2018 Garden Plans?

[Kelsey]

Right now I'm going through my box of seeds and trying to figure out the seed order for this year - and having a very hard time whittling it down to a reasonable number of varieties! I must become delusional every winter as I think I can somehow grow dozens and dozens of different types of vegetables (and flowers), and I never quite succeed in getting everything planted - yet I always think "this is the year..."
I'm sure I'm not the only one!

But this year should be a little easier, because we've finally stopped expanding the garden further into the pasture - already have a number of beds prepped, actually got a bunch of greens planted in the fall for our first ever winter garden (collards, kale, arugula, favas, and chard), and planted a lot of garlic, which is coming up nicely.
Usually I scramble in the spring to get the soil prepped in time and then run out of room and plant more into areas that were just pasture that spring - that doesn't work very well! So last year we didn't plant anything in the main garden and focused on getting it ready for this year instead.

My new favorite source for vegetable seeds is Adaptive Seeds out of Oregon. They sell rare and diverse organic seeds that are well suited for the PNW and other cooler northern climates. They have an outstanding collection of tomatoes and peppers from Russia and Eastern Europe that do well here - so many mainstream tomato and pepper varieties just don't ripen quickly enough for us. And they have awesome winter squash varieties.

This year we hope to grow more staples like dry corn and beans. The beans have done well for us in the past but we haven't planted them in quantity.
And I'd really like to grow a melon or two this year!

So what are you excited about trying this year?

[bridgetmi]

I know what you mean! I really wish seed companies would let you mix and match varieties in a packet. I hate myself every Fall when I'm trying to keep up with the garden by canning Every Single Day.

I'm excited to add more heirlooms, and finally a permanent herb garden. God willing, a hoop house is in our near future. Root cellar is still in the plans too.

[daisyhill]

I'm working on my delusional seed order right now too, and trying not to look to much at the flower section for fear I won't be able to stop myself from ordering thirty different kinds of flower seeds along with the vegetables. I want to grow more melons (we got three or four last year, the most delicious I've ever tasted!), and I'm determined to conquer storage onions. My hoophouse cover didn't make it through the winter this year, so I want to get that put back together as well.

[throwback]

I'm trying to not be delusional and just using the seeds I have on hand. So far I have resisted the call of the numerous seed catalogs...

[marseydoats]

I just want to have five or six tomato plants. That's all I can keep up with with everything else.

[treatlisa]

Oh, the restraint required to look through seed catalogs...

I'm on the 15th day of a Whole 30 - no extra will power for seed catalogs just yet. And - I've got lots of seeds to use up too. I'm not even gonna peek.

[sdmilkmaid]

Right now I'm not sure where I would put a garden, so the temptress is stilled.
Rachel

[SebFarm]

I just fenced off a new garden. I can't keep up with the one big garden I have, so somehow two big gardens will be easier in my mind. (The huge seed catalog came in.) I have two rows with the irrigation set up in the berry field. I may have ordered raspberries to fill in those empty rows.

[throwback]

Jan 23, 2018 22:59:33 GMT -5 treatlisa said:

Oh, the restraint required to look through seed catalogs...

I'm on the 15th day of a Whole 30 - no extra will power for seed catalogs just yet. And - I've got lots of seeds to use up too. I'm not even gonna peek.

I've been following Nom Nom Paleo's Instagram Whole 30 recipes, she's posting each day, and it sure makes it easy to stick to the plan. I can easily get sidetracked when I can't think of something to cook for dinner!

[treatlisa]

Yep, I follow her too!

[weasle]

Going to actually throw out a garden that will thrive on its own or perish. Going to do corn to protect everything else from the sun and under it beans and broadcast onion, beetroot and carrot. What sticks will stick, what doesn't won't. Have learnt the hard way nothing grows without corn or sunflower to shade it.

[simplynaturalfarm]

Jan 24, 2018 10:05:58 GMT -5 sdmilkmaid said:

Right now I'm not sure where I would put a garden, so the temptress is stilled.
Rachel

Ditto you Rachel and we have dozens of rabbits in our backyard and deer and quail and so I'm thinking do i want the aggrevation to boot.

BUT i can't live without tomatoes and peppers. . .

