Friday, December 31, 2010

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
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.

4 comments:

  1. Let's see if this will post......Mom

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  2. Looks like you've mastered the art of leaving comments! :)

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  3. Nice to see the Spring thaw in progress. How are you coming with your growing station & prep work?

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  4. seed trays, warmer, labels, etc have been purchased. Just need to start planting in a few weeks.

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