Spring Garden Planning: The Great Garden Expansion

It finally feels like Spring is around the corner in southern Wisconsin. Although there's still plenty of snow on the ground, green patches are emerging and our daily highs were in the 40s (Fahrenheit) much of the last week. Yesterday the high at our house was 55, and it's forecasted to hit 60 today before returning to the 40s.

This is the time of year I have to actively stop myself from starting my seeds too early. On February 15 I started my onions (Ailsa Craig, Yellow Sweet Spanish, Redwing, and Warrior), leeks, and rosemary. On Sunday I started my parsley after soaking the seeds for 24 hours. Nothing else should be started until March 15, lest I end up with larger seedlings than I have space to take care of.

Since I can't plant, it's a great time to share my plans for the 2021 garden. Since I will once again be working from home with limited work travel (quite possibly none at all), I'm taking the opportunity to expand our garden. The 2020 garden (and earlier years in this space) was approximately 20' x 25'. I could harvest a lot of vegetable from that space, but I had to be choosey about space-hogging row crops. It was adjacent to a terribly overgrown perennial garden created by the prior owner, and during the summer I took advantage of having a construction crew onsite and had them clear the entire space down to the dirt. Suddenly I had a space roughly 35' x 80'. I had them run a water and electric line to make things a little easier, covered the entire space with a cover crop for the fall, and got to planning.

Garden Plan

Here's what I'm hoping to grow in 2021. The full plan, including a plant list, is available here.

I've always grown my in-ground garden in "zones," rather than strict rows, and I'll be trying that again this year. The light gray areas on the plan represent paths that I'll create with either mulch over cardboard or landscape fabric I have available. I've scheduled significant time off from work in May for garden prep, and hope it's enough time to accomplish this. If the layout proves onerous, I'll switch to a more traditional row layout next year.

The dark gray box is where I plant to test the location of a shaded rest spot. I'll probably just use a 10 x 10 pop-up tent this year, but if the layout works and doesn't shade the adjacent vegetables too much, we'll plan a structure there for next year. I want to be able to relax in my garden, in the shade. During the early spring I'll probably place my walk-in pop-up greenhouse there so I can get my plants out of the basement as soon as possible.

I fully expect that when all is said and done the garden won't look exactly like the plan, but that's part of the fun.

What I'm Growing

This includes a lot of old standards, increased production for storage and preservation, and just a few new crops.

