Free seeds - Hubbards, Butternuts and more from the seediest people around...

NOTHING AS BLEAK AS A WINTER GARDEN

AND THE WINNER IS...

MR. DAVE LYONS! CONGRATULATIONS!

Mr. Lyons I will need a mailing address so please e-mail same to BobMacNJ5@aol.com and we will get your seeds right out to you!

My thanks to all who participated, new contest soon!


But cheer up! Better days are coming! Onions and corn will sprout, turnips and carrots will frolic in the mulch and egg plant will dance a sprightly dance amidst the chard! Well maybe not. But things will grow again, rest assured. And to help this along Uncle Mac's has a few seed varieties for you, absolutely free.

These are our own seeds, saved from our own garden harvest.

You will get:

24 Blue Hubbard squash seeds, enough to generate over half a ton of Hubbards if you plant them all. The great hulking brutes can be used like any winter squash or pumpkin and will store for months with care.  

Blue Hubbards make wonderful pies!







But wait, there's more!

You will get some BUS seeds too. (Butternuts of Unusual Size)

Ladies Knight cucumbers, sure to please.

Red bell pepper seeds...






And three other varieties of veggie seeds as well, we'll let those be surprises.

"What, kindly, grizzled old Uncle Mac must we do to win these seeds?" You may be asking.

Nothing at all. Just indicate in the comments section that, yes, you would like to be in the drawing and when the time comes, (February 15, 2013) we will hold some kind of drawing, (paper slips from a bowl or hat, likely.) and YOU, gentle reader, could be a winner!

And there will be much rejoicing!

Remember, just indicate in comments that you want to be in the drawing for the free "Seeds of Resistance" package, that is all.

Good luck!

Don't forget to check back on the 15th or 16th to see if you won, Farm Girl will need a mailing address!

OLD YELLER PART I- SAVING CUCUMBER SEEDS IS EASY!

It was just so sad. He was laying under a withered cucumber vine there in the garden, up against the fence; motionless, unaware. Unnoticed until too late he had lingered there and now, expired, he was of no further use to anyone. Yes, Old Yeller, once a proud and tasty cucumber had died on the vine, as it were.

What to do with the dear departed? Interment in the compost pile? A vikings funeral? Keep him by the shed door to hurl, end over end like an old fashioned German potato masher grenade to make a satisfying and somewhat squashy impact on Mr. Bears' nose when next he stops by to grace us with a table dance we definitely have no use for or desire to witness?

None of the above. For as it turns out, Old Yeller and others of his ilk have more value to us as a potential cucumber patch in years to come than do cool, crunchy green specimens no matter how tasty they may be. We are going to extract and save Old Yellers' seeds.

The first step is to allow several cucumbers to hold their ground there by the fence, to grow and gradually decay like an old Studebaker on a backwoods road,

THE OBJECT OF OUR SOMEWHAT LABORED STUDEBAKER SIMILE.

When they have yellowed naturally but are still firm it is time to gather them up, rinse and dry them off, and then place them in a room temperature environment inside the house to decompose until they are soft but not quite mushy. Keep the cucumbers out of direct light while this process continues.

We will update this post with pictures and directions as we proceed through the remaining steps that will lead to a supply of viable seeds, good for several years and which can be sown, sold, swapped or simply given as gifts.

As a bit of a hint, the next step will require an old crock. (Or plastic pail, large glass jar or the like.)

What's that Agnes? No, not you, this kind of old crock, is what we meant.*

That's about it for today folks, check back at Uncle Mac's Garden Shed for real time directions for saving and storing your own seed supply. It is simpler and more rewarding than you might think.


*HAD YOUR ASSISTANCE BEEN REQUIRED, AGNES, THE MOT JUSTE WOULD HAVE BEEN "BATTLEAXE"


Oh and of course, yellowed or not you can still eat them. One rather tasty way to do so is revealed right HERE!

