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START A VICTORY GARDEN Posted on 2 Jun 14:42 , 2 comments

Victory Gardens are making a comeback with an emphasis on sustainable food. Starting a garden is always a great idea so we have a few tips below.

During World War I, Victory Gardens began in backyards, empty lots and whatever space people could find as Americans were called to grow food. Food production had fallen dramatically as agricultural labor joined the military service.

During World War II, the victory garden movement resurfaced. Eleanor Roosevelt planted a victory garden on the White House lawn and Americans were encouraged to “Sow the Seeds of Victory.”

At its peak, it is estimated that nearly 20,000,000 gardens were grown and about 40 percent of all vegetables produced in the U.S. came from Victory Gardens.

 

Getting started

In my article You Don't need a Farm to Grow Food, I mentioned several ways to grow including growing vertically, in buckets or growing in small spaces.

Growing from seeds allows you to choose unique varieties and grow them according to your area.  Choosing heirloom seeds will give the opportunity to save seeds from your harvest to grow more food in the future.  Growing from seed and then saving seeds is like printing your own money (only better because you can't eat money)

If this is your first time growing a garden, you might consider easier varieties to grow from seed.  EASY CROPS to grow that do not require much space or heavy nutrients include

Beans (50-90 days)

Beets (50-60 days)

Radish (25-35 days)

Basil (30-60 days)

Dill (30-60 days)

Cilantro (20-60 days)

Swiss Chard (60 days)

Lettuce (20-60 days)

Spinach (50-60 days)

Turnips (50-60 days)

If you intend to grow enough to preserve for future consumption, don't overlook varieties such as Tomatoes, Cucumber, Dill, Okra, Peppers, Squash, Rosemary and Pumpkin

 

Know What to Plant and When to plant

For a successful garden it is important to know when to plant certain crops specifically in your area. Planting in Florida for example will be much different than Colorado.

Our Comprehensive Planting Guide includes 2 fantastic options.  One is a Region-Specific Guide and the other is a USDA Zone Specific Planting Guide.

Our Comprehensive Planting Guide also includes seed-specific planting information, DIY garden tutorials, helpful videos and even a few recipes

Depending on your region, you might even be able to grow year round!

 

A few Cool weather crops include:

Peas, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, radish, kohlrabi, radish, cabbage, chard, lettuce, spinach, beets, turnips, leeks

Heat tolerant crops include:

Okra, Sweet & Hot peppers, Eggplant, Cucumber (specifically Ashley Cucumber), Corn, Tomatoes and Tomaatillos, Summer Squash, Pumpkins, Winter Squash, Melons, Southern Peas (also called crowder peas) and Watermelon

 

Don't forget to plant flowers to attract pollinators!

 

Pick the Right Location

Choose a sunny spot for sun-loving crops

Choose a spot with good drainage

Avoid high-traffic areas so your plants can thrive

 

Mary's Tips

Use Companion Planting with your are planning & planting your garden.  This is a great way to deter some pests and attract pollinators to your garden.

Succession planting can lets you harvest a crop over a longer period, which prevents waste and lengthens your harvest time.

Know which plants are "heavy feeders" and keep them well fed for a healthy harvest.

Most important, have fun!  Growing food is amazing!

Plant those seeds!  Grow more Food! 
Plant a Victory Garden today!

 

If you have specific garden or seed related questions, please contact us via email at MARY@MARYSHEIRLOOMSEEDS.COM
Happy Planting!


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Mary's Comprehensive Planting Guide Posted on 5 Feb 18:57 , 5 comments

Welcome to Mary's Heirloom Seeds!
 
As promised, we have our most comprehensive planting guide ever! This is a great guide to help you plan your garden. 
*UPDATED FOR 2023*

All of the blue text below are clickable links.
You can also use the search option on our website to find something specific.



Each of the zones list below are links to the full planting guide. Click the text or the image to see the planting guide


FLORIDA









 

ZONE 1


Now that we've covered our zone & region specific planting guides, below you will find additional planting info such as plant spacing and growing tutorials.