• Beans: In addition to pole beans (Kentucky Wonder and Purple Pole), which are standard at our house, I'm growing four 18' rows of dry beans (Black Turtle, Dragon Tongue, Jacob's Cattle, Great Northern). I accidentally grew some dry beans this year and we loved them.
• Beets: A 10' row of spring beets will be Golden, another 10' row will join carrots after the garlic comes out (Chioggia), and a 14' row of Lutz Winter Keeper will get started in July for a late fall/early winter harvest.
• Bok Choy: I'm not sure I've ever grown this, but I love it at the farmers market. I'm planning just a couple of plants in an early spring sowing.
• Broccoli: I love broccoli, and am planning 10 plants of differing varieties, which should mature at slightly different times and provide some side shoots as well. I want broccoli in my freezer! Varieties: Arcadia, Calabrese, De Cicco, Green Magic
• Brussels Sprouts: I'm planning five plants of Long Island Improved, which I will start from seed. I'm not sure I've ever successfully grown sprouts from seed before; the last time they were in my garden, I purchased starts from the local greenhouse. I've got brand new 2021 seed from Seed Savers Exchange this year, so I'm hopeful for good germination and results.
• Cabbage: I've fallen in love with this vegetable. In addition to enjoying sauerkraut and kimchi, we love a crisp summer coleslaw, and I freeze dozens of stuffed cabbage rolls to eat all winter. There are plenty of ways to eat cabbage I haven't explored yet. In order to have plenty of slaw as well as winter cabbage, I'm planting two early varieties (Red Express and Optikd), along with Late Flat Dutch, which I've grown before and has a long heritage of growing in our area. In all I should be growing about 20 heads of cabbage, which would certainly set a record for cabbage consumed in a year for our household.
• Carrots: I'm planning three rounds of sowings. The first will be in mid-April— a single 10' row each of Mokum and Rainbow. I made seed mats out of single ply toilet paper and flour paste for these to ensure proper spacing and minimize weeding. After the garlic harvest I'll plant three more 10' rows - two of Danvers Half Long and one of St. Valery. And in late July if I can keep up with the garden, I'll put in some fall carrots - two 14' rows of Ox Hearts and one 14' row of Karuda. That's a lot of carrots, but I plan to test a variety of storage methods, and if I still have far too many they can go to the local food bank.
• Cauliflower: I had some old seed (Early Snowball) that passed a germination test, so I figured I'd give it a go.
• Celery: In my opinion, no celery tastes as good as home grown celery. After testing germination for my existing seed packs, I've gone with Conquistador.
• Corn: Since we have so much more room, I figured it's time to give corn a solid try. It's still a small patch (about 9' x 5'), and I'm trying to seed three varieties at varying times to mitigate cross pollination. There's a solid chance this crop will be enjoyed by deer or raccoons, but we'll see. Varieties: Incredible, Blue Jade, Bear Paw.
• Cucumber: It's been years since I needed to replace our pickle stores, but we're finally there. I also want to try some different lacto fermentation pickles, and of course have some for fresh eating. Varieties: National Pickling and Swing.
• Dill: Must have this to go with our pickles! I'm planting a 10 square foot patch simply because it's so beautiful to watch grow.
• Eggplant:  Two plants each of Slim Jim and Black Beauty. Mostly just want to make ratatouille. 
• Fennel: My favorite way to use fennel is in a carrot fennel soup that can be pressure canned. With all the carrots I'm growing, some are bound to be fresh when my 5 fennel plants are ready. Variety: Florence.
• Garlic: This was planted in October 2020, purchased from a local garlic farm. Although I ordered some soft neck garlic, I ended up with all hard neck because my chosen soft neck variety didn't do well. I planted 52 cloves of Chesnok Red, 36 cloves of Romanian Red, and 82 cloves of German Extra Hardy. The snow has almost completely melted from the garlic patch.
• Kale: I love kale, and fully recognize that 12 plants may be far too much for my two-person household, but I'm giving it a go anyway. In addition to eating fresh, storing well in the fridge, and lasting longer into the fall/winter than other vegetables, I love to blanch and freeze kale for later use in breakfast beaks and other dishes. Varieties: Curly Roja, Nero di Toscana, Red Russian.
