Even though the wind is blowing and the temperatures are in the single digits, I found myself obsessing about my garden this morning. We've decided to forgo the CSA this year and try gardening again and it's been rolling around in my mind for a couple of weeks now - I just haven't sat down to plan everything out. Since I also have to write something here today, I will use you all to sift through my gardening brain dump. :)
I had a garden for two years but I let it go pretty badly, and rabbits ate half my plants. But this year I am going to make a concerted effort and hopefully get Andrei in on it too. I think it's a good skill to have and we need to be outside more anyway.
I'm letting my good friend Mel also garden in my yard, since her's is not so nice or big as mine, and I think she said there was another family that was interested, but I can't remember. Anyway, the more the merrier, and the less I will have to mow :) Mel's husband is going to help us build some raised beds so we won't have to till my uneven yard, and we can get better soil then too. I'll have to see if Mel still has that square foot gardening book or if it's back at the library so I can take a look and design what I want to do.
What am I going to grow...
-Tomatoes - yes lots and lots. Cherry, roma, normal (what are they called?) We are salsa and spaghetti-haulics here and raw they're Andrei's favorite food, so we can't have enough tomatoes. I would like to get some upsidedown tomato plants but I'm not sure where I would put them - depending on how much sun they need (
http://www.instructables.com/id/how-to-plant-hanging-upsidedown-tomatoes/).
- Peppers - lots of peppers in lots of colors. Yum! Makes me want fajitas for dinner! Brent also wants jalapenos so he can make salsa so I'm thinking 3 jala plants and 5 multi colored peppers. Maybe more.
- Pumpkin - at least one plant - maybe two - they take up a lot of room though.
- Carrots - 3 or 4? I use them a lot in cooking only because we got a lot from our CSA - and Andrei eats them too. I rarely buy them otherwise. These got demolished by the rabbits overnight the last time i planted though.
- Yellow squash - only one of these. I like them, but not that much.
- Broccoli - maybe 3? These also are rabbit-attractors
- Garlic and onions - I think I would have had to do these in the fall, so I guess they'll have to wait until next year. Oooh, maybe I'll look into leeks and green onions in the meantime
- Basil - Pesto is my very most favorite food in the world, but my attempts last time were pitiful. Hopefully I'll do better this year.
- Lettuce - 2-3 plants? The first fresh picked salad = beginning of summer for me :)
- Spinach/kale/green-something I'd like to cook with these more or make green smoothies so I have to figure out what would grow best around here.
Oh my - this list is pretty intense for someone who is not a huge gardener.
Other than what's above, I think I may let Andrei have his own little plot with cucumbers and some thing else he'd like. Maybe I'll put a couple experimental plants in there too. Hmm I have been looking at the list here -
http://sharonastyk.com/2009/02/10/20-plants-you-should-consider-growing/ but they all seem to hard right now (not that my previous list looks easy). Maybe I'll venture out and pick one and try it. Maybe hazlenuts or sweet potatoes. I don't know yet.
Also, I plan to can this fall even though I abhor it. :( But I'm going to make myself learn and do it. I think mostly I hate it because I hate prepping the tomaotes and all I've ever canned was marinara sauce and salsa. Maybe if I make non-tomato things it won't be so bad. But that's a post for another day.
We already have black raspberries which are awesome and strawberries which didn't do squat last year, and that's probably because I didn't do squat to take care of them. Hopefully this year will be better.
Oy, I think I have pretty high expectations of myself...
