seeds, glorious seeds!

okay, so i just got the BEST package in the mail! my seeds! i ordered them back on the 5th, and have been complaining and griping about how slow this company was to ship... but my patience (or lack of) has been rewarded - the seeds came today! here is an exhaustive list:

Lincoln (garden peas)
Peppermint
Black Hungarian (peppers)
Hungarian Hot Wax (sounds like a kinky, possibly illegal hygienic treatment, but it's a pepper)
Golden Treasure (again, sounds kinky but it's simply a pepper...)
Mini Red Bell (pepper)
Purple Plum (pepper)
Five Color Silverbeet (Chard)
Zuccino Rampicante (zuccinni)
St. Pierre (tomato)
Egg (tomato)
Bloody Butcher (tomato)

I ordered from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, based on a recommendation from a gardening blog that I read. I think I love this company. Cheaper than Behnke Nursery, by far, plus Baker Creek delivers. I had ordered, in addition to the list above, sugar peas and parsley - but apparently they ran out of stock before they filled my order. Instead of refunding my debit account, they sent back 4 dollar bills stapled to a little envelope containg a quarter! my change! $4.25! how sweet. plus a little note of apology AND two free packets of seeds!!! sunflowers and something called Lemon Cucumber. yahoo! definitely worth the wait.

Already in the starting trays I have:

hollyhocks (sprouting already)
marigolds
scallion
mammoth melting sugar (peas)
dill
poppies

I've already planted some spring mix and other various lettuces outside. Somehow, lettuce turned into a perennial without notifying me. I have several renegade patches that sprouted back up in late november. who knew? well, maybe you knew that lettuce could do that. but i didn't.

if you've seen my backyard, you might be questioning my sanity or my grasp on reality. where the fudge am i going to fit all these plants?? well, i have one billion (approx.) containers and several large planters that i will use. plus some creativity in the yard area. i have plans. oh yes. plans. in addition, i am factoring in the plant death-rate that i have established through the years. i do very well during the beginning. then in late may, when i leave for a week, about 1/2 of the populations perishes either in a freakish heat wave or drowns in a freakish deluge of precipitation. so there's that.

oh! and i managed, for the first year, to NOT kill my Giant Moonstone Goldenlorious Trumpet Vine (not really it's name - but it is something dramatic like that. i just can't remember offhand.) i buy a small one each year at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival - not cheaply, at $7 per little sprout. each year i am similarly inspired by the giant potted version that the vendor displays - it reaches easily 6 feet tall, covered in lovely golden-yellow trumpet flowers. each year it grows nicely through the summer... i bring it in when the cold fall begins... then i forget about it until sometime around christmas, when it is long-since dead. not this year! i've kept it alive (barely) through thick and thin - even through our poor baby kitty using it as a litter box for a week. i hope i didn't speak too soon and kill the durn thing before spring really arrives.

i also hope that the aforementioned kitty doesn't get curious and dig up all my seedling whilst i am away at work. well, i've always wanted a pair of kitten mittens. no time like the present!