Earlier in spring I decided in a spur of the moment decision that I wanted to try growing seed for a seed company.

I was interested to learn more about the industry and gain firsthand experience producing seed. Southern Oregon is somewhat of a mecca for small, sustainable organic seed producers. I feel lucky to be immersed in this organic culture of slow food and seeds. And I am fortunate - one company decided to take me on and offer seed contracts for growing out lettuce and tomato seeds!

Come check out how I set up this garden bed for farming seeds, nestled alongside our own veggies.

---

This is what the veggie bed looked like several weeks ago

It's hard to tell from this view but there are 7 types of veggies in there. The summer squash are bookends on both sides of the bed.

And here it is this week

The lettuce is bolting!

The lettuce is starting to blossom and soon it will make seed. Then the seed will be collected and the tall lettuce plants will be removed, making room for the tomato plants which are coming up fast and strong right behind the lettuce.

In front of the tomatoes you can see our pepper plants getting big and strong.

---

Tomatoes

These tomatoes are called Ashland Tomatoes. I have yet to taste one, but they are ripening nicely and already looking quite attractive!

The nice thing about growing seed is that you can eat the food you are growing seed for, as long as your seed is not the food itself. It's a win-win. As I save seed from the tomatoes I will use the flesh to make sauce, sun dried tomatoes, salsa and more.

The tomatoes are being trellised up some old 8 foot fencing that was lying around. I am sucker pruning them which allows me to grow them very close together at 6-10" rather than the standard 3 feet. That's great use of vertical space and getting more production out of a veggie bed.

Romaine Lettuce

This is Sparx lettuce, a Romaine variety. I am not a huge lettuce person but I really enjoy this Romaine. It's been tolerable to heat and doesn't get overly bitter even as it begins to bolt.

I am starting small in growing seeds for this company and professionally in general so I am only growing a few packets of each this year. This one garden bed suffices for both of these seed contracts.

I am keeping track of each seed lot and since there are two lots of each, I planted two rows of lettuce and two rows of tomatoes.

This bed is quite wide and that still gives me plenty of space in the middle and on both sides to grow more food!

I setup some old wire fence as tomato trellis... it wasn't a straight line. I planted on the curves... don't those lettuce rows look nice?

Peruvian Ground Cherries

I meant to plant more eggplants and less ground cherries in this bed. But my eggplant seeds were old and I didn't get as many germinating and I got a lot of ground cherries, so I planted a LOT of ground cherries

This is my first time growing ground cherries. It is not what I would consider a staple food because they are so small (compared to a tomato or tomatillo) and take time to pick and process. But they are tasty and I am impressed with how strong and versatile the plant is - able to grow as a ground cover or climb up and through other plants. I like the fruits enough to want to grow it again.

In some places, the ground cherries grew so aggressively that they started to shade out the peppers.

So I chopped them back, gave more mulch to the soil, and the peppers are happy!

Eggplant

Can you see the eggplants in front of the tomatoes and behind the peppers?

Here is a closer look. The eggplants like to take their time. They are slower to find their pace than the tomatoes and peppers. But now they are taking shape and soon will become large and abundant!

In fact they are starting to fruit and the eggplant harvest is nearly upon us :)

Thai Basil

It is so fun to have a row of Thai Basil planted out because we love basil and we love Thai Basil!

We have been enjoying large harvests just from pruning the tops off the plants. The pruning of the tops and flowers helps to prevent the plant from going to seed too soon and helps it take on a bushier leafier shape... perfect for harvesting more basil leaves :)

These Thai Basil plants are growing underneath and just in front of the tomato vines. They are doing well so far at the feet of the tomatoes and as the tomatoes grow up (since I am sucker pruning for now) and when the lettuce is pulled out more light will shine on the basil, perfect timing as the days shorten.

Here you can see from above some Thai Basils tucked between the peppers and the tomatoes. They are quite happy with their friends so far :)

Padron Peppers

The Padron is one of our favorite peppers, especially when it comes to roasting peppers, and so we are growing out a bunch of them!

Even though we are growing over a half dozen kinds of peppers this year, the Padrons are our biggest planting.

The peppers start out small and few. We'll see if we can keep up with the harvest as they become more prolific. If they get large they become too spicy to be a roasting pepper (for our taste) and graduate into a hot sauce pepper.

This Padron got planted a little too close to the tomatoes so it reaches out. But no matter... it is still so happy and growing large, albeit at an angle ;)

Here is a row of Padron peppers. Behind them are the basil and behind those are the tomatoes.

Summer Squash

3-4 summer squash plants are bookmarking each end of this garden bed.

We are enjoying trying this round zucchini variety which doesn't get quite as large as the traditional long zucchinis. It is a nice "meal" size for a couple.

Like other zucchinis and most squash, these bushes are producing well and often. (sorry I don't have a photo of a larger round zucchini on the bush at the moment.. but these young zucchinis are also delectable)

Carrots

Originally left clear for a foot path, I later decided to plant the aisle down the middle of the two rows of lettuce with carrots

They were planted later so they started coming in a little later than the other plants, which is just fine because they will be good timing for winter/early spring carrots.

I have a lot of carrot seeds collected from friends farms over the last two years so I didn't bother to buy any carrot seeds this year... and I couldn't tell you what kind they are... but they will be delicious :)

Lambsquarters - A Wild Crop in the Mix

I love lambsquarters and didn't pull those out when I weeded other more aggressive plants. I enjoyed that they provided some extra shade and companionship to the veggie seedlings.

As the season progresses the lambsquarter grows up taller and begins to form seedheads - and drops their leaves at the same time as the veggies I planted start to grow larger. I get a seed crop from the lambsquarters for food and it doesn't provide much light competition for my veggies :)

Thanks for visiting this garden bed with us!

We will be sure to update you as these crops progress. If you are curious, we can share more of our garden beds in detail like I did in this post :)