It seems early, but with saving seeds I already did part of my garden planning for 2023. Plus I already planted the garlic tor next year. Here are plans so far. Bush Beans "Tenderette". Saved seeds. I planted them late this year, after harvesting garlic. Next year I also want to plant an earlier crop. I also have left over seeds of Blue Lake and Contender. I cant tell the difference among these. I'll test the seeds early. If they don't grow, then some variety of standard early bush green bean. Squash - Definitely Costata romanesca and Galeux d'Eysines from saved seeds and Burgess Buttercup from left over seeds. I might grow Illinois or Pink Banana again, I have old saved seeds from those but they are so huge, they can be a lot to handle. Dave's Dakota Dessert had zero squashes on six plants, so none of those. None from Honeynut, either, so I wont try that again. I saw a Bush Butternut so might try that, and a smaller zucchini and summer squash. Butternut doesn't usually do well for me but I want to continue trying. Costata is a bit too much too, so I will grow one hill instead of two. Potatoes. I'll have to order. Definitely Envol (very early), Kennebec (mid season) and Elba (late). I'd like a red one, too. Sweetcorn. Not sure. Maybe Trinity or Early Sunglow. I'll have to buy seeds. Tomatoes. Mostly saved seeds - Dwarf Brandyfred, Dwarf Champion Improved, Livingston Dwarf Stone, New Big Dwarf. Also Reisentraube and Ukraine purple. I might just grow hybrid sauce tomatoes. The hybrid Roma III does well for me. I might stick in a couple of heirloom romas for sentiment and flavor. Sauce tomatoes are one of my best and most productive crops every year. I like hybrids for disease resistance and production, but open pollinated types are more flavorful for me. Not sure about cherry types yet. Sungold is a little too productive and vigorous. This year, Bush Early Girl and Early Boy Bush were just "ok", not great, so I don't know. Maybe a couple of different dwarf types too. Hot Peppers. Depends partly on the overwintering ones. The open pollinated ones didn't do as well this year. I might order hybrid Serranos, hybrid Jalapeños, and hybrid Thai pepper seeds. I prefer heirloom but in my climate have to compromise for vigor and disease resistance. I don't know if there is a hybrid Tabasco type. Long Red Cayenne did really well this year so I will grow that again. I'll look for seeds from Northern based companies. I like Banana peppers but mine didn't do great, so I might look for a hybrid there, too. Lettuce. Black Seeded Simpson from saved seeds. Shallots. A few, red ones from bulbs I already have. I'll look for seeds, too. Onions. New York Early if I can find seeds. Maybe a hybrid long day type, my heirloom red onions didn't do great this year. Garlic. Already planted, Music (hardneck ) and Lorz (softneck for longer keeping). These are from bulbs I saved this year. The Music has been continuous in my garden for at least a decade, and they are very well adapted to my garden and methods. Tree Fruits. For the first time in 25 years, no new fruit trees or varieties. I want to get my miniature fruit tree garden in much better shape this year, and might graft something different onto non-productive or frustrating types. I'm thinking about converting more if the red flesh but not productive ones to Jonathan or Jonared, which I have as big trees, or Pristine which I like a lot. Annual Flowers. I saved seeds for Rudbeckias, French and African marigolds, Bloodflower (milkweed), Cleome, so want to grow those again. I like the Echinacea variety Cheyenne Spirit Mix so want to try that, and some cosmos. I want to extend the Mirabilis row with mixed colors, so plan to order those seeds too, plus some yellow and purple-ish ones that I saved seeds. Maybe more Morning Glories. I might try Sweetpeas again. Maybe statice again. Maybe wallflowers. Perennial Flowers. Not planning on buying any new ones, except starting more Mirabilis from seed which blooms first year like annual but us perennial here. I have lots to clean up and/or move around. The Cheyennne Spirit echinacea is supposed to bloom first year like an annual, but is perennial too. Most of my flowers are in "deer all-you-can-eat salad bar zone", so I have to grow things they don't like. Carnations and salpiglossis were not great this year, so I wont bother. That's all I can think of right now. I might add some turnips and Swiss Chard, but as much as I like them, most are usually wasted. Radishes, too.
I enjoyed reading your plans Daniel. We have begun as well, also taking winterising measures for the beds. You have a good variety on the planning board.
