I've been going through the Johnny's site trying to put together an order for the few things I want or need this year -- colored carrots, Imperial Star artichoke seeds, colored cauliflower. Unfortunately, they are out of Graffiti, the purple cauliflower that is so great for making pickles. I'll have to find that somewhere else, maybe Territorial.

My biggest splurge of the year -- I'm going to order a package of the "Flower Sprouts" B. Sprouts/Kale hybrid. I think it will make a great edible ornamental for the fall. At $12.95 for 40 seeds, it better be.

Tomorrow I am going to start separating the lettuce, spinach, and greens into pots with 4-6 plants in each to give them some breathing (rooting, really) room. We are to hit 80 tomorrow....yikes.

Well, except probably about 60% of it is now garden. Never enough room, really, but it works.

I grew about 30 artichokes/cardoons (about half and half) last year. Because it was so wet AND they really liked where I put them, rich sandy loam with a lot of organic matter and a deep woodchip mulch, they were enormous, and a lot of them bloomed because they were overwintered from the prior season (deep pit packed in leaves well under the frost line).

Some of them must have been 4 feet tall x 4 feet across. They made a very ornamental backdrop for my dahlias.

Oh, FWIW, I don't eat them -- they're too pretty and a lot of work. One of my vices -- I just buy the frozen artichoke hearts.

Our back yard is the sledding hill. I'm not going to change that.

I heartily recommend http://rareseeds.com/
also known as Baker Seeds.
The best part is they offer truly rare seeds from all over the world, non-hybrid, so you can save your own.
the owner is deeply dedicated to seed saving, I also get their magazine.