Starting Anew

Last year was really busy - moving, quickly building our garden, starting my doctoral program, getting to as many Brewers games as possible, and trying to keep up with the garden. Garden-wise, there is lots of room for improvement. My husband agrees that we should have more space, so we're actually going to triple the size of the garden, adding 4 beds! We got the 2 beds together in about 2 days last year, so this shouldn't be too much of a project. The bigger project will be hiring a landscaper to take out the trees lining the back of our property so the garden gets more sun and I can plant squash/cucumber/melon plants back there. To retain some privacy we're going to build a trellis (probably 4-5 feet high) that will become the home for my husband's hops and, at least this year, some beautiful sunflowers. We'll build a gate into the trellis so it will be a gorgeous entrance to our garden paradise.

I spent quite a few hours last night pouring over the 2011 Seed Savers Exchange catalog, and came up with a plan for this year's garden:

Beans

• Ideal Market (green stringless bean)
• Red Swan (purple stringless bean)
• Eiskerby (edamame)

Beets

• Burpee's Golden
• Chioggia (a beautiful red/white variety)

Broccoli: De Cicco

Carrots

• Dragon (gorgeous red/purple variety)
• Scarlet Nantes

Leeks: Blue Solaise

Lettuce

• Australian Looseleaf
• Forrellenschlus
• Red Iceberg

Arugula: Appollo

Melons

• Charentais
• Emerald Gem

Onion: Yellow Parma

Peppers

• Aurora (will grow in container)
• Candlelight (will grow in container)
• Bull Nose Bell
• Garden Sunshine
• Jalepeno - Traveler's strain

Spinach: Bloomsdale

Swiss Chard

• Five Color Silverbeet
• Rhubarb Red

Summer Squash

• Black Beauty Zucchini
• Golden Zucchini

Winter Squash

• Marina di Onioggia (had to plant this after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle)
• Waltham Butternut

Tomatoes

• Amish Paste
• Sheboygan
• Blondkopfchen (grew these last year and they're a must again this year)
• Dr. Wyche's Yello
• Italian Heirloom

Herbs

• Genovese Basil
• Cilantro
• Dill
• Italian Parsley
• Cilantro (will grow in container as ornamental, may end up in husband's beer)

Sunflower mixture

Whew! That's a lot of stuff, but I've already planned out my tasks on a calendar. I need to create a growing station in the basement, but my first planting task is to start the onion, parsley and chard seedlings the weekend of March 12.