Flame Weeder

Our new flame weeder just showed up in the mail today.  This is what it looks like (photo of Johnny's Selected Seeds flame weeder, where we got it).  Pat has outfitted it with a backpack, so he can carry around a 10 lb tank.  It is really cool and looks kind of like a backpack sprayer only it is a propane tank on the back and the wand will be shooting flame not spray.  We will use this to keep weeds down this year since mile-a-minute and other weeds were ferocious last year.  Supposedly you can get the setting so that it bursts the cell walls of the weeds, when they are first emerging and before the garden plants come on.  Or you can use it between the rows of plants to spot-treat.  I have a feeling my dad is going to want to use this on my mom's flower beds!

Seed list

We are thinking ahead to spring and to what we are going to plant. We came up with a game plan: Spring--Early (March-April) 50' double row snow peas, 50' double row snap peas, 25' carrots, 10' radish, 10'spring onion, 20' red cabbage, 10' Nappa cabbage, 40' Pac choi, 40 kohlrabi, 100' potato (dark red Norland); Spring Late (May-June) 20' Brussels sprouts, 25' parsnip, 25' endive, 10' fennel, 50' onion, 100' potato (kennebek), 25' Leek, 25' sweet potato; Mid (June) 60' bean (snap), 30x100 corn, 3 plants summer squash, 3 plants zucchini, 3 plants patty pan, 10 plants pepper, 10 plants eggplant, 35 tomato plants, 10 cantaloupe, 10 hill watermelon, 25' cucumber, 25' carrot. Late (July, Aug, Sept) 15 Hill winter squash 20 broccoli 20 cauliflower 25' rutabega 25' turnip 25' carrot 40' beet 25' kale 20 plants cabbage 60' shell beans pumpkin We haven't ordered anything yet, most of the stuff we already have. But we were going to give Fedco a try this year. Last year we ordered most of our seeds from Johnny's or Seed Savers, which both were very good (I tended to like Johnny's a little better). We got a plethera of catalogs this year, so Pat did a lot of comparison shopping, and decided that, price-wise, Fedco was the best bargain. Fedco seems like a very small company, kind of the underdog. I normally root for the underdog. So we are going to try them out this year and see how it goes.