Posted on 01/10/2009 6:05:11 PM PST by nickcarraway
That’s right. I can grow them under my very OWN unsanitary conditions...LOL.
Best,
L
Well, we do have some seeds that are ‘heirlooms’ which means open-pollinated and ‘old-timey’ plants that do what Mother Nature intended in the first place. (Though even ‘heirlooms’ have been modified by Mother Nature to suit her needs over the eons. The ‘Brandywine’ tomato didn’t just ‘show up’ one day in the wild. Don’t kid yourself. ;)
However, as much as I love my current company, you need to visit:
They’re heirloom specialists; that’s all they sell. I worked for them for seven of the happiest years of my life. :)
Are you more concerned about SAVING seed from year to year, or about flavor or about productivity, or somewhere in-between? Even though I’ve worked for an ‘heirloom’ company, there are ‘hybrids’ I would confidently recommend for flavor and productivity.
IMHO, ‘organic’ seed is a load of manure. Seed is seed. The ‘organics’ come into play when they’re raised and fed in YOUR garden where you can control the environment to SOME extent. (Mother Nature ALWAYS wins. Don’t doubt that, LOL!)
Ask me anything. :)
I’m on the coast of NC—definitely NOT the northeast. Like you, we’re overrun with deer and ticks. We have a lot of people, many I know personally, that have/had Lyme. Drs are very resistant to that fact, to the point where some of the persons have gone to Duke. The drs there take a look and go, “Yeah, youve got Lyme. Even when meds are prescribed, often it’s not for a long enough time. It seems to be an ongoing battle to be able to get/take antibiotics. Almost lost a friend because drs refused to give him the antibiotics he needed. He still has problems, much like being bitten by a black widow or a brown recluse, the lingering after symptoms are worse than the actual disease/bite/whatever. And—the bites are not always accompanied by a bull’s eye and the symptoms can take years to manifest.
One of my dad’s dogs has lyme. I worry about it being transmissible—dog to person.
Take care.
Hey Di, Lurker!
As for heirloom seeds, what we find around here is that diseases and insects are so bad, oftentimes the old varieties won’t survive long enough to bear. For the last few years, Homestead and Marglobe tomatoes kicked the bucket just about the time they were loaded down with green tomatoes, sometimes earlier tahn that. I’m not talking about one or two plants, I’m talking about big gardens and fields. The only tomatoes that made anything at all were Christas, Muriels, and soem cherry tomatoes. Tomato spotted wilt is wiping them out.
Hush, you! You’re probably ready to HARVEST tomatoes, and I haven’t even STARTED mine yet, LOL!
Good point, though. A lot of the battle is finding the veggie plant varieties that will grow and produce where you grow and produce! :)
What do you mean? Last I looked, Victory Gardens was still very much near Dover in Morris County, New Jersey. ;-)
I'm concerned about not being able to get seed from year to year. Flavor and productivity are secondary concerns. Although some of the best tomatoes I've ever had were 'heirloom' varieties.
I'd had to not be able to get a second year of seed because they're not available for whatever reason.
Any advice you can offer on the subject is greatly appreciated.
L
Ping.
CrappieLuck is quite the gardener, but I forget sometimes to ping him to this thread.
CrappieLuck, tell us when you are planting onions, etc. (you are in the same zone) Hope you and Mrs. Crappie are doing okay.
CrappieLuck is also one heck of a deer hunter.
What do you mean? Last I looked, Victory Gardens was still very much near Dover in Morris County, New Jersey. ;-) >>
lol, i hope it is, it was there the last time i was in the area.
Seed keeps, you know. Buy more than you need. Store it in glass jars somewhere cool and dark. Don’t freeze it. Throw a few grains of rice in the jar to keep down any moister that may have gotten in.
Seed keeps it viability longer than the seed companies would like you to believe. Small seeds; lettuce, radish, sprouts, tomatoes, peppers, etc. keep viability for up to 5 years...and then some will still sprout; your germination rate goes down, that’s all.
Larger seed like beans, peas, corn, squashes, will keep for less time.
Rule of thumb: The larger the seed, the shorter the good germination rates are.
If this really worries you, keep seed in with your Emergency Stash (or in my case, ‘Tornado/Blizzard Kit’). I don’t, but I might start doing that now. Rotate them out and into your garden each year as you do the food and water supplies. Replenish.
There are two seed banks in America. One is in some mountainside in the west and one is in Decorah, IA. There are seed banks all over the world, for that matter. Many cultures know the value of keeping seed. :)
Did that help?
Haven’t started maters yet, but in the next couple of weeks... Grin
Don’t freeze seed? That’s what we reccommend because of the high humidity here. Putting rice in the jar would probably backfire for us! The worst thing for us is bugs. I think some of the seeds come pre-bugged, primed to hatch. Amazes me how weed seed can remain viable for centuries just lurking and waiting for the right moment to attack, and spinach seeds won’t keep from spring til fall—here.
Thanks for the Ping and kind words.
I was actually going to work in the garden this week. I need to burn off the dead weeds and grass that took over last summer after I lost interest in the garden. It happened about the same time deer season came along, imagine that LOL
I picked up some lime and fertilizer late last fall that was marked down. It takes about 6 weeks for both to break down and start working so I’m going to get that on next week.
I can’t wait to get started this year. I’m going to till up another 200 SQ Ft of pasture for our garden so we can grow a few more varieties and cut a little more out of our grocery bill.