• Leek: I actually had trouble finding leek seeds from Pine Tree, my primary source, so I purchased a packet of the Tadorna variety from Johnny's when I ordered some other supplies. In addition to using fresh and making potato leek soup, I may experiment with dehydrating some.
• Peas: My Cascadia and Knight seeds are nearly a decade old but have continued to germinate, so we'll give them one more shot this year. I'm starting them indoors and transplanting outside after just a couple of weeks to ensure germination.
• Peppers: I'm planning a dozen sweet pepper plants, as well as a dozen hot pepper plants. I love peppers for salsa, freezing, and stuffing. I also plan to ferment some hot sauce. I have lots of pepper seeds left from prior years, so the varieties will be chosen on a whim when I sow them later this month.
• Potatoes: I've only grown potatoes in the ground once, and that was in a raised bed at a prior house. It was a small plot and mildly successful. I'm going all in this year on 170 square foot potato patch, with six varieties purchased from Pine Tree Seeds. Varieties: Adirondack Blue, Eva, Katahdin, Red Pontiac, Superior Early, Yukon Gold.
• Radishes: Most every time I plant carrots, I'll also plant some quick-growing radishes (Purple Plum, Easter Egg, Cherry Belle) and harvest them young as the carrots are just starting to come up. I'm also planting some dedicated rows of Black Spanish and Watermelon radishes for a fall harvest and winter storage.
• Rhubarb: While I have no need to plant it, the Rhubarb will come up like clockwork.
• Rutabaga: These are back after a successful 2020, although I've got new seed, and a new variety: Helenor. I couldn't get the Joan variety from my primary seed source.
• Squash (Summer): I'm trying to pull back on summer squash and avoid being buried with them. I'm growing one hill each of three varieties: Black Beauty, Golden Zucchini, and Zephyr.
• Squash (Winter): I should have plenty of room for winter squash to sprawl this year, and I may also add some vertical trellises (I had great luck with them in 2018). The plan right now is to grow Waltham Butternut, Marina di Chioggia, Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck, Spaghetti, and Table Queen Acorn. I may end up switching these up at last minute; too many of my stored acorn squashes ended up in the compost.
• Swiss Chard: I have multiple varieties of old seed, and I'll end up growing whatever germinates the best.
• Tomatoes. I'll always grow tomatoes, and this year I'm growing almost exclusively varieties I've grown before. The only unknown is Juliet - I couldn't get seeds anywhere. I'll try to pick them up at our local greenhouse, where I got starts last year. I'm planning on 15 determinate or semi-determinate tomatoes, in a single long row. I've always grown them in at least double rows, but I got sick of having to dig through foliage to find the fruits. Hopefully this setup will be better. I tossed all my tomato cages last year because they were falling apart, so I'll need a new way to support them this year.  I'm also planning a dozen indeterminate tomatoes on the eastern edge of the garden. I've always grown them up tall lengths of rebar, but this year I may try the cattle panel method. These will be slicers and cherry tomatoes. Planned varieties: Black Vernissage, Blondkopfchen, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, German Pink,  Heinz Classic Processor, Martino's Roma, Moonglow, Oregon Spring, Riesentraube, Roma.
• Tomatillo: I've had seeds for years and never planted them. I'm going to grow just one plant, with plenty of room, to see how it performs and hope to make a bit of salsa verde out of it.
• Tomatoes. I'll always grow tomatoes, and this year I'm growing almost exclusively varieties I've grown before. The only unknown is Juliet - I couldn't get seeds anywhere. I'll try to pick them up at our local greenhouse, where I got starts last year. I'm planning on 15 determinate or semi-determinate tomatoes, in a single long row. I've always grown them in at least double rows, but I got sick of having to dig through foliage to find the fruits. Hopefully this setup will be better. I tossed all my tomato cages last year because they were falling apart, so I'll need a new way to support them this year.  I'm also planning a dozen indeterminate tomatoes on the eastern edge of the garden. I've always grown them up tall lengths of rebar, but this year I may try the cattle panel method. These will be slicers and cherry tomatoes. Planned varieties: Black Vernissage, Blondkopfchen, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, German Pink,  Heinz Classic Processor, Martino's Roma, Moonglow, Oregon Spring, Riesentraube, Roma.