GROW A GREAT GARDEN


PLANT SPACING

Plant Spacing Chart for Veggies

Square Foot Garden Plant Spacing Chart




RAISED BED GARDENING

Build Your Own Raised Beds & GROW

Soil Recipes for Raised Bed Gardens

DIY Potting Soil Mix

VIDEO: Picking Out Lumber for Raised Beds

VIDEO: Building a Raised Bed

VIDEO: Filling Up a raised Bed & Placement

VIDEO: Let's Get Growing! Soil Info

VIDEO: Worm Tea Info & Instructions to Brew Worm Tea

VIDEO: Building Healthy Soil with FREE Organic Matter

VIDEO: Easy Leaf Mold Set-up




CONTAINER GARDENING

How to Create A Container Garden

Start A Bucket Garden

Growing In Containers


VIDEO: Create a Bucket Garden

VIDEO: Transplanting Seedlings into our Bucket Garden

VIDEO: Planting Garlic in Containers

VIDEO: How to make a Planter from a Food Grade Barrel

VIDEO: Planting in a Food Grade Barrel



GROWING FOOD

GROW YOUR OWN TACOS FROM HEIRLOOM SEEDS

11 Uses for Borage

Video: Grow More Tomatoes

Best Veggies for Homestead Gardens

Feeding a Family from the Garden

(how much to plant)

Perennial Veggies & Herbs Info

About Orach (purple)

Grow Your Own Salsa Garden with Recipe

VIDEO: Heat Tolerant Lettuce

VIDEO: TOP 10 HOMESTEAD CROPS

VIDEO: Start a Garden from Scratch

VIDEO: Follow up to Start a Garden from Scratch

VIDEO: Heirloom Bean Production

VIDEO: No Till Garden Prep for Spring

VIDEO: Planting Egyptian Walking Onions

VIDEO: Lemonblam Herb Info

VIDEO:

 

SEED STARTING & GROWING TUTORIALS

*COMPLETE LIST OF SEED STARTING TUTORIALS*

GROWING TIPS & VIDEOS

 

Why Start Herbs from Seed?

A Growing List of Herb Seeds to Stratify


GROWING LUFFA FROM SEED TO HARVEST

VIDEO: Growing Luffa Update

VIDEO: Luffa Garden Update #2

VIDEO: HARVESTING LUFFA

 

Choosing the Right Heirloom Corn Variety from Your Garden

Choosing the Right Onion Variety for Your Garden

The Wonderful World of Heirloom Tomatoes

Heat Tolerant Heirloom Varieties

VIDEO: Yellow Scotch Bonnet Tasting & Seed Saving



TRANSPLANTING SEEDLINGS


Hardening Off Seedlings


VIDEO: Transplanting Seedlings

 

POLLINATOR INFO

Planting Wildflowers in Your Garden

5 Fantastic Flowers to Attract Pollinators

 

Food Storage Prepping in the Garden: INTRO

Food Storage Prepping in the Garden: AMARANTH

Food Storage Prepping in the Garden: BEANS

Food Storage Prepping in the Garden: COWPEAS

 

Food Storage Prepping in the Garden VIDEOS

AMARANTH

BEANS

CORN

COWPEAS

MORINGA

PUMPKIN

SUNFLOWERS

 

FEEDING YOUR PLANTS

Feeding Your Plants-Updated

Using Azomite in the Garden for Healthy Plants

Using Calcium in the Garden

DIY Alfalfa Meal Tea

VIDEO: DIY Alfalfa Meal Tea

Kelp Meal Tea Recipe

VIDEO: Using Azomite in the Garden

VIDEO: Making a Liquid Fertilizer with Borage Leaves

 

 

DIY IDEAS FOR THE GARDEN

Using Coffee Grounds in the Garden

VIDEO: DIY Tomato Cages
DIY Tomato Cages Tutorial



GROWING ON A BUDGET VIDEOS

Composting in Your Kitchen

Growing on a Budget
Composting
Get the Scoop on Using Poop
Using Horse Manure
Using Goat Manure
Seed Starting Indoors
Recycled Containers for Seed Starting

 

 

MORE VIDEOS:

SEEDS ARE AMAZING

HEIRLOOM CORN VARIETIES

HEIRLOOM SQUASH WITH MARY

GLASS GEM CORN

HARVESTING HEIRLOOM CORN & TIPS FOR GROWING CORN

MAKING POPCORN with Homegrown Glass Gem Corn

 

PEST CONTROL

Companion Planting


VIDEO: Companion Planting with Borage

Pest Control & Prevention in the Garden

Identifying Common Garden Pests


Identifying Common "Good Bugs"


Organic Pest Control part 1


Organic Pest Control part 2


Organic Pest Control part 3


Using Organic Neem Oil in the Garden


VIDEO: Using Food Grade DE in the Garden


GARLIC

Garlic Growing Tips

When to Plant Garlic

How to Plant Organic Garlic

Harvesting & Curing Organic Garlic


POTATOES

VIDEO: Chitting Seed Potaotes

Planting & Growing Organic Potatoes

When to Plant Potatoes: A State-Specific Guid

 

TAKE A SEED INVENTORY & TIPS TO ORGANIZE YOUR SEED STASH

SEED STARTING WORKSHEET (printable download)

