New Gardening Techniques & Varieties to Grow in 2022

Welcome to episode number 330 of the Pioneering Today Podcast. Today's episode, we are going to be talking about some new gardening techniques that I'm going to be testing out this year and you may want to test out as well. And the varieties that I am growing this year. I did some tests last year of doing some different varieties, and some of them are definite keepers and there are others that I am not going to be growing again. They just didn't perform well. So I thought I would give you an update on that as well in case you are looking for some of these crops to grow and to know what varieties have performed the best for me and are my tried and true standards, as well as some new things that we're trying out in the garden.

Welcome to the Pioneering Today Podcast. I am your host, Melissa K. Norris, fifth generation homesteader and bestselling author of The Family Garden Plan, as well as The Family Garden Planner. I'm the founder of the Pioneering Today Academy, as well as the website, melissaknorris.com. Big shocker there, I'm sure. And I help thousands of people every single month to live a homegrown in hand-made life using simple, modern home setting. And I can't wait to help you as well.

Today's sponsor of the podcast is my book, The Family Garden Plan, as well as The Family Garden Planner that I just mentioned a few seconds ago. The Family Garden Plan is literally that it is a plan to help if you grow a year's worth of sustainable and healthy food. So it walks you through everything from planning on where to put your garden, assessing your grounds from micro-zones and micro-climates, from seed starting to inground, to creating beds, to creating gardens, to actually planting, harvesting, using natural organic methods, companion planting, crop rotation, everything from planning to harvest with worksheets and charts so that you know how much to plant per person for your family based upon what you eat and your climate to grow a year's worth of food. It also includes for roots, berries and perennial growing with creating your own orchard.

Then The Family Garden Planner is just that. It is actually a gardening month and daily planner that you write in and fill in everything for the entire year of growing a garden. So record keeping, seed starting, all of that. It also does include charts based upon your growing climate and zones as to when you would be seed starting or doing different things in the garden so you can actually then take that info, plug it into the planner aspect of it as you plan out your months and weeks and days. So you can get those at melissaknorris.com. You'll just want to click on the little button that says shop. It has a dropdown arrow. It's on that main menu at the top of the website, and click on books and you will see those listed there.

So to start this episode off, some of the things that I am going to be testing out and trying differently in the garden this year. That has to do with growing onions and seed starting. This past year, like many of you, we had extreme weather or a weather that was not quite normal for our area. That included in June of 2021. We had record breaking heat of 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Yes, 120 degrees Fahrenheit here on our homestead. We had a stretch of multiple days that we were triple digits, but we topped out at 120 degrees Fahrenheit in June. Oh, usually the hottest we ever get, maybe 104, maybe 105 degrees. And that is very rare. Certainly not every summer. And usually maybe for one day. Two at most. But this triple digit heat wave that we had roll through less and much longer and was much, much, much hotter than ever.

And I say that because it was in June, which is so relatively early in summer. And I really think that it did have an effect on some of my crops. I had a horrible onion harvest last year. My garlic did fine. Many of even my cooler weather crops that were still in the ground like be heats and lettuce and all of that, they survived the heat without incredible bolting. But my onions were just pitiful. They never really got large. I didn't have hardly any bulb formation. Those that did were very, very small. And normally I have never had problems with onions. Normally we grow enough audience that last us through an entire year. So I'll grow about 75 onions without issue. But this past year, I don't know if it was that weather window. I'm not sure. I had gotten my starts from a company that I have always gotten my onion sets from when I don't start them from seed myself.

But what's interesting is, I talk to other gardeners in our area and they noticed the same as I did that the sets that they got and didn't start from seed did not perform for them, and they had similar results to mine. So I'm going to be doing a test this year with my onions. One is, normally, you start onion seeds. So this is a little, little tiny little seeds indoors. They have one of the longest periods of starting them before your first average frost date of any of your seeds starting plants. Even longer than tomatoes and peppers. Typically, you're going to be starting... Your onion start's about 10 weeks before your last average prostate. Sometimes even 12 weeks before.