[beth]

This year will be slower, mostly plant for fresh veggies. We usually plant a big garden and I can a lot starting mid June through Oct. Normally I can close to 300 qts of vegs and fruit,jams and jellies. But this year we still have about 200qts. left. So I am at a lose,not used to a smaller garden. It is going to be weird.

[eljay]

I took last year off completely and the year before walked away from the failing garden in August. I'm ready for a small garden this year but not sure where to put. I only need about 10% of the old garden so I'm going to turn that into pasture. The blasted chickens always seem to figure out where I've put the tomatoes and it's a race to see if I can get them off the vine before they've put a hole in them.

[haecklers]

My tomatoes got some virus last year, the second half of the year they started rotting around the time they should have ripened, so I'm not growing any nightshades in the garden for a few years to try to get rid of that problem.

I grew okra for the first time last summer. And then got really addicted to it - I cut it into slices and froze them and we quickly used them up in gumbo and then I found out you can't buy sliced frozen okra anywhere around here. So we need more, now! One plant had about 4 growing tips so I was getting about 4 a day. I found out chopped okra is delicious in egg omelettes, too! (You have to cook it a little first to soften it before adding the eggs). And it's good in stir-fry.

I didn't grow sweet potatoes last summer and I missed having them, so I've got one I'm trying to grow slips from now. It doesn't always work, we tend to keep our house a little too cool for that. If I wind up investing in a heat mat, tho, I may grow some ginger, too. It won't have time to fully ripen, but I'm reading that the young/soft tubers are really good in cooking and they make beautiful plants.

One year we grew rice - until the chickens broke in and ate the plants. I may try that again if we keep getting 2-3 inches of rain a week like we are now. That and watercress did really well one previous super rainy summer.

I hope to grow luffa again, too, but it needs a really big support. My crazy plan is to make a pole structure off the side of the sheep barn and train the plants (from outside the fence) to grow up on that so the fruits hang down where I can reach them to harvest but the sheep can't. Then the sheep can have a shady breezy loafing area. I loved the luffa when I grew it before, it doesn't start producing until the end of August or September but then is very productive and the vegetable (immature luffas) are really delicious in stir-fry or as a curry over rice. It's a little like bitter melon - it enhances the flavors of everything else - but without being bitter.

[kim'scows]

Just started seeding greens in the hoophouse last week, though it's still to cold for much else. I'll be able to sow peas, plant potatoes, and start tomatoes and peppers indoors next month. It feels good to be back at it again!

haecklers I too am addicted to okra!  Try it as a pizza topping, or in corn muffins.  It dehydrates very nicely too, and I use it in soups all winter.  I usually grow about 30 plants, and I just go out and eat it raw right in the garden!

[simchah]

Dreaming of finally putting in berry bushes I have dreamed of for the last five years. Is this the year? Hoping it all works out this year.

[simplynaturalfarm]

I ordered grapes, peaches, pears, cherries and apples - every other place we've lived I've known we weren't staying and so I haven't wanted to invest a lot of money. Dh said order fruit trees and we'll scimp on fencing (have you ever heard anything so ridiculously lol) so I ordered without even having a plan for where to put things!?! I am so excited as we had better varieties available due to out growing season but where I thought I would put a garden was taken over by some prickly bush the whole summer and I'm not sure how to deal with it.

Girls and I have been clearing bush from behind the house and I found a 3*50 foot flower bed behind a hedge behind the garage and I was so excited it was ridiculous - now to plant veg or flowers ....
I got so spoiled last place with my big gardens and hoophouses after a few yeara and here I just won't have time to do it all and do a garden from scratch.

So what did I spend last weekend doing? Watching clips on straw bale gardns...

It is all prickly brush here where I want to plant and I don't even ljnow if pigs will make a difference!

[Nonesuch Melissa]

Seedlings are started indoors. Potatoes are in. Greens and cruciferous veggies are still growing. I've had beets, turnips and kohlrabi all winter. 2 weeks until beans, corn, etc. go in. Okra, tomatoes, peppers, melons around April 1st.  Sweet potatoes- end of April. 

The peach trees are covered in blooms. I think several of my citrus trees froze to death and need to be pulled up and replanted. 


We save seeds and have for years so I don't look at catalogs much any more... too tempting. 

[smallsark]

Might be awhile before we get much in. Even in the greenhouse!