Planning Our Heirloom Garden

A few days ago, I had the chance to get out and tend to my weedy, square-foot gardens. Poor things.  They had been sorely neglected during the fall and winter months.  I was pleased to find my rosemary plant was still hanging in there…gotta love those hardy herbs!  I was even surprised to find a couple of stray carrots that I had missed last spring!  I’ll chalk that up to errant sowing on my part.

This weekend has been much cooler, but it’s given me the chance to begin my garden planning. I’m basing my plans on what succeeded last year and what we liked to eat, but I’m also trying something new this year.  We’re going to build a third square foot garden and dedicate it to growing foods that are in danger of extinction.  My daughter has been studying botany in home school this year and wants to begin her own seed collection.  We think collecting seeds from foods that are in danger of extinction would be a great summer project and will help make sure these heirloom foods remain available.  Here’s what we’re planning to grow in our “almost extinct” garden:

• Bolita bean
• Cherokee Trail of Tears bean
• Christmas Lima bean
• Jacob’s Cattle bean
• Amish Deer Tongue lettuce
• Fish pepper
• Jimmy Nardello’s Sweet Italian Frying pepper
• Amish Pie squash (this will require a separate spot in another corner of the yard)
• Amish Paste tomato
• Cherokee Purple tomato

Yep, looks like we have our work cut out for us…again!

We’re buying all of our seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.