So this year I am doing a test where I am going to be starting some of my own seats indoors like normal with a grow light and all that fun stuff. We'll have in the show notes a link to seed starting lights and everything like that if you're newer to seed starting, especially seed starting indoors, what you're going to need. But I'm also going to do basically it's a three part test. I am going to plant direct. So my onion seeds in April as soon as my ground is workable. Now, for reference, my last average frost date is usually the end of April. The very, very tail end of April, which means I'm normally not planting out any warm weather crops till the mid to end of may.

So about April 1st, provided we're not covered under snow, which usually we're not by April, we can get some snow in March, but it's usually long gone by April, I am going to try direct sewing early as possible some of the onion seeds just outdoors. And then I'm also going to order one set of onion sets. So they come and they look like dried little tiny green on. They're like little, tiny, little onion bulbs. Those are onion sets if you're not familiar, the difference between onion sets and onion seeds from the company that I normally always do. So I will have three different ways that I am starting my onion seeds, and I'm going to see which ones perform the best.

My hope is that the ones that I can direct so in April at harvest time will be approximately the same size as both the onion sets or the ones that I started indoors. Because if that's the case, then that means I don't have to seed start onion seeds or buy sets. Now, we'll see. Whenever I do a test, I don't ever put all my apples in one barrel, so to speak because I would not want to risk not having a harvest of the onion again this year just based on a test.

Now, as far as onion for varieties, I always do long storage varieties because my goal is to harvest these onions and have them last until next year in planting time. In the past, we have grown Copra and Patterson, as well as blush. They have all been great storage varieties for me. But this year, and this is another thing where I am looking at trying to find more seed companies that actually grow their own seeds and do so in farms and environments that are very similar to my own growing conditions.

Some seed companies will just buy their seed from a big mass producer, and then they just put their own label on them. So I'm always looking at seed companies that actually have farms that they are growing their seeds from and harvesting those themselves, and then selling them. And many people are familiar with Baker Creek Heirloom Seed. They have a lot of different rare varieties. Great company love their ethics and everything like that, but they don't have a similar growing condition to mine.

And so I have found Siskiyou Seed, which is in Oregon. I'm in Washington State, Western Washington, Northern Western Washington at that state and Siskiyou Seeds out of Oregon, they grow on farms there and a couple in Washington actually. Because the growing climate is so similar to my own, I have found that the seeds that I have bought from them, I have a higher germination rate and better harvest because we're already acclimated to my climate than that of Baker Creek.

Then this year I'm excited. I found another even smaller, more local to me as in one county over and it's called Resilient Seeds. She has a very small seed offering, but I'm excited because I'm going to be trying a Newberg yellow storage onion, new variety to me and new seed company. But she says that it stores really well for her and grows well. And so knowing that she's only one county away from me and really excited to try this variety of onions this year and see how they do.

Another new item that I am trying is Soup peas. This is from the same seed company, resilient seeds, and it's a Soup pea Saint Hubbert Bush. I've always grown snap peas. I have never grown soup peas before. So I'm really excited to give these a try and see how we like them and how they grow for us. Another new item I'm trying is Black cumin. I've never grown my own cumin.

Then this is something that if you watched one of my YouTube videos on the top three things to do for preparedness and 2022, one of the things I mentioned in there of my goal this year is to look at ways that we can feed our livestock without supplementing, even from local feed mills, or if we were unable to get that we would still be able to feed them. So I am trying a new variety of winter squash. It's also from this seed company, Resilient Seeds. It's called Oregon Homestead Sweet Meat. They're supposed to get really, really large and be prolific, but because they're so large, this is something that we would be able to feed the chickens, definitely the pigs and possibly even the cattle if it was cooked. I find that the pigs and the chickens really love the winter squash. So I'm super excited to be bringing this new variety on the homestead. We can eat it as well, but for an option to the livestock too.

And speaking of squash, I always stand by for my butternut squash, the butternut waltham. That is the standard, I think of all butternut squash. And then acorn squash is Table Queen. But this past year we have fallen in love with Delicata. So winter squash delicata from Siskiyou Seeds, I got the Zeppelin, which we really, really enjoyed. And I also did a honey boat, which was from the Seed Savers Exchange. We really enjoyed both of these. So I'm definitely doing them again. And we will never be in the garden without some delicata squash. It's actually even surpassed our love of butternut. Don't tell the butternut.

