Seeds ordered!

I finally got around to ordering my seeds.  I need to start my seedlings inside and my cool-weather crops outside as early as next week, so hopefully they will be shipped speedily.

Ultimately, I would like to save my seeds so that I don't have to order any.  I've started working on this, but I still have a lot to learn.  As you can see in the picture above, I've saved a number of seeds from last year.  From top to bottom, I have okra, jalapeno, butternut squash and marigold.  I've also saved some dill seeds.  I didn't save any tomato seeds.  I had hoped to keep some clones alive all winter, but none of them have survived.  It worked last year, but maybe two winters in a row was too much to ask of the same plants.

Today, I ordered seeds I've used before and some new ones that I've never tried.  I got some of the same tomatoes I grew last year, called Peacevine.  They're a tasty cherry variety that usually clones very well.  Last year, I cut the suckers off and put them straight into the ground and they survived.  With other varieties, I've had to keep them inside until the roots developed.  I also ordered a slicing tomato I've never tried, called Peron Sprayless.  I also got the same type of carrots I grew last year, but a different type of Bok Choi.  I wasn't confident in being able to save either of those seeds yet.

I didn't grow chamomile or cilantro last year because they didn't self-seed like I had expected them to, so I ordered both of those for this year.  I also got some parsley, since mine didn't survive the heavy snow.  They usually do, so they must not have been strong enough before the winter.  I also ordered some cayenne pepper.  Recent acquisition of a food dehydrator has led me to plan to grow a lot of cayenne, since I'll be able to dry them quickly. 

The rest of the seeds I ordered are things I've never tried to grow.  My young son is just starting to eat solid foods and he seems to really like peas, so I ordered some to grow for him.  I'm also going to try growing chia, which is a type of salvia with edible and highly nutritious seeds.  The rest of the plants I'll be trying for the first time are different types of salads.  I ordered an edible marigold, arugula, a purple lambsquarters and something called beetberry, the leaves and fruit of which can be used in salads.  Lambquarters is an edible weed that dominated my last garden, but that I haven't seen in this new garden.  These, like the herbs I'm growing, should all self-seed.

I ordered all of these seeds from an organic seed company called Seeds of Change.  I ordered one other seed packet from a different company, called Horizon Herbs, and that is the African piri piri pepper, also called African bird pepper.  This is a pepper I knew in Tanzania and is supposed to not cross-pollinate with my jalapenos.