One of the strange (and rare) side benefits of blogging about urban container gardening is the occasional delivery of free stuff. Swag! In this case, six darling seed packets were slipped into POD’s mailslot, courtesy of Bartram’s Garden.
It seems only appropriate that on this, Philadelphia’s coldest day to date (or so it seems), a celebration of seeds should appear. With that and a tip of the hat to the Australian Open (go Clijsters!), POD presents:
Latuca sative (Tennis Ball Lettuce and Speckled Lettuce)
Barbarea verna (Winter Cress)
Coriandrum sativum (Coriander)
Pisum sativum (Prussian Blue Pea)
Atriplex hortensis (Red Orach, AKA Mountain Spinach)
While the Red Orach and Winter Cress will likely join the collection of edible Plants Out Front (POF just doesn’t have the same ring, does it?), the others will hit the dirt just as soon possibly possible. Especially exciting are the instructions on the Winter Cress which encourage impatient growers to “Sow in Fall for a crop of spicy greens that will last without protection until spring, or sow very early in the spring…” Already, notes for next year.
Check in for updates once the growing season commences — and by all means, check out Bartram’s collection of volunteer-collected heirloom seeds.
Plants On Deck 
I had to laugh about your seeds arriving on the coldest day..my seed catalogs arrived when we -5 degrees..Colorado Rocky Mountains at 7000 ft elevation. Seeds are planted in the windows ..short growing season. Enjoyed your blog.
Stuff I Have Learned From You and I Am Implementing This Year:
I am sterilizing my seed soil in the microwave! You can’t be too careful, and I’ve had some weird seedling failures that I hope to avoid this time.
I am going to grow some kale! I only ever tasted kale once–it was from the grocery store, and it was awful. But, you said that kale is nice! Well, it wouldn’t be the first time that I ate a grocery-store vegetable and came away thinking it was nasty. I will grow some kale myself, and see what I will see.
Oh hey, since we both like growing melons, here is a small kind that I was found on eBay. It is called ‘Sprite’.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270700282843&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
I have ordered a pack, possibly you may be interested.
Thanks for the tip. I’ll certainly check Sprite out! Hope you like the kale — chips of deliciousness are really quite good. Promise. Happy thoughts of spring.
I can’t WAIT until it’s spring and the weather has settled. We are currently having our first run of “Ha-Ha, Fooled You” weather–you know, where it goes up to 60F for a week, makes you all hopeful, maybe you set some hardy plants outside, and then it goes down to 7F.
Awesome! I love Bartam’s. I recently attended a seed saving workshop there, and it was followed by a seed swap, so I got to walk away with pepper and tomato seeds.
I’m so glad you went to that! I really, really wanted to go but I had to work that weekend. I’m certainly trying to keep my eyes open for future seed-saving workshops.