I love growing beets. Beets are one of my favorite. I love beets roasted beets with some goat cheese, oh, talk about heaven. But I also like to have beets in salad and believe it or not, beets in a chocolate cake are delicious. You don't taste them. I promise, but they add texture and moisture, and we love to add beets to chocolate cake. In fact, I have a great chocolate beet cake recipe on the website.

In the past, I've done raspberries Egyptian and Early Wonder, which I still like both of those. They are fine. But in finding a seed company that had more similar growing conditions to mine, Pronto, I'm really enjoying. And my new favorite is Touchstone Gold. I'm falling in love with the golden beets. Their flavor, it seems to be it's a little bit more... It's not quite as earthy. I really, really enjoy the flavor of the golden beets, plus they don't tend to bleed everywhere nearly as much. So I feel like they're easier in the prep work and the cleanup department as well.

Now, one of the things that I did a little bit different last year in testing out some varieties was both with cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, as well as brussel sprouts. We love brussel sprouts around here. But I tried a new variety and I feel like it's almost unfair for new varieties that I did last year because we had such an odd growing year that we had so much heat and that weird heat wave that came through. We actually had multiples, but the first one was in June and that one was by far the hottest.

So the brussel sprouts. Last year, I tried a new variety called Darkmar 21. And it says it's a 210 to 250 day brussel sprouts. Now, this is surprising to a lot of people. Brussel sprouts are actually one of longest growing brassicas. They take much, much longer to grow and form the brussel sprouts than cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, et cetera. So generally, I will plant my brussel sprouts the end of May. And then they will be forming the little brussel sprouts right at the first frost that comes about anywhere from the end of September to mid October. And then they will just stay on the vine out in the garden all the way through, usually till about January, and we'll just harvest them straight from the garden. They go through multiple frosts and they develop that sweet, lovely flavor. And they're just delicious.

But the Darkmar 21s, they didn't form heads until super, super late. And by the time they were trying to start to form their heads, we had already reached the point and it's not so much the frost, it's the lack of sunlight because we do live of so far north we're about an hour and a half to two hours north of the Canadian border. A lot of that's just the way driving. If it was just the Crow flies, it'd be a little bit different. We'd be closer. So by the time they were trying to form their heads, it wasn't that we were too cold. It was we didn't have enough daylight hours. And so whatever's not formed in a fall garden by the time you start to have that reduction of daylight hours, it just doesn't grow. It goes into hibernation mode. So we really did not get any brussel sprout harvest. Even though I had a ton of brussel sprouts planted, they simply didn't form their heads fast enough before we hit the shorter daylight hours.

So I'm going back to the long island improved on the brussel sprouts instead of that Darkmar. I had bought a lot of seeds. Anybody else do a little bit of pandemic buying and was worried about seeds running out. I bought a lot of seeds. In fact, I had enough seeds. I didn't even have to order. I did order because I found a couple new companies like I was saying that Resilient Seeds and I wanted to try their varieties, but technically, I didn't even have to order any seeds. I had all of our garden seeds already purchased last in the summer. After I planted, I went and reordered because I was a little nervous there may not be seeds available.

So I may just try planting these Darkmars earlier and seeing if that's the ticket just because I have so many seeds and I hate to a waste then, but I wasn't impressed with the variety at all. Now, the other thing I did a little bit different is with my pickling cucumbers. So I have long loved the Chicago pickling cucumber, and I get that from Baker Creek. But I had such good success with so many of the seed varieties, better germination, better harvest performers, et cetera, from the Siskiyou Seeds that I wanted to try their cucumber spacemaster. Supposed to be a pickling couponer, but it just did not perform as well for me, honestly, as the cucumber Chicago pickling variety.

So I'm going to get more of the Chicago Pickler. It's just way, way outperformed the other one. I'm not sure I did have them planted in two different spots. So technically, it could have been a soil deficiency. I don't think that that was the case though because I had other stuff growing there that did really well. And I did get some cucumbers. I just didn't get nearly the volume that I did on the Chicago Picklers compared to the Spacemaster. So I'm going to go back to my old reliable, the Chicago pickling variety of cucumber.

