Earlier today (Wednesday), I started the first seeds of the season indoors in a flat under lights. Because I wasn't sure how easy it would be at planting/seed starting time to find and get the seeds, soil, and compost I needed, I ordered early.
In October, I added several bags of potting soil for starting seeds to my curbside grocery order. I lucked out and they were sold out of the cheap brand and substituted Miracle Grow soil at a pittance per bag (I bought 6 bags of soil for $1.99 ea, reg. $5.99 ea). I needed potting soil for growing leafy greens indoors over winter, so I went ahead and bought what I would need in spring for seed-starting as well. In December, I placed an order online for the new seeds I would need for this year. And then this week, we had a truckload of compost delivered to our driveway.
That's a lot of compost. We were needing compost for a large part of our yard and having this delivered all in one go will save me the work of buying many bags in the spring, filling the trunk of the car multiple times.
We're expanding our garden again. This time, we're adding a new pumpkin patch with room for sunflowers, corn, and peppers, all heat-lovers. This new patch is in a circle inside our u-shaped driveway, a spot that really heats up and receives the most direct sun of any of our garden spots. (Our property is surrounded by large stands of massive evergreen trees.) Despite all of the sun, this has been a poor growing spot due to rocky soil that doesn't hold water in our dry summers. We'll leave several inches up to a foot of compost on a raised mound in this circle to provide a better growing medium. I've already begun moving buckets of this compost to our regular garden beds. In addition, our previous pumpkin patch will be used for other veggies, and the soil there will be improved with several wheelbarrows of compost. In addition to food-growing locations, we plan on using whatever compost is left in ornamental rocky soil areas and to top-dress our lawns.
Back to the vegetable garden. . . what's new is I'm trying celery, onions, and hot peppers for the first time. It's always a gamble the first year I try a new veggie. It usually takes a couple of years to get the location and timing just right. But I'm hoping for a little of each. I'm also doubling our potato bed space this year. I saved twice as many seed potatoes from last year's harvest to replant in March. My hope is we will have enough potatoes that I feel we can dig some new potatoes in summer without taking too much from our fall harvest.
What's tried and true for my garden is Early Girl tomatoes. The last 2 years I had to use other tomato seeds and was somewhat disappointed in the tomatoes. Early Girl are the most reliable tomatoes for my garden. Other gardens with more sunlight or higher summer temperatures can grow a wide variety of tomato plants. I'm pretty much stuck with this one variety. The other tried and true veggie for us is kale. I grow an abundance of kale every single spring and summer, simply because it does so well in my garden. I have 2 kinds of kale, a Russian curly kale and an Italian type of kale, lacinato. Both grow well here and provide us with tender baby leafy greens for salads, and mature greens for cooking. The bonus with kale is it survives even cold winters here and returns with some tender new leaves beginning in late February, lasting until early April before bolting. My hanging salad baskets will return as well this spring. These were so successful in the first half of the season last year, then not as well when the summer heat really began.
My complete list of veggies for this year include: kale, tomatoes, pumpkins, winter squash, hot and sweet peppers, sunflowers (for the seeds), sweet corn, pole and bush beans, lettuce, spinach, beets, turnips, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, carrots, onions, cucumbers, zucchini, and potatoes. If most of this grows well, we'll have variety both in summer and then for next fall and winter for our needs and some to share with others.
If you're growing a garden this next season, what do you want to plant? What would you like to grow but you don't have the right conditions (this would be eggplant for us)? What do you think you'll try for the first time this season? If you don't grow a vegetable garden, have you ever thought of buying into a CSA? What's been your experience with CSAs?