 

SEED SAVING

Seed Saving Basics

Seed Saving Part 1
Saving & Storing Garden Seeds for Next Season

LIVE CHAT: SEED STORAGE

SEED SAVING: HEIRLOOM SQUASH

SEED SAVING: HEIRLOOM BASIL

 

SEED SAVING VIDEOS

When to Harvest Dry Beans

Seed Saving Glass Gem Corn Seeds

Harvesting Calendula Seeds

Harvesting Sunflowers

Seed Saving Intro

Harvesting Squash Seeds
Harvesting Okra Seeds
Harvesting Swiss Chard Seeds



RECIPES


VIDEO: Stuffed Scallop Squash

VIDEO: BASIL LEMONADE

Carrot Bread Recipe

Jen's Zucchini Bread Recipe

Easy Herb Roasted Tomatoes

Garden Veggie Quiche

Garlic Scape Pesto with Zucchini Ribbons

Lavender Infused Oil

Heirloom Tomato Caprese Salad

Macadamia Pesto

Purple Basil Vinegar

3 Ways to Bake Ronde de Nice Squash

Tomato Cucumber Salad

PUMPKIN PIE

Roasted Seminole Pumpkin

Roasted Tomato & Basil Soup

BAKED ACORN SQUASH

Veggies & Rib Sandwiches

Salsa Fresca

TOMATILLO VERDE SALSA

We will update this list as we add to our youtube channel and articles posted here on our website. If you have specific garden or seed related questions, please contact us via email at MARY@MARYSHEIRLOOMSEEDS.COM


Happy Planting!


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Complete List of New Arrivals for 2020 Posted on 13 Dec 16:59 , 3 comments

We're SUPER excited to announce a few more varieties of heirloom seeds now available at Mary's Heirloom Seeds. This puts us at around 700 varieties of heirloom seeds in our current collection.

If you're not sure what or when to plant, check out our two free planting guides:

Mary's 2018 Planting Guide for the US

USDA Zone Planting Guide

 

We hope you join us for our GARDEN CHALLENGES!  We have 2 for 2020


 

Ready for New Arrivals?

GOLD RUSH YELLOW WAX BEAN

 

OSAKA PURPLE MUSTARD

 

PURPLE ITALIAN GLOBE ARTICHOKE

 

LADY SLIPPER RADISH

 

VERMONT CRANBERRY POLE BEAN

 

 BLUE PODDED PEA

 

CALIFORNIA BLACK EYE PEA

 

 

 BLACK AZTEC CORN

 

 

DOUBLE RED SWEET CORN

 

JELLICORSE TWIN DENT CORN

 

KULLI CORN, MAIZ MORADO

 

PUNGO CREEK BUTCHER DENT CORN

 

RIO GRANDE PUEBLOS BLUE FLOUR CORN

 

FLORIDA HIGH BUSH EGGPLANT

 

DIPPER GOURD

 

 JICAMA

 

JUANE CANARY MELON

 

 

TIGGER MELON

 

MENNONITE SORGHUM

 

CIMMARON ROMAINE

 

GARDEN SORREL

 

 

PURPLE ORACH

 

STRAWBERRY SPINACH

 

WITLOOF CHICORY

 

ASHE COUNTY PIMENTO PEPPER

 

BABY BELL PEPPER MIX

 

BULL NOSE (LARGE SWEET SPANISH) PEPPER

 

CORNO DI TORO SWEET PEPPER

 

HINKELHATZ HOT PEPPER

 

RED CHERRY SWEET PEPPER

 

RED SCOTCH BONNET PEPPER

 

SANTA FE GRANDE PEPPER

 

AMISH PIE PUMPKIN

 

JACK BE LITTLE PUMPKIN

 

 

TROMBONCINO SQUASH

 

JUMBO PINK BANANA SQUASH

(BACK IN STOCK)

 

 WHITE SCALLOP SQUASH

(ALSO BACK IN STOCK)

 

INDIGO ROSE TOMATO

 

PERSIMMON TOMATO

 

RED PEAR TOMATO

 

RIO GRANDE TOMATO

 

PURPLE TOP WHITEGLOBE TURNIP

(BACK IN STOCK)

 

DWARF GREEK BASIL

 

LICORICE BASIL

 

SIAM QUEEN THAI BASIL

 

MACA

 

SUNFLOWER SEEDS COMBO PACK

 

 

3 NEW SPROUTING JAR KITS

 

2 DIFFERENT SPROUTING LIDS

 

CATGRASS KIT

 

If you have additional questions please give us a call or email
MARY@MARYSHEIRLOOMSEEDS.COM

Happy Planting!


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