This time last year my sweet peas were two feet tall and getting ready to bloom. Right now, not so much, but there’s always something to be excited about.

Here’s a little video tour of the garden in February. If you’d rather read a re-cap of what I’m working on, please keep reading.

Sweet Peas

I love sweet peas and have some favorite varieties. Two of my favorites come from Floret Flowers. They have lovely varieties and they make their seeds available for sale every January…and then promptly sell out in less than a day.

Since I can’t count on being able to sit and wait for the sale to start (the sale usually starts on a weekday/workday), last year I figured if I wanted Bix and Marjorie Carrier sweet pea seeds, I’d need to save them myself from last year’s flowers. Doing so means letting your sweet pea vines go brown and dry before you’re able to collect seeds. You must let the vines get old and dry while they’re still planted, meaning you can’t cut them and then let them dry if you want mature seeds. It definitely does not look pretty, but I’m so glad I did it! I had plenty of Bix and Marjorie Carrier to plant this year and I’m going to save seed again.

Lettuces

Johnny’s Selected Seeds has a new lettuce they’ve been raving about this year called Bauer, so I went ahead and trialed it. So far, so good. I like the taste of Muir better, but Todd really likes the taste of Bauer.

We’re also continuing to plant the tried-and-true Salanova lettuces such as the green butter leaf and red butter leaf. Salanova seeds are much more expensive than other lettuce seeds, but it’s still cheaper than buying lettuce at the store–and so much tastier. The Salanova seeds cost about $.27 per seed versus Muir, which costs about $.03 per seed. If you’re a farm, a 9x cost difference is a lot. If you’re a gardener, it’s bearable and you get some incredible lettuce.

All of these prices are quoting pelleted seed, which I prefer as they’re so easy to plant and grow.

Celery

Once again, I inadvertently planted a celery forest. Someday I will learn succession planting. Instead, look out for me and bags of celery headed to your doorstep whether you like celery or not.

Garlic

If you watch the video you’ll see I have a LOT of garlic planted. I’m so excited! And that’s not even all of it. I have more planted in another garden. What am I going to do with all this garlic come fall? I have no idea. But I don’t care. I like it. The only downside to garlic is that it takes forever to grow, which is why it’s in the northernmost part of the garden. A lot of warm season/summer veggies don’t do well in that part of the garden because they need a ton of sun, but the garlic seem to like it just fine.

I think that’s it! I’m working on prepping for the seedling sale that starts in March. I’ll be having sales on March 19 and 26 and April 2, 9 and 16. And maybe one more. If you want a preview of what I’m selling, check this out. Note that on April 2, I’m going to do a seed-starting workshop for $10 for members of the Fallbrook Garden Club. If you’re not a member, now’s a good time to join as membership is half-off. With the 50% discount, membership is $15 for an individual or $25 for a family. FGC members also get discounts at our seedling sale.