FARM GIRL'S CORNER - The seediness of Uncle Mac, Part 2

Hi there, you know me its Farm Girl, I help out (as in, do most of the mundane gardening work) around the Shed and in the garden and so on. You know how seedy a guy Uncle Mac is, seems he can't find enough places to deposit seed. But I digress...

Every once in a while in the course of what we like to call "doing research" ie., "making shit up" we come across a factoid or blog or website that deserves promoting. And we found one, and we need to give them all kinds of credit and a plug as well. But first, a picture, which we have determined is not worth a thousand words, but only 914. But you know, close enough.

What is THIS, you may ask, and who can blame you?
Its called "Petrowski's turnip" named after the famous Petrowski and it has the distinction of being a quick growing biggish yellow turnip that tastes nothing like a white turnip, not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.

You can get it from the folks at "Real Seeds" just by clicking on the link. We'll be buying a few packets tomorrow, still plenty of time for a fall crop of these beauties in our zone. (5 - 6) 

But that turnip, interesting as it is only scratches the surface. This company has many heirloom seeds, (in fact, they have no hybrids at all), many of which will be new to US gardeners.

This includes a white turnip big as a dinner plate but let's not hold that against them.


Real Seeds also tells you how to save your own seeds for next years planting, and people, if you take nothing seriously from our blog listen to this, we all have to learn how to do this and we need to learn fast. Monsanto is coming. And it ain't gonna be pretty. (See related article HERE)

We have saved squash, cuke, tomato and pepper seeds here at the Shed for some time but now we are going to branch out. Use Real Seeds info as a jumping off point and you can do so too. Hey, its fun and you can swap with your friends!

And that's it for Farm Girl's Corner, enjoy those yellow turnips and thanks a bunch for stopping by!   

FARM GIRL'S CORNER - butternut squash

  

FARM GIRL

Hi! I’m Farm Girl. I help Uncle Mac in the garden and around the shed and things like that. Uncle Mac really likes to get a jump on the growing season but even I was surprised when he called me the other day.

“Farm Girl”, he said, “Git your bony ass over here I’ve a mind to do some plowin’!”

“Oh Mac, you silly man, I told him, we can’t do any plowing it’s the middle of winter!”

But he talked me into it and do you know he was right? We plowed from eleven in the morning until two in the morning the next day; it was amazing. I haven’t participated in a plow fest like that since homecoming night my senior year at Texas A & M! I do not know where the old bastard gets the stamina! Must be all the fresh veggies…

REALLY BIG BUTTERNUT SQUASH

But today on Farm Girls Corner I'm going to tell you about one of the crops that was a huge success in last years garden, "Really Big Hybrid”, a strain of butternut squash. “Really big” well describes this 10 to 15 pound whopper butternut squash, which is not only huge and prolific, it is full of tasty seeds and keeps spectacularly if you just store it in a cool but dry environment.

And it is so easy to grow! Just plant the seeds in well turned, compost rich soil, about an inch deep. Wait a full three weeks after the last frost to plant, these squash abhor cold weather. Allow three feet between each plant and its neighbor; these are vigorous, fast growing vines. They will try to grow outside the garden fence, do not allow it, critters are out there, awaiting their arrival.

MISTER BEAR

When the vines are beginning to flower, hitting them with fish emulsion spray is a terrific idea. (Apply fish oil emulsion only on days when the wind blows toward that neighbor you are not crazy about. It smells awful.) Other than that, they need little in the way of soil additives or fertilizers with the exception of the compost already mentioned.

Do water well when the tiny squash begin to develop and thereafter until harvest, these are thirsty veggies and need water to achieve maximum size and weight.

The seeds for this crop came from the Jung Seed Company, but they do not seem to be carrying the seeds this year. This is unfortunate, these are excellent squash, and the best butternuts we’ve had here in the garden for 40 years. So fire up your search engines, and add these wonderful vegetables to your list, they are worth the search.

And as always, thanks for viewing Farm Girls Corner!