In a new small bed near my kitchen I'm growing a variety of herbs, mustard greens, lettuce, arugula, and chamomile. Perhaps I'll detail that in a new post when I plant it. I'm also trying to include more flowers in the vegetable garden, including calendula, marigold, zinnia, nasturtium, paper daisies, and sunflowers. Must keep the pollinators happy!

All in all, I think I'm growing about 110 varieties of vegetables, herbs, and flowers this year. Whenever I tell people I'm a vegetable gardener, they ask, "What do you grow?" How do you think I should answer them?

Garden Journal: July 2020

I've always had good intentions of keeping a garden journal. I read memoirs like Animal, Vegetable, Miracle or Garden Wisdom: Lessons Learned from 60 Years of Gardening and imagine the treasure trove of journals the authors must have drawn from. Any garden journal I've kept doesn't make it past a few entries. This blog is the closest thing I have to a journal. I need to stop imagining a journal as a physical book that I write in every day or every week. The concept of journaling is to create time to reflect and remember events in the future. My blog, camera roll, Instagram and Facebook accounts, and garden planning software serve that function in aggregate. I've given myself permission to be a good gardener without a garden journal.

Today was different. I have the week off from work, and my intention is to spend most of my time in the garden, the kitchen, or with my nose in a book. This morning, after a cup of tea and a peach scone baked from scratch, I brought my second cup of tea out to the garden and unfolded a camping chair. I just sat and looked at things. When the carrots or rutabagas were just screaming to be thinned, I obliged. I pulled a few weeds. I propped up a leaning pepper plant and harvested a few ripe tomatoes. I kept noticing things I wanted to remind myself of next year, now that I'm 8 weeks into the first season of gardening in an open canvas of dirt, rather than raised beds or designated planting holes through fabric as I have for the last decade. I came up with quite the list, from the practical to the philosophical. I'm documenting it here for future reference, and for any unintended benefit to aspiring or current gardeners who stumble upon this post.

The Garden As A Living Space

A garden is a place to relax (or work hard) and enjoy my home. Space left open for paths or to give veggies room isn’t wasted; it’s prioritizing the garden as living space. For years I tried to maximize my yield per square foot, sometimes planting raised beds in the square foot gardening method. I only planted corn once (it was a failure due to strong storms, animals, and general neglect) because I couldn't justify just two delicious ears of corn per stalk. What was I thinking, that's the perfect amount for dinner! Prioritizing for yield may mean minimizing enjoyment. My garden is not intended to be a second job.

The shade tent is amazing for working on hot, sunny days, but it’s cumbersome for one short person to move around, especially because the legs dig into the ground. Perhaps we could put some tennis balls or something on the bottom of the legs to make it easier to drag?

Spacing: Never Trust An Ambitious Gardener

• 18”-24” spacing for peppers is perfect. Consider adding a support pole right away, and tying plants to poles about 6 weeks post transplant. Don’t wait for them to fall over. Treat them nicely. 
• GIVE THE DETERMINANT TOMATOES MORE SPACE. 18” apart is not enough. It creates a tangled mess, increases chances I miss ripe tomatoes, and makes harvesting more unpleasant since my skin reacts poorly to tomato leaves. Plant them 2’-3’ apart next year. So far, yields are amazing. I may not need to plant 20 plants next year. TBD. 

• Although the winter squash do just fine direct seeded in a hill, I need to commit to removing seedlings so I have the quantity I planned for. This year I didn't do that, and I'm curious to see if it will yield to overall smaller squash. They do really well in my garden both up free-standing trellises and on the ground. If I continue letting them spread on the ground, I should mulch heavily with cardboard and straw or grass right after planting so I don’t have to worry about that area for the rest of the season (other than the hills).

Spring Reminders

• Never put off mulching. Mulching makes everything grow better, makes maintenance easier, and it’s pretty! When planting rows of direct-seeded vegetables, consider mulching first, and leaving space where the rows will be. That should motivate me to still plant on time but the mulching will be done!
• I’ll probably never regret under planting seeds (more room to grow, larger/healthier plants) but I will regret over planting them because of the extra work of thinning, less room for air to move when harvesting, etc.
• It’s a good idea to seed radishes in with carrots, but do so sparingly (no more than 1 per foot) and only with the quickest growing varieties. This makes more sense to me than planting a dedicated row of radishes, because they’re not my favorite vegetable. 
• It’s probably worth the tedium to create carrot seed strips or mats for planting, and always best to use seed that’s 1-2 years old. Old carrot seed doesn’t seem to fade as well as other varieties. Old beet, rutabaga, and chard seed does just fine though. 
• Begin watching indeterminant tomatoes to prune suckers immediately. If I let one go so long it becomes a stem with blossoms on it, I won’t have the heart to prune it and I’ll regret it by July or August. Commit to tying the tomatoes to their stakes once a week whether I think they need it or not. If I continue to grow cherry tomatoes up rebar, I need to plant more (assuming I’m limiting them to a single vine). As my garden expands, I may want to consider planting them in some sort of container where 3-4 vines would be allowed to develop and drape over the sides.
• Chard works just fine direct seeded in my garden. Kale is more challenging that way and should probably be transplanted.
• The 8-ball zucchini grows straight up and puts out climbing vines. While it’s doing fine in hills, it would probably do well in a row in front of a trellis. 
• Direct seeding basil was a bust (possibly because of old seed but I suspect because of inconsistent moisture). Definitely start these indoors for transplant.

