More Seeds!

Four more packets arrived today from Gurney's. They had a special offer for $25 off sales of $50 or more so I finally shelled out for a heat mat, and picked out some veggie seeds.
When it comes to purchasing expensive items for the garden, I find it hard to do because it much easier just to be creative with trash and recycled junk I find in the alley. But for the seed mat... ah. I know myself, and seeding is not my forte. I always do something catastrophic right when I think everything is going great, plus in February when I first start sowing our house is lucky to be above 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
You are probably wondering if we are environmental fanatics or something to keep our house so frigid, but alas, we are just poor. Our furnace was upgraded (not replaced... just upgraded) from coal to natural gas sometime in the last century. It might have gone from coal to oil to gas, but judging by all the gas fixtures on the 2nd and 3rd floors I'm pretty sure they went right to gas. If you have never seen a gravity furnace or "Octopus" they are a sight to behold... and chalk full of asbestos! One redeemable quality it has, is that because there is no blower, there is no sound, just warmth. And I guess you have to be a pretty kick-ass furnace to work great for almost 100 years!
So here are the seeds I got today:

• Sweet Corn 'hybrid quickie'
  
• Broccoli 'hyb. colorado crown'
• Radish 'french breakfast'
• Radish 'german giant parat'

I love fresh radishes so so much. Also I have never grown corn before. This will be my first try so I went with an early variety- 68 days to maturity. Since crop rotation is so important and I've put my tomatoes in the same place for the past two years, I've decided to try my hand at a "three sisters" companion planting which is corn, beans, and squash. The corn provides support for the beans to climb on, while the beans provide fertilizer for the heavy feeding corn plants by fixing nitrogen to the soil by way of friendly soil bacteria that live on the legume's roots. The squash helps by forming a living mulch that shades the dirt from the scorching sun, preventing weeds and retaining moisture. I am so excited to try this, especially since it will be 3 crops (or 5 or 6 or 7 depending on how many different kinds of squash I get) in the space of 1! genius!

The photo up top is a Bupleurum from my flower garden.