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| Early spring garden |
Sunday, January 26, 2020
Now is when I lay out my edible garden plan for spring and summer. This year is going to be a little different than past edible and ornamental gardens. We are putting on an addition to the house which is right where my garden has been for the last 9 years. This year's garden will be in a temporary location and much smaller than in year's past.
We have recently moved as many of the perennial flowers and veggies as we could find. I'll keep an eye out for any that come up before construction starts in March to replant to their temporary home. With the garden being much smaller, I will have to be much more choiceful about what annuals to plant. Veggies for small spaces Fruit for small spaces How to know what to grow
Herbs
We have transplanted many perennial herbs like lavendar, rosemary, thyme, sage, chives, tarragon, oregano, garlic and Egyptian walking onions that should come back every year. Rosemary can be dicey. I always buy the hardiest available like Arp or Barbeque, hardy to Zone 5 and 6, respectively. I order from Territorial Seed as plants. Our rosemary did survive last winter. Won't be able to tell until April or so if it has survived another winter. The sage got shaded out by a healthy zinnia so not sure if it will come back or not.
I always plant parsley, basil, chervil and cilantro every year, growing from seed indoors. My favorite basil varieties are Vanilla for pot pourri and adding to homemade cleaning products, Cardinal for its beautiful maroon flowers, and sweet leafy type like Genovese or Lettuce Leaf. 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.
I have volunteer parsley and cilantro growing. Seems like the hardest time of the year for survival is now until mid-March. We have such extremes in temperature that the prolonged warmth followed by a drop to the deep freeze kills many semi hardy herbs. If they don't make it to spring, I will include them in my scaled down garden.
I will also plant a couple of the culinary basils in the garden bed and skip the pretty and fun basils this year due to space constraints. Parsley and cilantro I'll grow in the ground and chervil I will grow in pots. Start a kitchen herb garden!
This year, I will need to maximize my pots. I haven't been as diligent with keeping my edibles in pots under control and well maintained. I have such a hard time pulling out growing edibles even when there are other varieties that would give more to the table. I'll need to really leverage the pots for growing greens and herbs this year. There are so many new compact varieties out there today that you can grow just about anything in a pot.
Cool Season Crops
This year, I am going to skip any from the broccoli family as I have had pests problems over the last few years. Giving it a rest for a year will take away this pest's food supply and next year we shouldn't have the same problem.
Peas can be planted as soon as the soil can be worked. I'll plant snow peas in all my pots. It's warm enough right now to plant the seeds. The leaves, flowers and pods are all edible and taste like peas. Legumes-peas for spring, beans for summer
Spinach, lettuce, chard, and perhaps kale will be in the garden this spring. Kale is a close relation to broccoli so I may skip it until fall. I'll plant the most heat hardy spinach type. For the initial plantings of lettuce, I'll plant whatever takes my fancy. For my April planting, I'll switch over to the most heat hardy varieties. I always have Simpson Elite, Red Sails, Grand Rapids, Oakleaf, and Romaine in the garden. Growing fabulous lettuce and greens
We also have blue potatoes from last year that we will replant this year in the potato boxes my hubby made. Many potato types will survive year to year in the ground without replanting. When we went to move the potato boxes out of the way of the new construction, we found we had many potatoes still viable. I took them inside until we get the potato boxes situated in their temporary home. Time to plant potatoes, even if you only have a patio
Warm Season Crops
Tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, eggplant, green beans, and cucumbers are my typical standbys. This year I will skip the green beans, sweet peppers and hot peppers because I have plenty in the freezer. I may grow one sweet pepper just for snacking on. Peppers are for every taste and garden
I'll likely grow a Bush zucchini. The other types of zucchinis get huge and without a lot of space, I'll go with one that keeps to a smaller footprint. Growing zucchini and summer squash
For the eggplant, I'm going to grow one or two in pots. We like the white eggplants as their skins don't get tough in our hot summers. May also try a rose colored eggplant. Eggplant-add this native from India to your garden
Most of the tomatoes will be the ones I saved seeds from past gardens. I'm going to try to limit myself to 3 or 4. The ones that do well in our garden are Cherokee Purple, Italian Paste, and Black Krim. I'll may add a smaller chocolate type. Tomatoes 101, everything you need to know to grow great tomatoes
I'll pick one cucumber to grow on a trellis so it grows up instead of out, keeping it's footprint small. How to grow cucumbers-in pots or in the garden Quick tip-Grow Up!
Flowers
I add flowers to the garden every year, interplanted with the edibles. I don't have as much room so the number of flowers will be much less. The flowers I am planning to add this year-marigolds around the perimeter and Hollyhocks in the center. Flowers are great for repelling bad bugs and deer (marigolds) and attracting beneficial bugs like bees. You can also plant flowers that are edible. Flowers that are edible
There are a few more to varieties I will 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! Chart for how many to plant
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
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