Early Summer Reminders

• Thin beet greens at 4 weeks for greens only, 6-8 weeks for baby beets (but the latter is probably slowing down growth of the main crop). Remember- they put out more than one seedling per seed by nature. It’s ok to space them generously when planting.
• If critters eat my beans plants, replant promptly. They’ll catch up quickly (missed opportunity in 2020).

If anyone else is reading this, what has your garden taught you so far this year? What mistake do you seem to keep making year after year?

Perhaps the Pandemic Will Prompt More Gardening

It's funny and also a little sad to look at my last post here, from May 2017. We worked our tails off and got those beds in, then spent a small fortune on what was supposed to be really high quality garden mix with a high percentage of compost to fill them. Then we had two main problems:

• It was just too wet down there. We never were able to fill in around the beds, and it basically became a mud pit. The beds wanted to start rotting almost immediately.
• Something was wrong with the garden mix, and it stunted almost everything planted in it. My guess is the compost in the mix was still "hot."

I did have a great upper garden that year, though. I covered the entire 800 square feet in black landscape fabric, and created holes in it to plant. I had bumper crops in both 2017 and 2018, although controlling the weeds up there is an ongoing challenge (that's why I went with garden fabric).

The garden in 2017 (June) making good use of plastic lawn fabric

Harvest from one September day in 2018

2017 was the beginning of a few years that threw us a lot of curveballs. In June 2017, my dad had serious surgery for an aneurysm. He's fine, but he was in ICU for awhile. My father-in-law passed away in November 2017, very unexpectedly. A few months later we found out my mother-in-law had cancer, and she died in August 2018. This was of course a lot of personal stress, but things were also busy on the work front. In fall 2017 I started a business! It's kept me very busy, and now there are 11 people on my team.

Because of that, I was traveling a lot—close to 100 days a year in 2018 and 2019, with a lot of that travel during the growing season. After seeing how the garden was getting away from me in 2018, we made the conscious decision to take 2019 off from gardening. So we did. We also hired landscapers to rip out our back patio and build us a gorgeous new patio and fire pit, and at the last minute decided to have them rip out that nasty mud pit and the retaining well near it, instead sloping our lawn directly to the pond. While digging the base of the patio, they found a huge drainage problem and had to install a new drainage system... it's no wonder we had a mud pit down there.

Part of the new patio, with a slope right into the pond

I thought 2020 might be another no-garden year; travel didn't seem to be letting up and the business continues to grow. Then, in mid-March, travel stopped and I (along with my entire team) started working from home full-time. We'll be working like this until at least July 1, and likely some sort of hybrid home/office situation after that. All of my work-related travel has been cancelled until at least late September.

So why not garden? I didn't start any seeds, and most of my preferred suppliers were sold out when I checked their websites in March/April, so I gladly supported a local greenhouse to get tomato and pepper seedlings, along with a few others. I've started the process of "waking up" the upper garden, where I plan to plant some veggies I don't get a lot of in my CSA, as well as the food we love to preserve. I should have the time.

But once again, it's back-breaking work. It took me two weekends of intermittent work just to make sure I had the asparagus patch ready for it to appear this spring (it just started).

Asparagus bed, just before spears started popping up

I spent this afternoon and early evening in the garden as well. I pulled up all the landscape fabric, and I've been digging out some perennial weeds. I'll till within the next couple of days (when I get a dry day), and then I want to try creating some planting areas that rely more on mulch (newspaper + straw for large plants, shredded paper/straw for small), rather than messing around with the fabric over the entire garden. That gives me the flexibility to plant things like rutabaga and bush beans, which wouldn't have worked in my last setup. I still have some of the landscape fabric, so I'll probably use it for rows (and it will be easier to re-use that way).

