What are you planning for Spring?

[ducks4you]

, Whitewater!

 

[warmfuzzies]

Well, I managed to get out of the Baker Creek website yesterday with ONLY a $90 order. woops, diddn't see that one coming.

But there were SO MANY yummy things there! How can you pick just one tomato or melon out of that catalog, I ask you??

So I ordered 6 kinds of tomatoes, 5 kinds of peppers (including those adorable tiny baby bells ) 5 kinds of melons, and 3 kinds of watermelons. Would have been 4, but they were out of OrangeGlo. Four kinds of pumpkins, 3 kinds of corn.... swiss chard, beans, 3 kinds of cucmbers, ground cherries, beets.... the list goes on and on. And this is on top of what I have at home.

My DH thinks I am crazy. Worried about genetic diversity???? I am surely doing my part!

 

[Catalina]

Then to go get some of the free compost -- my city has a program where you can go to a specific location and dump all your green stuff (right now it's full of Christmas trees!), including leaves and grass clippings, basically all the green stuff that our garbage companies won't touch. The city piles it into one HUGE (right now it's a good 12' high and a good 100' long, and it's *been* composting for months!) compost pile, to which people just add as they have stuff to get rid of. Then, in the spring, people can just take what they need from the stuff that's been composted, although you have to get there quickly, once it's good weather for breaking ground, the entire compost pile can disappear within days.

Whitewater

My city has the same program, but we must have more compost or fewer people that want it. You can go all summer and get compost.
Although if you go too early the compost is frozen. I've gone in June and it's still frozen. Everyone just chips chunks off and hauls them away.

The city has a machine that grinds everything up and makes very fine compost. They keep track of which compost piles are ready to use and those are the ones they will let you take. It's really a nice system.

 

[obsessed]

Hey fuzzies BC alwasys does that to me too!

 

[wifezilla]

I managed to get out of the Baker Creek website yesterday with ONLY a $90 order.

Bwaa haa haa haa

 

[lupinfarm]

Okay... so we got goin' in not just raised beds but...

Vegetables

Peas
Beans (Scarlett Runners... and.... suggestions?)
Lettuce (Romaine... and... suggestions?)
Spinach
Carrots
Radishes
Cucumber
Tomato (Beefsteak, Roma, Cherry)
Sweet Peppers

Fruits

Strawberries
Blackberries
Raspberries

Trees

Apple Trees (3 more)
Pear Tree (1 more)
Crabapple Trees (2)
Maple Trees (2)


Misc

Sweetpea
Sunflowers
Lupins
Coneflowers
Black Eyed Susan

Not doing a large vegetable garden this year lol Just lots of the things we ARE planting.

 

[StupidBird]

Well, I managed to get out of the Baker Creek website yesterday with ONLY a $90 order. woops, diddn't see that one coming.

But there were SO MANY yummy things there! How can you pick just one tomato or melon out of that catalog, I ask you??

So I ordered 6 kinds of tomatoes, 5 kinds of peppers (including those adorable tiny baby bells ) 5 kinds of melons, and 3 kinds of watermelons. Would have been 4, but they were out of OrangeGlo. Four kinds of pumpkins, 3 kinds of corn.... swiss chard, beans, 3 kinds of cucmbers, ground cherries, beets.... the list goes on and on. And this is on top of what I have at home.

My DH thinks I am crazy. Worried about genetic diversity???? I am surely doing my part!

And I was getting all guilty over my $35 order just for tomatoes and peppers. And I have a big drawer (2'x3' x 8") full of sorted packets, some old, some saved op, some shared... Now I don't feel so greedy! Although I might have to hire a plow to break up enough clay for all my greedy plans.

(Atlanta, GA; with chickens, in a subdivision)

 

[patandchickens]

I manually removed all, dammit ALL, of the thistle and quackgrass roots from half my main (20x20) veg garden patch last fall (other half may have to wait til next fall ) and opened a whole new veg patch on the other side of the house, about 12x15', so am looking forward to more but hopefully less-weedy veg gardening this year.

I will be planting all the usuals (lots of early lettuces, various tomatoes, several beans including lima beans which worked ok last year despite the weather, cukes, jalapenos, herbs, a few other things in smallish quantities). Groundcherries again this year but in a hotter location, on the front deck.

New veggies I will try this year is basically potatoes and cabbage (I have never grown either before, so sue me ). Oh, and onions, which ditto.

After about 6 years of dithering due to concerns about potential for invasiveness, I have finally broken down and ordered several honeyberry aka haskap aka edible-berried honeysuckle plants. They will not start bearing for a few years of course. I hope they do *not* turn out to become an invasive problem in the landscape, although I am still by no means convinced they won't (at this point I am just figuring that enough other people have 'em, why not me too )

Not planning anything too directly exciting in the way of landscape gardening this year -- I *will* be opening several LARGE beds, but not to plant in til next year (which will be fun! ). Possibly this might be the year I finally get around to a few more shrub roses but, OTOH, possibly not.

Mostly I just want to fast-forward myself a month, so that I can start spinach and lettuce with some reasonable expectation of being able to keep 'em going in a coldframe or the chicken bldg. I figure I am probably about 7-8 wks from the ability to eat some sort of freshly-picked green item, even if it is only garnish-size

Pat

 

[Grow 4 Food]

I am hoping to get away with not adding another garden this year. I have 4 right now and have a hard enough time keeping up with them. I think I am going to add more fruit bushes and trees though. Always wanted to start a nut orchard (pecans and english walnuts). Found some boysenberry bushes that we want to try to grow for wine and jelly. Also will probably add another 50-100 strawberry plants so there are a little extra after we what we want done with them. I will do the usual:
30-40 tomatoes 4-6 kinds
5-6 varieties of peppers (sweet and hot) for 12-15 plants
I will have the 40x60 corn garden planted

The Big garden gets
Kenne Beck Potaotes and Sweet Potatoes
Blue lake bush beans
Sugar Snap Peas
Pod Peas
Radishes (grown for the seed pods only)
Cukes -3-4 kinds
Broc
Cabbage (White and Purp)
Yellow Cauliflower
Beets
Carrots
4 kinds of lettuce
spinach

then the little garden gets
giant pumpkins (60-80 lbs)
gourds
sunflowers (for the chickens)
Indian Corn

I also want to grow some tomitillos but i have never done it and not sure if I can even find plants. Might once again also try brussel sprouts but i have never figured out how to get them to make the sprouts? All I ever get is plant and leaf but no sprouts. Any Thoughts?

Hobby

Oops I forgot a whole garden
THere are about 200 strawberry plants (2-kinds)
50 hills of aspharagus
4 hills of rhubarb (if I dont kill these too)
Garlic
Basil
Stevia
Chives
Oregano
Lemon Basil
Lemon Balm

 

[ninnymary]

Grow 4 Food - Is all of this food for just your personal consumption? I am overwhelmed with how large your garden is. My garden will be so tiny! I only have room for 2 pepper plants, 2 pole beans, 5 tomatoe plants, and alittle greens! Wish I had more. But at least I have one small bed for my veggies.

mary