Sunday, April 7, 2019
I have my favorites that I go back to every year. I also try new varieties each season. There is just so many seed varieties and available plants out there! This is my garden plan for 2019.
Herbs
We have many perennial herbs like rosemary, thyme, sage, chives, tarragon, oregano come back every year. Rosemary made it through the winter this year. I always buy the hardiest available like Tuscan Blue, Arp or Barbeque, hardy to Zone 6. I used to have order from a seed company, but they are now available at big box stores as plants.
I tried several different varieties of creeping thyme last year. There are 4 that survived the winter. I will separate those to put between all the stepping stones in the garden.
I always plant stevia, dill, basil, chervil and cilantro, growing from seed indoors or outdoors. My favorite basil varieties are Vanilla for potpourri and adding to homemade cleaning products, Cardinal for its beautiful maroon flowers, and a sweet leafy type like Genovese or Lettuce Leaf for pesto. I still have plenty of pesto left so I will skip the Genovese and Lettuce Leaf this year. I grow chervil to add to my body oil with lavender; these are great for the skin and smell wonderful. I'll likely plant only Slo Bolt cilantro to give it the longest growing before bolting in warm weather.
Cool Season Crops
This year, I am going to do a few cabbage plants. I'll harvest as soon as they can be to reduce pest pressure. I may try broccoli for fall as the spring plants are just too much of a magnet for pests.
I'll plant snow peas in all my pots. The leaves, flowers and pods are all edible and taste like peas. I'll plant overwintering Austrian peas in the fall to have peas and shoots throughout the winter for salads.
Spinach, lettuce, chard, and kale are already planted in the garden this spring. For the initial plantings of lettuce, I have the ones that I grew from seed in late winter. I planted mainly heat hardy varieties to extend the salads through summer: Red Sails, Grand Rapids, Oakleaf, Romaine and a butter crunch.
I'll also plant a couple of mustards, Giant Red and Ruby Streaks, to add to salads and they are just pretty in the garden.
I haven't planted radishes and beets lately, but am going to this year. I like the white Icicle radishes as they aren't too peppery.
Carrots have overwintered so no need to plant more until fall.
I'll also start some Alpine strawberries. They are small but sweet and fruit for a long period of time.
Warm Season Crops
Lettuce does not thrive in summer heat. Perpetual Chard overwintered and it stays sweet even in summer. I have hardiest lettuce in the garden now, but I will also plant Spiros F1 Spinach, Tyfon, Double Purple Orach, and Radish Singara Rat's Tail for summer salads. The dwarf Moringa tree seems to have overwintered successfully in the garage so it will be a nice, high protein add to salads.
Tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, eggplant, green beans, and cucumbers are typically standbys. I had a bumper crop of green beans last year so I will not be planting any this year. I also have enough Jalapeño and cayenne peppers in the freezer for another season.
*This year, the peppers will be Ancho or Poblano for chili sauces and sweet peppers from last year's seed.
*Squash will be Early Prolific Straightneck, Cocozelle Zucchini, and Spaghetti Squash.
*For the eggplant, I'm going to grow a white eggplant like White Star and AO Daimaru which stayed sweet all summer.
*Tomatoes are the hardest for me. I just want to plant so many different kinds and I don't need so many.
Choosing which tomatoes to grow I'll for sure do Cherokee Purple, Italian Red Pear paste, Amish Paste and a smaller chocolate tomato.
*Cucumbers will be a white and a green variety.
Flowers
I add flowers to the garden every year, interplanted with the edibles. The flowers I am planning to add this year-marigolds, Cocks Comb, Jasmine vine, Hummingbird Vine, Heavenly Blue Morning Glory, Love Lies Bleeding, zinnias, alyssum, with petunias and nasturtiums for the pots. Flowers are great for repelling bad bugs (marigolds) and attracting beneficial bugs like bees. Flowers that are edible
Fairy lilies, daylilies, peonies, irises, gladiolus, hollyhocks, and lilies all come back each year.
There are a few more varieties I will likely add to the list. I'll get all my seeds out and look through them one last time to finalize the garden plan. One thing I have to do is to make a max that I will plant of each type. The hardest thing for me to do is not over-plant! There are just so many interesting kinds of veggies out there, it is tough to make a plan and stick with it!
For different garden ideas, here are some to choose from:
Heirloom Sicilian kitchen gardenSmall space French kitchen garden
Start a kitchen herb garden!
Children's edible garden
Grow your own smoothie and juice garden
Decorative container gardening for edibles
Easy kitchen garden
Weed free, self fertilizing, till free garden beds
I try to keep a diary during the garden season to capture what has worked well in my garden and what hasn't as well as any gaps in harvest times. There are typically early, mid and late varieties of the same type of veggie or fruit.
I captured what I wanted to keep and try in my 2019 edible garden in the fall so I wouldn't forget. Reflecting back on 2018, planning for 2019
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