Seedy Observations

I've been waiting for a day like today for over week.. It's time to get more seed in the ground - carrots, swiss chard, beets, lettuce, Asian greens, and so on, but after three hot sunny days in a row during the long weekend (no complaints!!), the soil was a rather dry. Plus, I didn't want to be out watering twice a day, so I've been biding my time and waiting for rain. Yesterday it rained. A lot. Today, it's drizzly, cloudy and perfect for seeding. I just put in rainbow swiss chard, red salad bowl lettuce and three packets of carrots before the sky opened up again and the rain began. Now, I'm a bit drippy, but at least I got a few things planted.

I always find it interesting to open up different packets of seed from different seed companies. Sometimes you end up with way too much, while other times, there is barely enough for a small patch. I end up ordering many of my seed packets in bulk so that I have plenty of greens and roots for our year round harvest. Here are some of my carrot seed packets and being a total nerd, thought I'd count just how many seeds were in each packet. Here is the results:

McKenzie Seed, Creme de Lite F1 - I've grown this before from another company and we really liked the sweet flavour, but there were 27 seeds in this package. 27. That was enough for 2 tiny rows and that's assuming that all the seeds germinate. Carrots are notorious for being pernickety for germination, so I typically count on about 3/4 germinating.. That will leave about 20 carrots for $2.49.

Pumpkin Moon Seeds, Carrots Variety Mix - This is the tiny packet on the left and is from a local company in the Annapolis Valley. According to the label on the back, there are 7 types of carrots in the packet and I counted 109 seeds for $3.00.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Carrot Cosmic Purple - One of the larger heirloom seed companies, Baker Creek has a wide assortment of veggie seeds.. This is a stunning carrot that has a unique sweet-spicy flavour. The packet had 312 seeds and sells for $3.00.

Ok, enough counting! The rain has stopped again and I need to go plant my bok choi. And my beets. And my beet and chard braising mix. And arugula. And...

What are your thoughts on seed packet contents..?