Alrighty. Let us talk tomatoes, my friend. You know my love, well, I should say. If you had been listening to the podcast for any period of time, you know that I adore a San Marzano Lungo No. 2 to be specific, which is a past heirloom tomato variety. I first got my seed supply from Baker Creek and have loved that tomato for making all of our tomato sauces and even fresh eating. They're great. However, I did try a new tomato paste variety this past year and I'm tied for favorites now.

Yeah, I know I said it. I feel so bad. San Marzano Lungo. I still love you, but I had to make room for an Amish paste. So I grew the Amish paste with the San Marzano Lungo and very, very impressed with the Amish paste. It was just as prolific. So I got the same great amount of harvest. I split it up and I did 10 plants of the San Marzano Lungo and I did 10 of the Amish paste. And then I always do a Galena's cherry, which is a yellow cherry tomato. We love to have cherry tomatoes and I like to have the yellow in there. It's fun. I think it has a great, great flavor and hardly any cracking, which is key for us.

And then I usually do a Brandy wine or sometimes a Cherokee, something that is more of a table eating variety. So it's like those big fat globe like, looks like a beef steak, but I don't grow beef steak. That type that has like a really nice deep flavor profile, is really juicy that we just use slicing for fresh and to salads and on sandwiches and hamburgers and in all the ways. But Amish paste, yep, it is now a standby in my tomatoes.

So it's still grow the San Marzano Lungo. I don't have a ton of problem with blossom and rot, but I will see that San Marzano Lungo does tend to get blossom and drought a little bit more. I noticed I probably only had like maybe, I don't know, I'm trying to think, out of all of the plants, maybe I only had probably five tomatoes developed blossom and drought, and it was just some inconsistent watering that we had mainly just because of the heat wave that we had. But I did notice that the majority of those were actually on the San Marzano Lungos and not the Amish paste. And they were growing in the same high tunnel, same soil, et cetera, whatnot. So I do have to say, I really like the Amish paste and we'll continue to grow those as well.

One of the other things that I'm going to be testing out this year is the timing. I'm going to do some winter sewing of some spinach and cool weather lettuce. And if you're in the Pioneering Today Academy, or you have my Backyard Gardening course, then you have access to the winter sewing lessons, but I'm going to give you short recap here. The winter sewing is when usually like using a milk jug or some type of plastic container.

You fill it with soil and you put your seeds in there and then you miss them need to have right seed starting conditions, need to have the soil damp, and then you seal it up and you just have a couple of holes poked at the top so that any rainfall that you get down and so that it can breathe a little bit comes and you just set them outside. And then when conditions are right, they will begin to germinate and sprout and grow inside the container. And then you don't would have to do any hardening off because they're already acclimated to the outdoor temperatures. And then you can just plant them in the regular soil.

Now, I have tested this myself and I have much more step-by-step detailed instructions inside the Backyard Gardening course, as well as the Pioneering Today Academy, which we will be opening up for new members in March is when the Pioneer Today Academy will be opening up again. So mark your calendars for that. We'll have more information coming soon.

But I am going to be trying winter sewing more again this year, but I'm actually going to be doing it inside the high tunnel. I don't want to set up my seed starting lights quite yet in my setup inside the house. And I'm running out of room because this year I am doing a large medicinal flower garden and I am going to have to be starting quite a bit of those seeds indoors along with the vegetables. And I'm just running out of light.

So I'm going to be doing the winter sewing, but inside the high tunnel in hopes that I can get the lettuce and the spinach to sprout out there in the high tunnel even faster, and then just plant them directly in the high tunnel so that we can have some fresh greens coming on in February. I'm going to start them in January and hopefully they'll be going by February. So I'm going to be doing that. I've not done the winter in the high tunnel in that manner. And we're going to see how that works. I've done it just directly outdoors without being in any type of protected environment, shall we say.

