In typical years we have travel plans during the spring and summer. This year, my husband was planning to walk the epic Camino de Santiago, in Spain, so I had decided 2020 was the “year of the women”. This spring, I had rented a beach house in South Carolina with two high school friends, had booked a long spa weekend in New Mexico with my daughter, had planned to attend a mini-reunion of some high school friends in LA, and had scheduled a culinary tour of Montreal with a Master Gardener friend. None of which is going to happen.
Due to my frequent travel, I had thought I would just plant one tomato start and one jalapeño this year. But, as Covid-19 and the stay-at-home advisory changed everyone's travel plans, it also upended my vision for our vegetable garden. Perhaps because I now have the time, or possibly due to a bit of “pandemic panic”, I felt an urgent need to plant a lot of veggies. I did buy a couple of tomato and pepper starts at Morningsun Herb Farm. However, that business is thriving during the pandemic and their supplies were limited. My thoughts turned to the myriad seed packets I have on hand from prior years plantings.
Vegetable seeds have a limited shelf life. If stored correctly, most veggie seeds will be viable for two to three years. I knew I had some Baker Creek heirloom seeds that were pushing four years old or more. Instead of going to the trouble of planting these suspect seeds in 4” pots, and waiting to see if they would germinate, I tried a different method. I moistened a folded paper towel, sprinkled the seeds inside, and placed the paper towel in an open baggie. Within three days, the viable seeds had sprouted ½” roots and the tiny beginnings of seed leaves. I carefully transplanted the seedlings into the soil, and have had an 85% survival rate.
The seeds using this method include Mortgage Lifter, Black Vernissage, and Roma tomatoes, as well as Craig's Grand jalapeños. I also planted one- to two-year-old seeds of arugula, basil, Cantarix and Drunken Woman Frizzy Headed lettuce, sugar snap peas, and leeks directly into the soil. Those, along with this year's seeds of tri-colored zucchini and purple pole beans were given to me by a friend, and some bronze fennel still growing from my winter crop, make up the balance of the vegetable garden.
If all these plants survive and thrive, we will have far too many vegetables for our small household to consume. It gives me a sense of security, though, in what is currently a very uncertain world, to know that we are growing our own food. We'll have plenty to share with friends and to donate to food banks and our local “3 Squares” program. If it is safe for seniors to leave their rooms within the next couple of months, I may ask the management at the independent/assisted living facility where my mother lives if we can donate some of the tomato starts to them, and demonstrate how to plant them in their two raised beds. That would be a sign of hope that the world has become a safer place and the topic of a future blog!