Hello from the Green Belt Garden in Mendocino! Just wanted to share some seed varieties that do great on the coast! I am convinced that with a little extra care, and with minimal inputs, we can grow just about anything at the Green Belt Garden in Mendocino, California. We are about 500 feet from the ocean, and have a climate more like Ireland than our neighboring farm sites just 30 miles away in Willits. Listed below are several varieties of corn, tomatoes and quinoa we have found grow particularly well here- and if they do well here, chances are they will do well where you are! The quinoa which does best for us comes from coastal and valley regions of Peru and Chile. They are varieties we call Quechua, Temuco and Faro. Quechua grows the most biomass and seed, but takes about 6 months to finish for us. Temuco and Faro also do well, but can finish in as little as 3 months. The tomatoes which have been most successful in two years of trials are Scotland Yellow, Wheatleys Frost Resistant, Black Cherry and Tigerella. The flour corn varieties of Tepehuan Serrano, Isleta White and Vadito Concho are from the higher altitude areas of the desert southwest and can handle the cold nights found in that region. Red Floriani Flour corn, from the foothills of the Italian Alps has also done well for us. An important source of seed for us has been Bountiful Gardens, Adaptive Seeds, and Native Seed Search. It has been a lot of fun and a great learning experience trying new varieties and discovering methods of preserving seed genetics and participating in pollination. Suzanne Ashworth’s book Seed to Seed from Seed Saver’s Exchange has been one of my most used and favorite resources on the topic. I encourage you to experiment and work with new seed varieties. In a time where genetic diversity and contamination by GMO’s is becoming a major problem for farmers, this tiny act of self-sufficiency is perhaps one of the most important. Reading the stories of seeds and their histories published from Seed Saver’s Exchange has made me want to be a part of this. Who knows, maybe someday you will be recalled for your important work in preserving a precious vegetable variety in your own backyard! Be a hero, save a seed!
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 23:47:19 +0000
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