It’s on like Donkey Kong – the garden plan for 2014
The temps are in the teens tonight, and only getting colder this week. The wind is whipping off of Puget Sound, and I am freezing my balls off. Naturally, this is the week to start seeds, because why not?
I am trying really hard to not buy seeds this year, but as always, that will be a colossal failure. A girl can dream, pretend, and be in complete denial, right? Most of my seeds are from last year and are from various sources, mainly Territorial Seeds and from various boxes I’ve received from Homegrown Collective.
Apples
We are adding three new mini drawf trees from Raintree Nursery to our micro farm this year.
Akane (I got this one two years ago)
Ashmead’s Kernel Apple
Beni Shogun Apple
Red Boskoop Apple
Beans
Speedy (bush bean)
Malibu (pole bean)
Beets
Bulls Blood
Brussels Sprouts
Franklin
Cabbage
Quick start
Carrots
Nelson Hybrid
Bolero Hybrid
Yaya
Cucumbers
General Lee Hybrid
Homemade pickles (hmmm…wonder what I’m making with these?)
Double Yield
Diamant Hybrid pickling cuke
Herbs/Medicinals
Greek Oregano (from Homegrown Collective)
Purple Coneflower (from Homegrown Collective)
Thyme (from Homegrown Collective)
St. John’s Wort (from Homegrown Collective)
Profumo Basil
Dill-Fernleaf
Borage
Garlic
Killarney Red Hardneck (this is the third year I’ve grown it. Good investment of $16 for seed garlic in 2011). Sadly, I don’t have nearly enough leftover in storage from last year to last until August. Truly tragic.
Gooseberry
Captivator – this was a freebie from Raintree Nursery, and I have zero idea how to grow it. Perfect!
Kale
Nero Di Toscana. My fav!
Lettuce
Crisp mint
Little Gem
Onions (I’ve never grown them before. Should be exciting)
Guardsman
Copra Hybrid storage onion
Parsnips
Cobham Improved Marrow
Peas
Dakota
Oregon Sugar Pod II (I assume a vast improvement from pod I?)
Sugar Sprint
Super Sugar Snap (oddly enough I have two packages of this. You think I’d stop with one…)
Cascadia
Potatoes (all saved from last year’s crop. Go me)
Yukon Gold
Sangre
Rio Grande
Pumpkin
Small sugar. This is my third year growing this, and it’s always been a great grower.
Radishes
Easter Egg II
Cherry Belle
Spinach
Renegade
Squash – summer
Black Beauty zucchini
Patio Star hybrid zucchini
Squash – winter
Vegetable spaghetti
Strawberries
I am getting a pack of 25 roots from Raintree Nursery. I don’t remember what they are, but they were free with an order of apple trees. Troy is going to build me a strawberry tower from some old pallets, because yo we’re going vertical up in here. Our space is so limited, that I can’t continue to expand horizontally.
Tomatoes
Gill’s All-Purpose
San Marzano
Heinz
Brandywine
Principe Borghese
Flamme (I buy this as a seedling from a woman at my farmer’s market. It’s my favorite!)
I am both excited and already overwhelmed with the thought of this year’s garden. It’s hard to work full-time and be gone 50 hours a week and do things successfully, so I settle for doing my best and letting the rest go to pot.
What are you growing this year? What are you most excited about?
Wow, you are planting so many awesome things! I hope to work up to something similar 🙂 I’ve just moved into a house here in Austin (last summer) with a pretty blank backyard. So I need to put some veg beds in. My boys and I started our tomato, broccoli and sugar snap peas today. My tomatoes are similar to yours – Sweet 100, Principe Borghese, Yellow Brandywine and San Marzano. I hope to have lots canned this fall! I’ve also joined the Food is Free meet up here, so hoping to meet some like-garden-minded peeps to trade seeds and crop with!
Peace out,
Sandy
Your garden sounds like it’s going to be so much fun, and that’s the most important thing.
I’m still trying out new things and understanding how to garden with such a short cool growing season as we have north of Edmonton. I learned to garden in southern England, where I could start some things under cloches in March. Now I can’t even sow anything until after mid-May! Our summer sun isn’t the strongest and there is a lot of wind until July. Plus I refuse to do what so many here do and buy their plants half grown already before planting. Oh, the joy of of eating food you have grown yourself from seed! (especially if it is your own seed from last year)
And to top it all off, I’m in rented accommodation now with no garden – only a large balcony, but my landlord let me keep some ‘buckets’ of tomatoes outside the garage last year and this year I’m being given a 7x6ft patch of south facing ground!!
So I have the usual planned for the balcony: mini squashes, basil/thyme/mint/borage, catnip, kale, hanging cucumbers, radishes, red salad onions, lettuce greens. Then 7 varieties of tomatoes for buckets and a few in the new garden – 6 of these are new and I’m so excited to try them out! This is an AWESOME website for heirloom tomato seed: http://www.tomatofest.com
Then some summer tender stem brocalli (I don’t know if this will work in Alberta but I miss it), broadbeans, leeks, yellow zucchini, celeriac, peas and french beans. Plus there’s a warm spot behind the building at work near the fans for the refrigerators that takes another week or so to get frost so I’m going to plant a siberian watermelon and see if I can get a good one for our work picnic in September!
And then I also saved my sweetpea, dahlia, petunia and snapdragon seeds from last year, so I’m going to start those soon and see how it goes.
Starting seeds in late winter is the only thing that keeps me going here when we’re only half way to spring! 🙂
“If you want to be happy for a few hours, take up drinking. If you want to be happy for a while, get married. If you want to be happy forever, plant a garden.” – Chinese proverb.
I love your plan for your garden! I’m not able to be as ambitious as I would like this year, since I’m expecting baby #2 in April. My husband is a big help, but we are sticking to the basics this year. We already are planning on: onions (sweet and purple), red potatoes, tomatoes (don’t know varieties yet), possibly squash, corn. I’m sure my husband will pick out a few other things when we actually go seed shopping.
Living much farther south than you are, I’m already behind the 8 ball…my onions are supposed to be in the ground already! I’ve got the next week to get them in, but we still have to get the ground tilled and prepped. Oh well, we’ll get it done… 🙂
I had all sorts of plans for last year, then the DH comes home one day and says, “Guess what – I applied for a position in Dallas!” I live in Tennessee … so guess what? No garden last year. Alas, we are still in Tennessee (and I’m glad for that) and are guaranteed to be here at least another five years, so it’s time to get gardening. My PLAN is to have three 4X8 raised boxes so I have plenty of room for year-’round gardening if our winter next year is mild – it sure as hell isn’t this year, so we’ll see how that goes. I bought all of my seeds from Territorial – snap, sugar and shelling peas, three varieties of saucing tomato (including Brandywine), carrots, red and gold beets, kale, two lettuces, pole beans, banana and jalapeno peppers, and probably a few others I’m forgetting. I’ll supplement with herb plants from a local nursery, plus a couple of other things like zucchini and red and green bells, plus some flowers. I can’t wait to get started. I was planning on starting seeds towards the end of February, but you’ve inspired me to start them sooner!
I love the idea of having fruit trees, but the only place I have to put them is my front yard. I have a front and side yard, but no back yard. I think you have to have at least two trees for pollination, right? I think I have just the place for them, and they wouldn’t block the sun to my boxes. How are your raspberries doing? I would LOVE to grow some blackberries as they’re the DH’s favorite.