Because I've been working so much and our summer vacation (and probably fall) is cancelled, I also have a lot of time off piled up. So I'll have 3 and 4 day weekends the next few weeks to get the garden going, and entire weeks off (or days available for impromptu time) when the harvest and food preservation needs are greatest. Even if I'm sore for days, being in the garden makes me happy and allows me to forget everything else that's going on in the world. I'm glad I can focus on it this year.

Planning Gross Farms 3.0

It's been a while since I published a post on this blog. There a few reasons for that. After the 2014 gardening season wound down, I decided to focus on getting my dissertation written. I'd been sitting on an almost-finished proposal for over a year. After nine months of solid focus, I defended my dissertation in September 2015. This gardener now has a Ph.D.! 2015 was a great year for gardening but I didn't have time to write about it.

Also in fall 2015, my husband accepted a job offer with the company I work for. This meant we were both commuting almost an hour each way, which seemed silly. We started to hunt for a home closer to work, in the country, with lots of land for us to pursue our hobbies (including gardening). We found it! In December 2015 we moved into our new house in the tiny hamlet of Kroghville, WI. It's located on a 1.6 acre lot and was previously home to a master gardener, so there are beds everywhere, mostly filled with perennial flowers. We took 2016 as a year to figure out what is really growing here, and how we might want to adapt it to make it our own.

Existing Spaces and Plans

We certainly have an amazing canvas to work with.

The side border and the front of this perennial garden will stay in flowers for the foreseeable future, although we have a lot of work to do to clean them up. They've been spreading and left unweeded for a few years.

At about the point where the pergola is built, I'll start my vegetable garden. There's about a 400 square foot area here for planting. When possible, I"ll transplant some of the special flowers that are currently in that space. Plans for that space include peppers, eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, beans, cucumbers, and strawberries. There is an existing rhubarb plant.

The further back you go along the fence, the more overgrown it gets. I've started clearing a 28' x 5' bed here.

Plans for this space in 2017 are garlic, corn, and and asparagus patch.

On the west side of the house is an amazing pond. Between the perennial border and the pond is a 60' x 6' strip of grass that is difficult to get to with the mower, and holds a lot of water. I'm going to remove the grass and put in six 3' x 8' raised beds, surrounded with stones.

Plans for this space in 2017 include: onions, carrots, fennel, celery, beets, chard, kale, broccoli, and tomatoes.

This will give me a total of 684 square feet of growing space in year one, if I can get it all in this spring.

Initial Preparation

I've already started on the side border, and have a 8' x 4' block of German Extra Hardy garlic planted that I picked up at the local farmers market. The purchase of a new rear-tine tiller made this job a bit easier—and more fun!

Seed Order

Yesterday I placed my seed order. Here are the varieties I plan to grow in 2017 (will all be started from seed in my basement or in the beds).

• Asparagus: Will decide on variety when I see what the local greenhouse has.
• Beans: Rattlesnake, Purple Pod
• Beets: Lutz Winter Keeper
• Broccoli: Arcadia
• Carrots: Mokum (early), Dragon (main crop), New Kuroda (late/storage)
• Celery: Conquistador
• Corn: Golden Bantam 8 Row
• Cucumber: Diva, National Pickling
• Eggplant: Black Beauty, Slim Jim
• Herbs: Florence fennel, Caribe cilantro, Dukat dill, Greek oregano, Italian parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme
• Kale: Red Russian
• Onion: Yellow Sweet Spanish, Red Wing
• Peppers, Sweet: California Wonder, Sweet Banana, Chocolate Beauty, Purple Marconi, Lilac Bell
• Peppers, Hot: Cayenne - Long, Early Jalapeno, Habanero
• Potato: I have ideas but might see what the local garden center has to offer.
• Strawberry: Will wait on local garden center
• Squash, Summer: Lebanese White Bush, Zephyr, Cash Flow zucchini
• Squash, Winter: Red Kuri, Waltham butternut, Vegetable spaghetti
• Tomato: Plum Regal, Blondkopfchen, German Pink, Moonglow, Incas Hybrid, Little Napoli Hybrid, Health Kick, Riesenstraube

This is actually a short list compared to past years, but I'm starting slow (for me). I've also signed up for another half share of a CSA just in case I don't have the luck I suspect in our first year here. I anticipate I'll be preserving a lot of food in 2017!