Thanks for the ping!!
"What were your symptons, and what treatment have you had?"
The first day it came on like any other 'bug'. I was feverish and my head and stomach hurt. The following morning I had a red rash and the glands in my neck were swollen to the point that there was no space between my ear lobes and neck and the fever was higher (102). Thought I had the measles.
A friend of mine is a nurse practitioner, so I gave her a call and told her that I was hesitant to come in to the office because I didn't know if I was contagious, I thought I had the measles. She said that a parvo virus (I didn't even know humans got those!) had gone around the schools and town, and that I should stay hydrated, take something for the mild fever I would experience, and ride it out for 5 days or so.
That night my fever hit 104 and my leg muscles hurt so badly that all I could do was cry.
Called my friend the next morning and told her that the fever wasn't 'mild' and that I was concerned. She again stated (bless her heart) that I should take ibuprofen and stay hydrated. The headache and fever continued for a solid week, although the swelling in my neck did go down. My neck, shoulders and arms itched to the point that I was clawing my skin raw. I tried every itch preparation on the market and received no relief.
On the 8th day, my husband took me to the emergency room at about 4:30 am. The fever had hit 105 and I was almost too weak to walk. If I stood -- I fainted. After a couple of hours of receiving fluids, the doctor (another neighbor of ours) declared that I had gastroenteritis and he was sending me home. In a friendly manner I suggested that I disagreed with him and asked him specifically if it was possible that I had West Nile or Lyme Disease or something. He chuckled in that 'you are so ignorant' tone and assured me that I had none of those things. We asked him about the severe muscle aches and cramping. He said I was dehydrated from all of the vomiting and that was lowering my potassium and making my muscles contract. When I pointed out (AGAIN) that I had not been vomiting, he totally ignored me. When I inquired about the prior rash and the current severe itching, he prescribed a steriodal creme and discharged me and told me to come into his office the next day.
This went on for almost another week with no significant improvement. My husband had gone to a local drug store to fill yet another prescription and happened to tell the pharmacist's wife some of what I was going through. He said the color left her face and she told him to get me to Dr. XXX's office asap. This was the Lyme specialist that had been treating her husband for 4 years.
It took me 2 weeks to get in to see the specialist, but we made the 2-1/2 hour drive with guarded hope.
All in all, I was diagnosed a little over a month after onset, which is fairly early, although not early enough to nip it quickly and easily. I am being treated with antibiotic therapies. The 'itching' in my arms turned out to be nerve pain as a result of some of the neurological aspects of Lyme, and is treated with anti-seizure medication. When you are treated for Lyme, you actually have to get sicker to get better ... strange as that sounds. As the medication kills the Lyme, your immune system reacts to the toxins and you get quite ill.
"When I expressed concern to my doctor he shrugged it off, says it mostly occurs in the northeastern U.S."
Unfortunately, a common misconception. Everyone, please ... if you have been exposed to the possibility of a tick bite and you become ill ... press your doctor to rule out Lyme Disease. In 30% of cases, the tick is never seen and folks don't know that they have been bitten. That was the case with me. However, for the 2 weeks prior to my becoming sick I had been in a thicket on our property cutting black locust for fence posts. I had actually picked a couple of ticks off of my clothing, but never knew that I had received a bite.
This disease is not limited to the Northeast U.S. Doctors have been studying the disease with something akin to DNA analysis and can often tell which strain is from which part of the country. The Deep South and Texas are producing every-increasing cases of Lyme Disease.
I'm not an expert, but I will be happy to answer any questions anybody might have with regard to what I've experienced so far with Lyme. I am 7 months into treatment and am probably looking at at least another year of therapy.
Unfortunate from the gardening aspect of things, one of the antibiotics that I currently take makes me extremely hyper-sensitive to sun exposure and I am, for the most part, unable to spend time outside. I still hunt avidly, and I get really sunburned from time to time, even when I'm covered up well. Sunscreen doesn't seem to help. Hopefully by the time spring rolls around this year I will be able to switch to another medication that will solve this problem.
See post 101.
Yes. Your mileage may vary on seed storage if you live in a freakin’ SWAMP, LOL!
I’ll take my SWAMP any day over your ICEBERG! LOL
I’m sorry Red Devil that I appeared to have missed the post about your surgery. I hate it that your garden suffered, but the important this is how in the world are YOU doing? My goodness, I live so close that I could do something for you if you need some help. Yell at me ... I love road trips!
There are several doctors who are making breakthroughs in treatment. They are taking Lyme seriously and treating it seriously. Every time my Lyme takes a turn and poses a new problem, which it has done 2 or 3 times, they gather all of the information that they can and structure a new or additional course of treatment that has worked every time, so far.
Please let me know if I can be of assistance to anyone.
The doctors thought I had colon cancer but it turned out to a very severe case of Diverticulitis. All tests on the growth came back negative for cancer. Both the surgeon and my gastroenterologist were amazed at the results. My wife and I just thanked God.
Like I said I am well and can't wait to start this years garden. I will be expanding it and will be using the landscape fabric. I checked the Sam's web site you posted and it said it was not available at my store. I hope they stock it this spring. Do you remember what it cost?
By the way at one time I did live much closer, Lafayette, for about 17 years. The picture of my wife and I with our pups was taken in front of the house we owned there.
I just read your post on the history of your Lyme. I had no idea about its long term effects or how difficult it was to treat. I do wish you the best. I think I will take my surgery over your Lyme anyday.
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