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| It's seed catalog season! |
Saturday, January 9, 2021
January is the time of dreaming and planning for your spring garden. All the seed companies begin sending out their catalogs for seeds and plants in December and January. It is an exciting time for browsing the magazines and making the garden plan for the upcoming year! I highly recommend that you order sooner rather than later this year. Last year, seed catalog companies sold out of many varieties fast.
Grow what you love!
The easiest way to fall in love with gardening is growing what you love to eat. There is nothing like strolling out to the garden to see what's ripe and tasty for dinner. If you have ever wanted to plant a kitchen garden, but weren’t sure if you had the space or skills, you may be surprised.
If you are intimidated by starting a garden, grow herbs. Herbs thrive on neglect so a great choice for dipping your toe into the edible gardening arena. This is how I transitioned from a purely ornamental garden to integrating edibles into my garden beds. A bonus is many herbs are perennials so only have to be planted once and come back year after year.
It is common for Italians and French to have a small kitchen garden where they grow herbs, greens and vegetables year round. It is amazing the amount of food you can grow in a very small space! How to decide what to plant for small spaces?
If you have only a 6’ x 6’ space, a Mediterranean kitchen garden could include the following:
Herbs (1 each)-thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, and flat leaf parsley
3 basil plants (for pesto and seasoning)
2 tomatoes-1 small fruiting and 1 slicer type
2 sweet pepper plants
1 zucchini (look for “bush” types as they are more compact)
1 eggplant
8 red bunching onions
8 garlic plants
Arugula, spinach and lettuce scatter sowed
For more details on a compact French garden: Small space French kitchen garden
For an Italian garden: Heirloom Sicilian kitchen garden To entice the little ones, an Italian garden can also be called a "Pizza or Spaghetti Garden"! Pizza garden for the kids
If you also have room for pots on the patio, you could grow the zucchini, eggplant, and cucumber in pots (only 1 plant in each pot) and add 3 bush or 6 pole bean plants in the garden bed or pot. Traditional bush beans would be lentils, Romano, Capitano, Cannellini, fava; pole beans-Roma, Helda, Supermarconi. Personally, I would stick with the beans you eat whole as shelled beans you do not get as much food per plant, and less food per space in the garden.
If you have more room, you can add almonds (yes, they survive Midwest winters), beets, chard, fennel, chickpeas, figs (grows well in a pot), asparagus, cardoon, chicories, radicchio, endives, broccoli, cauliflower, or annual artichokes. A word of caution, don't go overboard the first year!
If you are just beginning a garden, do start small. You want the garden to be fun and relaxing, not overwhelming. Don't be afraid to begin. The force of life is strong and really doesn't need much from us. Buy a few plants in the early spring and just put them in the ground with a natural fertilizer and you will be amazed at how they just go to town all by themselves!
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| Vintage WW2 poster |
Catalogs I love are the ones that the links are on the right. I have ordered from them all and been happy with their selection and how well the plants did.
Still having trouble deciding? Well, you have some time before the season starts. Heck, you can procrastinate all the way to June.......... It is not too late to start a garden in June! You can use this time to make your plan based on what you eat this winter. Use this winter to figure out what to grow in the ...
For more on steps on putting in a garden: Easy ways to make a new vegetable garden bed
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