leftovers?

Take carrots! Everybody loves carrots, very-healthy-for-you carrots, lots-of-beta-carotene carrots! Well, a 50-foot row of carrots requires only about 1/8 of an ounce. But, hold on now! Remember that carrot seed is extremely small – like grains of sand. (Actually I think grains of sand are bigger!)

At any rate, that 50-foot row of carrots requires 1/8 of an ounce of seed. But that translates to over 2,000 carrot seed! And I don’t think that you are going to be counting out 2,000 almost microscopic-sized carrot seed! So you are just going to have to guesstimate!

One alternative to that almost microscopic-sized seed is pelletized carrot seed. Pelletized carrot seed is tiny carrot seed encased in a clay coating that splits open or melts away when planted and when it comes in contact with water. This kind of seed is available through mail-order seed catalogs.

Pelletized carrot seed is about the same size as radish or spinach seed, and is much easier to handle than grains of sand carrot seed. (And speaking of spinach seed – you will need about ½ ounce for that 50 foot row, and that’s about 1,000 spinach seed.)

As far as carrot seed planting, you can always go with carrot seed tape, but that is expensive! You can always make your own carrot seed tape, using toilet paper, flour and water as glue, and tweezers for placing that carrot seed. Simply roll out a length of toilet paper; pick up that carrot seed with the tweezers; dip your carrot seed in the flour/water paste; and place the carrot seed in the middle of the toilet paper. Place that carrot seed 2 to 3 inches apart. When you’re done with the toilet paper section, fold the outside ends onto the middle section, and roll up the paper.

Come early spring, simply unroll the toilet paper sections into your carrot rows, cover with a little bit of soil, firm down slightly, water, and the carrot seed is officially planted. The seed will sprout after a while, and the toilet paper will decompose. If that toilet paper is safe for your septic system, then it is safe for you carrot bed.

So much for the carrot situation! Now on to zucchini! It’s totally obvious that you are not going to plant a 50-foot row of zucchini in your family garden, no matter how much you like the stuff! We’re talking zucchini here – very prolific zucchini. So 1 hill of 2-3 seeds is all that is needed for each zucchini-eating member of your family. So, you do the math! For every 4 zucchini lovers, you will need 8 to 12 zucchini seeds.

Gees, maybe you consider that way too much! Well, just imagine a whole acre of zucchini! That would take about 4 pounds of zucchini seed, and there are 3,600 zucchini seeds in one zucchini pound. Do the math! We’re talking 144,000 zucchini seeds here! Just picture 144,000 zucchini plants! Now that is a lot of zucchini! Some may call it awesome; some may call it a fright! Whatever!

Tomatoes – gotta have tomatoes! Well, figure on 5 plants per person in your family. Figure on 12-15 plants in a 50-foot row. Plan on different varieties of tomatoes, different shapes, different colors, different flavors. But don’t plan on 5 cherry tomato plants per person. You’ll end up with literally millions of those little puppies, especially if you plant the “Sweet Million” cherry tomato variety!

So – do you have enough tomato seed leftover from last year?

You know, those seed packets usually do have more seed in them than you actually need. That is – unless you really, really, REALLY love that particular veggie – then there is never enough!

At any rate, you get the picture – count the seed you still have on hand. Plop yourself down, plot and plan your garden for next year (actually in just a few more months!). Take not of which seed you need to get. And if you really didn’t like the way a particular variety of whatever grew or tasted last season, plan on getting another better growing, better tasting variety.

And, after all these cabin-fever days when you’ve most likely run out of things to talk to your neighbors, friends, relatives, just consider striking up a gardening conversation. Ask others about their seed situation. Perhaps you can get together and have a good old seed swap. This way you can save some money and still get to try some new varieties

Maybe we can get George to do a seed swap on his Swap Shop show!

At any rate – Remember – Eat Smart New York!

And – Bye – Talk to you soon!
D