Thanks @Sjoerd and @Pacnorwest for your comments! I decided most of this year's order would be from Johnny's Seeds in Maine. It's a northern source, so matches my latitude OK. I used to like a supplier in Oregon, but their shipping cost and seed costs became much too high for me. I made some changes because, who can look at a seed supplier website and not want something new? They only had one SE sweetcorn. The other types are too sweet for me, so I ordered it - Sugar Buns. They had hybrid Jalapeños and hybrid Serrano peppers. I chose Jalapeños El Jefe and Jalefuego, for vigor and disease resistance, and hybrid Serrano pepper Altiplano. I grow a large bed of hot peppers each year, with multiple varieties. I checked my slicing tomato seed stash and have enough of them saved, mostly dwarf heirloom types. There are a few sauce tomato seeds, but I like to try some new ones so ordered Plum Regal, which has good reviews, is determinate, and has a very good disease resistance profile. This year I didn't have significant tomato disease, none in the sauce tomatoes, but I don't like to risk it. I still have last year's saved Roma VF seeds, so will grow a few of those for comparison and to keep the lineage going in my garden. I decided to go all-hybrid with zucchini and summer squash. I ordered Zephyr for yellow summer squash. Zephyr supposedly has richer flavor, and is a hybrid containing lineages of crookneck, delicata, and acorn squashes. Dunja zucchini for disease resistance, again. I also added a winter squash, Blue Ballet, a small (4 pound?) Hubbard. I've never grown those. And a hybrid Butternut squash, "JWS 6823", a melodious name for sure. Will 2023 be the year that I can finally grow my own Butternut squash? The rest of my squash varieties will be from my home-garden saved stash. There were also flowers and an improved cilantro. While cleaning the garden, I found the last cucumber of the variety Bush Pickle, nicely ripe, so will save those seeds for next year's pickle cucumber. I found two long-day hybrid onion varieties, yellow Powell and red Red Carpet. This year's crop didn't work out, so I'm trying new ones. Seeds are becoming more expensive, and shipping even worse. There have also been shortages of some varieties. I'm happy to have a lot of saved seeds. Seeds can't be saved from the hybrids, but I'm no purist. My guess is the ones I saved would be about $100 if I bought them now.
Daniel. So amazing that you can keep track of all your seeds down to the details . I have so many seeds all marked . It’s become such a huge stash I don’t know what to do with them… Many seals in dark containers stores in appropriate place . Many cannot find in seed catalogs any more and many seed cats always seem to go with the new trends .
@Pacnorwest, that I do that is just a sign of obsession I keep my seeds in an unheated pantry closet in the dark, in paper envelopes. Some keep up to ten years (tomatoes, beans, peppers). I don't know what the next ten years will bring, so I don't worry about them too much. The cost is a big deal to me . Also I want varieties that have proven themselves over and over in my garden. Plus I love saving seeds! This year, I saved bush bean seeds for the first time. So easy! Why didn't I do that before? Also new to me saving this year, cleome, rudbeckia, African marigold. There are some seed catalogs that carry a lot of old varieties - Baker Creek, Victory Seeds, Southern Exposure, and Seed Savers Exchange come to mind. Most of the "Big Name" companies... well, some of them don't do well for me any more, and are so expensive! And shipping / handling are so high for some! I do like trying new varieties, especially to see if they fit my garden and way of living. This year, I liked Burgess Buttercup squash a lot - fairly productive, convenient size, good flavor. Also some of the heirloom or non-hybrid, dwarf tomato varieties. I think I'll save a few seeds from the Tabasco pepper plant I grew, and try that one again, but I think it needs warmer soil, warmer days, and longer summer than I can provide. The basil I grow is from home seeds, and seems to grow better than store bought now. My garden saves seeds too, without input from me. I have all sorts of things coming up that I didn't plant - tomatoes, four o'clocks, borage, lemon balm, marigolds, potatoes, squashes, Swiss chard...
Daniel. You have lots of very good reasons to save seeds. Everything is getting so spendy even a tiny seedling from a nursery is way over priced today. I’m just glad that I started my garden when plants were less than half of what they are now. Otherwise I would be looking at nothing but pastures and weeds. That’s what started my obsession with gardening. One early season of gardening I saved and dug up all my iris and placed them in the barn storage are. When next spring came to plant them they were all eaten by mice. It’s a no win situation in ground the rain will rot them or gophers and other ground critters get most plant material in winter. I had many old memories , my great uncle brought the iris all the way from Northern Ireland. He had a huge iris garden in the states for many years. I thought I was saving the family legacy by keeping them safe in the barn with a lid only for the mice to destroy them all in one winter. It is very rewarding to plant saved seeds and have the expected results. So many hybrids today are not viable or do not reproduce anything near the original plant. I especially was fond of HERONWOOD catalog. Located in Kingston WA by Renown horticulturist Dan Hinkley. I still have those catalogs that tell the story of where he found each plant around the world and all adventures around them. as well as soil and growing conditions. He had it all in one catalog. I have been up to see his garden before Burpee destroyed it when he sold to them. It has been restored by volunteer program today. Many you tube videos to see the new garden he has since he moved back to Wa. and the Heronswood garden so exquisitely displayed plants like a theatre production. No one has topped his gardens to this day…Have you been there?
