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| Garden Journal and Calendar |
Saturday, December 10, 2022
It is that time of year as winter is setting in and the dreary days seem endless; the time to dream of warm weather, spring breezes, and green things sprouting once again. Can't you almost smell the fresh cut grass and turned earth?
Every gardener looks forward to the spring growing season. In the fall, we reflect back on what went well, not so well, what we want to learn more about over the gardening lull, and sketch out our thoughts on next year's garden plan. Then comes the seed catalogs as winter moves in. Time to go back to that fall garden plan and get ordering the seeds to make it happen!
I first browsed my favorite seed catalogs, marking varieties that I knew I wanted to grow this coming year and one's that looked interesting to try. I then went back and printed out a copy of what I thought I wanted to grow from the blog above. I leafed back through the pages I had marked and made a list of the seeds I may want to plant. From that list, I tried to do one last gut check on which ones I really wanted to add. From there, I verified that I had the seeds I needed already and for those that I did not, I ordered them.
Here was my fall garden plan for spring:
Blauhilde pole snap beans and Christmas speckles lima beans around one trellis
Urizun Japanese winged bean (either in a pot or the garden bed)
Red Burgundy okra (in the garden bed)
5 tomato plants-large paste (Italian Red Pear), slicers(Cherokee Purple and an orange/yellow), a small fruit (Chocolate Pear) and a storage tomato (Yellow Keeper or other)
2 eggplant-Casper or Rotanda Bianca, Rosa, Shiromaru, or Amadeo (in pot)
1 bush cucumber (in garden bed or pot)
1 summer squash-Trombetta since it is resistant to vine borer, disease and squash bugs
1 winter squash-Spaghetti
Perennial onions-potato onion type
Potatoes in the potato boxes
Snow peas in pots with peppers and eggplants
Dragon Tail radish in pot by sprouting broccoli
Hilton Chinese cabbage (2-1 green and 1 yellow)
New Zealand and Malabar spinach in pot (1 each)
Lettuce (Royal Oakleaf, Grand Rapids, Butter King, Bronze Beauty, Celtic, Forellenschluss, Giant Blue Feather) and spinach in pots
Greens that stay sweet in summer-Orach, Amaranth, Chard-Perpetual Spinach and Fordhook, Chinese Multicolor Spinach, Purple Stardust Iceplant, Komatsuna, Giant Leaf mustard
Herbs-Dill, Basil (Nunum, Genovese, Cardinal), Cilantro, Lion's Ear, Rosemary, Parsley, Sage
Sweet and hot peppers-check at end of winter to see what I need
No cantaloupe, watermelon, beets, heading cabbage or broccoli
Flowers-zinnias, alyssum, marigolds, Cock's Comb, peach hollyhocks, Pride of Madeira, blue morning glory, Love Lies Bleeding
So, what did I add or substitute and why?
Beans-added 1500 Year Old Cave Bean because a seed that can sprout after being in a cave for 1,500 years has staying power! Gotta see how it does in the garden. Also added Snake bean because it is prolific, tasty, the beans look like a snake and they are disease resistant. I do like to grow fun things and keep adding varieties that are disease resistant for our hot, humid summers. The newly added early winged beans I grew this past season did really well, were tasty and had beautiful blue flowers.
Tomatoes-I usually add a few new varieties of tomatoes to try every year. I typically look for ones that are super productive and disease resistant in our area. This next year, I also wanted to add storage tomatoes that you can pick the vines at the end of the season and harvest fresh tomatoes from them indoors through the winter. For disease resistance, I'm adding Martino's Roma, True Black Brandywine and Wood's Famous Brimmer. For winter storage, I added A Grappoli D'Inverno and Evil Olive. For fun, I added a tomato that grows in a window, Orange Hat Micro tomato.
Winter Squash-I am adding Warsaw Pasta squash for its disease resistance. I have had disease and pest pressure growing Spaghetti squash so trying this variety to see if it does better in our garden and conditions. Instead of planting 2 Spaghetti squash, I will plant one of each to see how they compare.
Lettuce-Solar Flare and Lunix as both are slow to bolt and stay sweet/tender into summer. Our summers are hot so I am always on the look out for varieties that can last through our summers.
Greens-Trying Galilee spinach as it is very hot tolerant and Pink Beauty amaranth that has really pretty pink stalks and leaves that are similar in taste to spinach but loves the heat of summer. Going to replant Pink Dandelion that got ate by the voles because the flowers are pretty and the leaves edible year round.
Herbs-Made sure to add common chives and pink celery to replant as the voles got them too over last winter. Adding Rose Rhapsody sage because not only it is edible, but the flowers are spectacular.
Peppers-bought Tunisian Bakouti hot pepper as it is said to be very flavorful and Jigsaw pepper that has Jalapeño flavor but is a pretty purple color with variegated white, green and lavender leaves. Will also grow a sweet pepper plant.
Flowers-adding stock as it is super fragrant and the flowers are edible. May try poppy seeds again as I just love the flowers. I left off petunias from my fall flower list. I use them every year in pots with my edibles. They produce continuous flowers that are even edible. For the marigolds I get, I will look for the French type as they are good at pest deterrence to plant all the way around the garden and by the tomatoes and squash. Adding chamomile to dry for tea.
Other-I will plant more natives and Taken Ruby Buckwheat in the pollinator garden. Going to try Dwarf Tamarillo in a pot that I can bring indoors. It is small, fragrant and produces tangy pretty orange fruit in abundance.
The last couple of years, interest in gardening has surged. There were seed shortages the last 2 winters, so I ordered early. Not sure if this season will be as popular, but I sure hope so! It is just good all around for folks to grow their own food. Good exercise, fresh produce is the healthiest, saves lots at the grocery store, good for the planet, and provides local food security.
Now, all I have to do is get my new seeds, pull out my standby's and get ready to start my seedlings indoors at the end of next month.
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