My daughter is the co-manager of the local grocery, and last night she stopped by with two enormous boxes full of this season’s unsold seeds, which the store gets rid of after they don’t sell. They were all from Burpee, and there were hundreds, if not thousands of packages. I got to sift through them before they went to the local food bank where my wife serves as secretary. What a rush. (I wasn’t greedy, I promise, and I’ll donate some of the results).
The variety in the middle of the picture (Maxibel) tends to get too tall to stay upright. It grows taller than most bush beans but it’s not really tall enough to be a vine. I’m trying rope between stakes for support. It’s a real pain digging around in flopped-over bean plants for the reward. But the beans themselves are so good; long and thin and tender.
And the carrots are finally getting to the point where they’ll start shading out their own weeds. I like that.
Wish I’d read your ‘protect the bean tips’ tip about a week ago. Some critter ate all the tops off two nights ago. Grrrr. Lesson learned. Again.
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Oh no! I feel your pain. That’s the worst!
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They just throw them away? That’s so sad….
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Well, the store doesn’t throw them away. They knew the seeds would be going to the food bank. But yes, Burpee evidently can’t do anything with out of date seeds.
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Our community garden gets donations by request of thousands of packets of outdated seeds each year. They’re a great resource and fewer go to waste.
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I always buy out of date seeds on Ebay and they always do well 🙂
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You’re right, they do. I have trouble throwing away unused seeds, and they usually just keep on ticking.
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Thanks for the pic of the carrots. As a first-timer, I’ve been wondering how big they should get before harvesting. Mine have a long way to go. When will you harvest yours?
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April, I didn’t harvest mine last year until mid-August. I know that some people even store their carrots underground with a huge amount of mulch on top to keep the ground thawed.
You should be able to get a good idea of what’s going on underground with your carrots by checking where the green tops meet the roots. As they mature you should see the orange tops of the carrots peeking through the soil, and they’ll give you a good indication of size. You might have to pull a few early to get a feel for it, but that’s ok. Mini-carrots taste just as good. 🙂
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Ok. Thanks! I’ve got mine growing in a huge tote. They seem happy there, and I think your advice still applies.
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Wow, cool! Great idea. You should still be able to judge size by the amount of orange showing. Good luck and let me know how it goes.
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If you’re following my blog, you’ll see how it goes… Thanks again! Yours is one of the most helpful blogs I read.
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Wow, what a treasure trove of seeds! Interesting to know that you find critters don’t eat your tall beans as much. You have me wondering if we should take the risk and uncage our soybeans, which we’ll start harvesting soon. If they start to get munched, we can throw the cage back up.
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Soybeans…very cool! Yeah, that’s been my experience. Same with sweet corn. Whatever it is (in my case I suspect woodchucks) stop ruining my garden after the seedlings get 4 or 5″ tall. Good luck!
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I love your garden Dan. So ordered and neat. I nearly feel over when I saw the wire support next to the beans. Oh so good! And stop showing pics of those kholrabi … damn they look good! LOL Nice to share those seeds … Your carrot are looking grand 😀
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Dan. We need seeds for Honduras. Hope you can help
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I’m sorry Peter, the seeds have already been donated to the local food bank. I’ll keep you in mind if more come this way though.
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Like Christmas in June…what a treat. My parents sent me a couple packages from the States this summer to which I was very blessed, but wow, you hit the jackpot. Your garden is looking great. 🙂
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Haha, yeah it was a jackpot. But I have the bad habit of rarely throwing seed packets away and now there’s barely room in my box to read what’s in them.
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Seed packets are a tough thing to purge aren’t they? And so easy to horde! 😉
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