April 29, 2007
-
Garden-y Goodness for 2007
(warning, this post will either bore you to tears or excite you to no end)
I purchased my seeds this week and so am laying out my garden plan for this season. Our growing season is brief; we plant the last week of May (depending on the moon) and it can frost by late September. I need to add a few truckloads of some organic manure, add our homegrown compost and till it all in so I can plant the earlier crops (peas/radishes/spinach) in the next two weeks. The vegetable garden is about 1200 square feet of growing space.
Fruit News
We put in 30 raspberry starts last year (10 each of three different kinds) and are adding 10 more today. These are called ”Anne: yellow”.
We also planted some more pear trees and next year will add another 15-18 apple trees to our growing orchard (as money allows).
Vegetables I will start by direct seeding
Black Seeded Simpson lettuce
variety salad bowl lettuce/s
Ruby Red swiss chard
Bright Lights (rainbow) swiss chard
Tyee hybrid spinach
Waltham butternut squash
Nutty delicata squash
Howden pumpkins
Big Max pumpkins
Blue hubbard squash
Sunsweet watermelon
Sweet favorite hybrid watermelon
Hannah’s Choice muskmelon
Seneca hybrid zucchini
Raven hybrid zucchini
Cocozelle zucchini
Plum purple radish
Cherry Belle radish
Nantes Fancy carrot
Scarlet Nantes carrot
Shin Kuroda Carrot
Purple Haze carrot
Marketmore 76 slicing cucumber
Provider bush green beans
Blue coco pole bean
Gold of Bacau pole bean
Lincoln shell peas, 50 feet to plant
Alderman Tall Telephone shell peas, 50 feet to plant
Oregon Giant snow pea, 20 feet
Early Sweet corn
HERBS
basil
oregano
dill
parsley
cilantro
borage
sweet annie (aromatic)
lavender
I am forgetting the rest of the herbs as my brain has the hiccups.
Vegetables I need to plant as seedlings (our season is so brief)
Brandywine tomato
Yellow Brandywine tomato
5-6 other tomato varieties (buy seedlings locally) about 25 plants all together
Asian Eggplant
5-6 varieties of peppers (buy local seedlings) about 12 plants
Broccoli (local), 6 plants
Green cabbage, 6 plants
Red cabbage, 6 plants
Leeks
Stuttgart onion sets (planting only 2 lbs this year, grew too many last year)
Thoughts on the amount grown/preserved last year
I am fairly happy with the amount I grew/preserved last year; we have used about 1/2 of our freezer vegetables, about 1/4 of our preserves and jams, 3/4 of our maple syrup (OMG, we used nearly 8 GALLONS) all of our canned tomatoes (65 quarts!!) and all of our frozen berries (4 gallons!!). I won’t make much jam this year as we have soooo much left over but will freeze more whole berries. Overall, I am happy with the amount planted.
It will look like this before long
And then I will blink and it will look like this
this monkey plant grew all winter long
Break out my scuffle hoe, I am ready to roll in the earth.
Comments (38)
I am so excited for you! What lovelies, especially the monkey plant!
i wish that i had the gift of gardening. i really want it badly! i need somebody to show me exactly how to do it. i have all of these dreams of a beautiful garden…they have yet to come to fruition
whoa.
I love living vicariously through your blog — esp. as a confirmed brown-thumber. It gives me delusions of gardening. :tongue:
Inspiring! I am planning too…and hoping it works out according to plan.
ooh, we are trying the purple haze carrots this year, and a packet of rainbow carrots. new for us is a watermelon radish, and the red brandywine tomato. we have had such little luck with melons and pumpkins and winter squashes. we get maybe one a plant…maybe. can’t wait to see what comes up!
Holy cow what a garden!! It is bigger square footage wise then the house I live in!!! Good luck!! :love:
Dang it girl! Your garden posts always make me hungery, despite the fact that we just finished dinner. :tongue:
Hope you had a great Sunday (certainly looks like you did). Hugs’n'Smooches!
:celebrate:YES!!!
I can’t wait to watch it grow again. Last year was amazing and I’m sure this year will be even better.
Last years yield was wonderful and served you all well. :dancingcow:
Excited no end, definitely. We usually plant the last week of May, too, however, we should have our potatoes, cabbages, etc. in already. I’ve learned my lesson the hard way to not get too anxious about planting melons, squash and eggplant since we’re apt to have a late freeze. Those yellow berries are mouth watering – we have Autumn Gold. The monkey plant is the cutest one!
that is like a dream come true! i personally love chard, it’s so beautiful.
and i want those raspberries! they are wonderful!
gardening is one of the greatest joys we can have i think. enjoy!!!:birdie:
Not bored or excited, just really darn envious!
