{"id":7722,"date":"2021-04-10T10:09:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-10T15:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/?p=7722"},"modified":"2021-04-10T10:10:25","modified_gmt":"2021-04-10T15:10:25","slug":"all-the-pretty-cosmos-seed-by-seed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/2021\/04\/all-the-pretty-cosmos-seed-by-seed\/","title":{"rendered":"All the Pretty Cosmos, Seed by Seed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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THE DAFFODILS<\/span><\/strong> have finally bloomed. (We might as well be living in Nova Scotia for all the spring we have.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The peas have been planted. Hurrah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirty-six tomato starts are on the heating mat. Wait, no, correction. The tomato seeds have germinated and are now under the lights of our new gizmo. (I like to call it a gizmo, but this is what it really is: An LED SunLite 2-Tier Grow Light System<\/a>. A very home-gardener-ish piece of equipment, I\u2019m happy to say. None of this interminable hacking a small farmer has to do!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peppers, eggplants, and the first flower starts have taken the place of the tomatoes on the heating mat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What varieties am I growing? First the peas. Green Arrow<\/a> <\/strong>English shell peas, Super Sugar Snap<\/a> peas, and the new purple Beauregarde snow pea<\/a> from Row 7 seeds<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I always pre-sprout my peas by putting them between damp paper towels in a partially closed zip-top bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I make sure they\u2019re coated with inoculant<\/a> and plant them about an inch deep, pretty darn close together (no more than a couple inches apart so I can cram in a lot in one row!). I always think I\u2019m going to thin them and I never do. And yet they yield prolifically. I think maybe because the roots grow down and not sideways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I always plant them along a makeshift trellis or along one fence in the garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most importantly, I protect the newly planted pea seeds from birds by covering them with fabric row cover or with upside-down plastic nursery trays (the kind with plenty of holes), weighted down with bricks to keep them from blowing away. I keep the cover on until the seedlings have a few sets of leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the tomato department: In addition to my usual assortment of cherry tomatoes (this year Sun Gold<\/a>, Sweet 100<\/a>, and Cherry Bomb<\/a>) and my favorite sandwich and beefsteak tomatoes, Jet Star<\/a> and German Green<\/a>, I\u2019m most excited about a paste tomato (also from Row 7 seeds) called Midnight Roma<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Peppers and eggplants? Since I have such limited space in the fenced garden, I\u2019m going to lean on some mini-vegetables that I hope will yield abundantly. I know my favorite Fairy Tale eggplants<\/a> will comply, but I\u2019m hoping some Lunchbox Peppers from Johnny\u2019s<\/a> will do the same. I\u2019m also growing the delicious heirloom Jimmy Nardello pepper<\/a> for the first time in five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But of course, as much as I love my vegetables, it\u2019s no secret that my obsession with flowers has become all-consuming. Honestly, the number one way I deal with my anxiety these days is by reading flower books at night, imagining colorful bouquets in my head, inventing names of flowers \u2014alphabetically \u2014 to try to fall asleep, and so on. (Though none of this has been particularly helpful this week as I try to balance too much work with preparing to travel down to see my sister and father next weekend \u2013 without having been able to procure a vaccine. At least I am getting the oil changed in my car! But enough whining.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Clockwise from top: Cosmos ‘Double Click Rose Bonbon,’ Cosmos ‘Double Click Bicolor Violet,’ Cosmos ‘Double Click Cranberries,’ Cosmos ‘Cupcake White,’ Cosmos ‘Picotee’<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And while I\u2019m excited about my new dahlia passion, I am deeply indebted to my first loves \u2013 cosmos and zinnias \u2013 for cheering me through many years. In their honor (and because I\u2019m just fascinated by the number of different varieties now available of both), I am seeding more than a dozen varieties of each, the most I\u2019ve ever started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, I thought I\u2019d gather photos (mostly that I\u2019ve taken over the years and some of new varieties from websites) of all the cosmos varieties I\u2019m hoping to grow this year. I\u2019ve only been able to seed a few of each variety, and God knows where they are all going to be planted (some in friends\u2019 gardens, I\u2019m sure!), but it will be fun to think about the spectrum of beauty and color anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Clockwise from top: Cosmos ‘Apricotta,’ Cosmos ‘Sunset Orange,’ Cosmos ‘Apricot Lemonade,’ Cosmos ‘Double Click Bicolor Pink,’ Cosmos ‘Happy Ring’<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you\u2019ve never grown cosmos, know that they are very user-friendly. The more you cut these annuals, the more they bloom. They get big and blousy and are quintessentially cottage-y. They don\u2019t start blooming until mid-summer if you direct sow them in late May, but by starting them inside now, I\u2019ll get blooms in June. And I learned from Erin at Floret<\/a> that I should be cutting them when they are just about to open for the longest vase life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Clockwise from top: Cosmos ‘Radiance,’ Cosmos ‘Daydream,’ Cosmos ‘Sensation Mix,’ Cosmos ‘Rubenza,’ Cosmos ‘Xanthos,’ Cosmos ‘Velouette’<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another thing I\u2019ve learned about cosmos over the years is that I can cut down deeply into the plant to get stems long enough for arranging. It doesn\u2019t matter that I\u2019ll be cutting some unopened buds along with those stems, because the plant will just respond with more blooms. Some cosmos varieties grow very tall (up to six feet) and wide so give them a little space and consider corralling them with twine and stakes as the summer goes on, especially if you live in windy-world like we do. I invariably lose at least a few of my plants when the first hurricane threatens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There they are. May the sight of them bring you joy. And if you live on the Island, give me a shout in about 8 weeks. I’ll have extra cosmos seedlings!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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P.S.<\/strong> Good sources for Cosmos seeds include Select Seeds<\/a>, Johnny’s Seeds<\/a>, and Swallowtail Garden Seeds<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PEAS, PLEASE:<\/span> <\/strong>In case you can’t wait until June to cook with peas, here are a couple of my favorite pea recipes, over on cookthevineyard.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Swiss Chard with Peas with Maple-Lemon-Balsamic Sauce.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Smoky Sugar Snap Peas and Greens with Chorizo, Lemon, and Yogurt<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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If you arrived here from the internet and would like to subscribe to the Sixburnersue blog, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THE DAFFODILS have finally bloomed. (We might as well be living in Nova Scotia for all the spring we have.) The peas have been planted. Hurrah. Thirty-six tomato starts are on the heating mat. Wait, no, correction. The tomato seeds have germinated and are now under the lights of our new gizmo. (I like to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[168,181,182,149,163,45,1],"tags":[183,184,124,46,69],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7722"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7722"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7738,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7722\/revisions\/7738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}