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| Sunday, January 7, 2024 |
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 in winter, 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!
This year, I have my standard yearly edibles, but will be adding in more perennial ornamentals and edibles after we get our new garden beds. It's super important to get the bones right the first time around so re-planting and moving is kept to a minimum. I have fruits that I want to add in like blueberries, more strawberries, fig tree, apple tree, olive tree and a hardy citrus tree. The trees will be dwarfs as we don't need a ton of fruit and I want to be able to easily harvest them.
I'll have to decide where to transplant the asparagus to with expansion in mind. I'd like to add perennial artichokes, too. I like to eat them and their flowers are striking. I will also want to have herbs all around the perimeter to deter the deer as well as flowers to make it beautiful to look at and attract beneficial insects and pollinators. There's alot of work to do in planning everything out!
For now, I know I will be starting the following base edibles indoors over the next couple of months. Plenty of time through the spring and summer to finish out the plantings for the long term design.
Base edible garden plan for 2024:
Beans-Blauhilde pole snap beans, 1500 Year Old bean vine and Christmas speckles lima beans, Urizun Japanese winged bean
Okra Red Burgundy okra (in the garden bed)
Tomato plants(6)-large paste (Italian Red Pear), slicers(Cherokee Purple and an orange/yellow), a small fruit (Chocolate Pear), a storage tomato (Yellow Keeper or other) and an early variety like Rubee Dawn
Eggplant (2)-Casper or Rotanda Bianca, Rosa, Shiromaru, or Amadeo (in pot)
Cucumber (1)-bush cucumber (in garden bed)
Summer squash (1)-Trombetta since it is resistant to vine borer, disease and squash bugs
Winter squash (2)-Warsaw Spaghetti and Mashed Potato
Perennial onions-potato onion type and sweet Egyptian Walking onion variety
Potatoes in the potato boxes-look for purple and high protein varieties
Snow peas in pots with peppers and eggplants
Radish-Dragon Tail radish in pot by sprouting broccoli
Cabbage-Hilton Chinese cabbage (2 plants)
Summer spinach types-New Zealand and Malabar spinach in pot (1 each)
Lettuce (Royal Oakleaf, Grand Rapids, Butter King, Bronze Beauty, Celtic, Forellenschluss, Giant Blue Feather, Yedikule, Red Sails) and spinach in pots
Summer 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, Chervil, Pink Celery
Sweet and hot peppers-variety to make chili powder, jalapeño, and 2 sweet pepper plants
No watermelon, beets, heading cabbage or broccoli
Cantaloupe-Tigger melon
Flowers-zinnias, alyssum, marigolds, Cock's Comb, peach hollyhocks, Pride of Madeira, blue morning glory, Love Lies Bleeding, Moonflower
I will also need to thin my celery, Red Malabar spinach and Giant mustard plants out as the volunteers come up next year.
I have to be stern with myself about what I will not plant. In the past 3 years, I planted much less than usual and had plenty for fresh eating and preserving. My eyes are always bigger than my space or need!
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