How do the melons grow for you? They don’t do well for me. I either don’t give them enough goodness, or they don’t get enough heat for a long enough time, or both.
Julie, That is a lot of growing!!! If you wish to make more jam this year i can take some off your hands:wink-wink:— ‘Brain hiccups’
Fantastic! Please continue to share more, I love reading about all this!
wow…that is a lot of gardening… :what:
Oh My Gosh, please save me a purple carrot! I love your garden and ezpecially your beautiful and colorful harvest. I had to take a picture last year of all the wonderful produce you sent me home with!
Kerry
I love it!!! I wish I could have a garden that big..but alas my tiny backyard will not allow for it!!! So I will have to be satisfied with growing seeds in my little patch gardens!
Purple carrots?! I love me a purple vegetable!
I’m drooling…..
Looks awesome! I can’t wait to see how your garden grows this year (=
I have an emotion you didnt’ predict–envy because I know nothing of gardening tho I wish I did.
You are so cool. I COULD have planted two weeks ago, but I am still slowly desodding the prospective site. I suck. LOL
I know how much this excites you!
You derive a lot of pleasure from your gardens.
I wish you’d come plant mine.
I am in the “excited” camp. The swiss chard has my mouth watering. As I do not have a garden this year I will need to see LOTS of photos of yours.
Hmmm… that Purple Haze carrot is calling my name… It looks much more purple than the Cosmic Purple carrots I’m aiming to grow. Must resist buying more seeds…
Does the gardening get easier as the kiddos get older? Right now the kiddos are what’s holding me back (our older one digs up what we just planted or runs on the strawberry patch and the younger one hates being on the grass or on my back while I’m squatting down and weeding).
wow, I have NEVER heard of purple carrots! And did Prince get to name them??
we planted yesterday, but our garden is nothing like yours!
Must see photos of purple carrots. I mean yours. When you grow them. I’m jealous. I just don’t have the energy this year.
Will you show me your carrots? Wink wink. Nudge nudge.
Hmm. Methinks you need to make pickles… :big-smile:
I may have to sleep in my garden this summer… dirt+patti=
Yea gardening. You are inspiring. I have started small. I am enjoying seeing the sprouts coming up. I aspire to be a gardener like you one day. :big-smile:
:birdie: Only if I had wings to fly over and feast bits by bits – You don’t mind? :flirty:
HOLY SMOKES! This is amazing! (as are you, Julie girl.)
Oh I’m with you alright. We live in the city but have a unique space in Richmond, Virginia. Our 1923 Bungalow is located in a what is often been considered a “seedy” side of the city. Our area is now being regentrified and the heretofore abandoned and wild river front area is being developed into upscale urban “towns.”
However, things are still pretty sketchy here sometimes and we’ve often (and briefly)considered leaving but our yard keeps us put. We have a really large backyard that backs up directly onto a small swath of urban forest. In it, there are fox, skunk, oppossum, at least 1 groundhog (we call him/her ‘Percy’), Peregrine Falcon, Bald Eagle, and all manner of songbirds, owls and crows. Who knows what else?
This Sunday we tilled up a vegetable garden and a large oval flower bed that features a large mound in the center. Embedded in the mound is an inverted bicycle frame with its wheel attached. We’ve sown nasturtium, Scaret Runner bean and Moonflowers vines. The mound is surrounded by sunflower, monarda, something called Globe Amaranth. The anticipation is heavy.
We’re growing White pumpkin, Bushel gourds, red peppers, tomatoes (4 kind), hot peppers, basil and red bell pepper. It is all very thrilling and filled with positive thoughts of the future.
I’m ALMOST over the fact that a freak snowfall in April killed all the leaves and fruit on our beloved fig tree. I’m that twitterpated about getting dirty that I can alomost forget….
happy mucking! lovely post!
count me as “excited to no end”!!!
How exciting! I only do flowers, I just don’t get enough sun for vegetables. Come summer you’ll have your hands full. Happy canning!! BTW, I homeschooled both of my children, and did a very close “unschooling”, especially the last two years of their highschool. It was the greatest!
I love all your purple-ness. And the yellow raspberries, yum!