The other thing that I'm going to be doing differently this year... You guys, this is why it is so key to use some type of journal and key gardening notes from year to year because you're going to want to make adjustments each year, whether it's my Family Garden Planner that has it all laid out there for you that you can use or just use sheet of paper and take notes on this stuff. But I like to do a fall garden. We do early spring garden, regular summer, annual vegetable garden and then I also do a fall planting.

And I have not had very good success with my broccoli and my cauliflower forming heads and growing in the fall. I plant exactly like it says how so many weeks before your first average frost state for starting those fall gardening plants. And I tried moving it an extra two weeks this year, starting them even earlier. But what happens is, is they never actually form ahead for me in the fall. We get too dark, too fast. Basically the daylight hours get shortened too quickly and it just doesn't ever form the heads. So I'm going to give it one more go this year. And instead of, typical advice would show planting it for me with my first average frost state, the first week of August. So I bumped it back and I did it mid July this past year, still wasn't enough. And I didn't get ahead formed on the broccoli or the cauliflower before winter came on and then there's no hope for it.

So what I'm going to try this year, now it works fine for cabbage and beets and other things like that, and even carrots. I just haven't had success with the broccoli and the cauliflower on a fall planting. So what I'm going to try is doing it the end of June. I'm going to try basically just doing a succession planting where four weeks after... I would plant like the end of may, which I don't typically put my broccoli and cauliflower in at that time, but that is when we do our major planting is just saving a small amount of space so that I can try just the end of June. And if it doesn't work by planting them at the end of June and I still don't get any head formation by fall, then I will not bother with broccoli and cauliflower plants for the fall.

But I feel like there's a way to make it work. I'm so determined. I just haven't found the perfect planting date for me and my climate with them yet. But that is my goal, is to figure out how to get broccoli to form a head before the big freezes come on so that I have a fall crop of broccoli. And they do perfect for me in the spring. I can get beautiful cauliflower and broccoli heads in the springtime, but I'm greedy. I want them twice a year. I don't want them only in this spring. So anyways, that's what I'm going to be testing and trying and trying out some different things and playing with planting times and planting ways for this year and 2022.

Now, for our verse of the week, we are in Isaiah 43:16-19. And this is the Amplified translation of the Bible. "Thus says the Lord who makes a way through the sea and a path through the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and mighty warrior, they lie down together, they cannot rise, they are distinguished. They are quenched like a lamp wick. Do not earnestly remember the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing." Now, it's spring fourth, do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heat to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.?"

I thought that was very [inaudible 00:26:20] to share at the time of this recording. It is right at the new year. And I find the New Year for many of us is often time of reflection, looking at the past year like I just did with the garden, things that I'm going to be doing differently, but on a spiritual level and even our everyday life practical level because they're both very much entwined, remembering that God is doing new things. And oftentimes in areas just like if you're looking at a desert, one would never think that you would see a river flowing through the desert, but with God all things are possible.

And so to remember that in areas of my life where I might feel like it is a desert. Or I am remembering past failures or times that things didn't work. That that does not mean that it won't work now or that new things aren't coming. And also to take my focus. And instead of looking at the things that did fail in the past or didn't go right or do well, instead to look towards the future and have faith that things will be different this time, and that God is at work and is going before us and creating new ways and new pathways where there haven't been before.

I hope that that gave you some inspiration. Certainly did me. And as one that I going to be meditating on that portion of scripture as I go into the New Year. There are, I can't share with you guys quite yet, but there are some really big, super, super exciting things that are going to affect you that are going to be really amazing opportunities that I'm very, very excited to talk about.

Actually one, okay. I take it back. There is one that I can't share with you because it is actually official and we have announced it. And that is, I am now a partner with The Homestead Documentary. I am really excited. It's a project that I am so passionate about and it's going to help so many people. And so I don't have any details yet, but very soon I will have more details. So that's just a little bit of a teaser.

I can keep secrets. Oh. But I just want to tell them so bad. There's another project that I can't tell you about quite yet. Just know that it's coming and it's going to be really awesome and amazing. And it's something that's very, very needed in the home setting. Okay. That's it before I accidentally spell the beans beforehand. So my friends, I will be back here with you next week. I can't wait to talk with you then. Until then, blessings [inaudible 00:28:58].