No better way to celebrate Valentine’s day than planting seeds for the 2009 Towsey-French garden. :) We’re a bit behind schedule in terms of planting, but still well ahead of our progress this time last year. In planting our seeds, this time of year also signals the start of our work to expand the size of our garden beyond what we planted last year.

In late Spring, 2008, we took it upon ourselves to convert more than 1/3 of our back yard into fresh, fluffy garden soil. The earth made a poor lawn and we had no interest in maintaining it for cosmetic purposes. The work to convert the ground to garden-quality soil was laborious as we chose to remove the sod by hand and bury it deeply in the earth, in hand-dug holes. Fortunately, the work paid off and our garden produced beautiful crops. Whatever the case, we’re going to be spending some time out back again very soon, converting at least another 1/3 of the yard into additional growing space.

Here’s a list of the seeds we’ve started indoors:

• Big Beef Tomato
• Super Marzano Tomato
• Candy Onion
• Talon Onion
• Guardsman Onion
• Salad Bowl Lettuce
• Bullet Lettuce

Additionally, we’ll be sowing the following vegetables directly into the soil:

• Blue Lake Pole Bean
• Canoe Peas
• Nelson Carrots
• Sweet Green Spinach
• Yukon Gold Potatoes
• One other, yet to be named potato variety

And finally, we’ll be planting Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes from transplants. It’s going to a busy year!