Planning An Edible Hedge

As I look outside the window towards my garden, I can't even make out where the beds are because we've gotten so much snow this winter. More snow is falling as I write this, but I'm thinking of spring.

I last wrote in January, when I ordered my seeds. They have all arrived, and the leeks and onions were started on February 16. They're up and looking great. I'll start chronicling seed starting more in earnest when I start more plants in March.

I haven't shared my 2014 garden plan yet. It is mighty ambitious. Take a look:

We live in a subdivision that doesn't allow fenced yards, so I'm choosing to grow an edible hedge instead (I may sink chicken wire on the inside if we still have a problem with critters—only time will tell). I just placed the order today, and it was pretty overwhelming. To create a 35' x 60' hedgerow, we'll need:

• Caroline Raspberries (9) - fall bearing
• Red Lantham Raspberries (9) - spring/summer bearing
• Hinnomaki Red Gooseberries (12) - fall bearing
• Red Lake Currants (12) - July bearing
• Hansen's Bush Cherries (12) - summer bearing

These varieties were readily available from Gurney's, which appears to be a reliable source, and I got an excellent price. They have a coupon code in March that gives you $100 off an order of $200 or more. When all was said and done, these bushes were going to cost just over $500. So, I split my order into three, threw in the asparagus, rhubarb, and strawberries I needed....and ended up getting some landscaping bushes for the front of the house for a grand total of $310 + $75 shipping. That sounds like a lot for plants, but when you consider what it would cost to fence in this area (which wouldn't provide a delicious harvest), I think it's worth it. Also, I just got a credit card in the mail that has 0% interest for a year, so I can continue to use my monthly gardening budget to pay it off while I'm already reaping the benefits of the plants.

I can't wait to see what this looks like. All the bushes should grow to be 3'-5' tall, and after a few years of filling in I think they'll look wonderful—particularly in the spring when they're all in bloom. The gap in the hedge at the top of the plan will be an arbor with a gate. I got some free morning glories with one of my Seed Savers Exchange shipments, so maybe I'll grow them over the top of the arbor.

2014 Seed Order

You didn't hear from me much last year because I was without a garden. However, by September we had all the raised beds constructed and filled in the back yard, so it will be full steam ahead in 2014! Look at all the growing space I have:

That's eight 3'x3' beds, and 16 8'x3' beds (set up in adjacent pairs).

I've been using some garden planning software to lay everything out and plan for succession planting. Even with so much space, I'm still tempted to overdo things. There are currently 75 cloves of garlic (Music) planted, and the following seeds have either been ordered or will soon be ordered. Time to start a seed starting calendar!

• Arugula 
• Asparagus: Jersey Knight Hybrid
• Bush Beans: Royal Burgundy
• Fava Beans: Windsor 
• Beets: Cylindra, Golden, Chioggia 
• Broccoli: Calabrese, De Cicco
• Brussell Sprouts: Long Island Improved
• Cabbage:Premium Late Flat Dutch
• Carrots: Cosmic Purple. St. Valery
• Cauliflower: Early Snowball
• Celery: Tall Utah
• Chard: Rhubarb Red
• Corn: Blue Jade, Bear Paw Popcorn
• Cucumbers: Parade, Crystal Apple
• Eggplant: Black Beauty
• Genovese Basil
• Chives
• Cilantro
• Bouquet Dill
• Garlic Chives
• Florence Fennel
• Mint
• Greek Oregano
• Giant from Italy Parsley
• Green Culinary Sage
• Thyme
• Kale: Halbhoher Gruner Krauser, Red Russian
• Lettuce: Forrellenschluss, Red Iceberg, Green Oakleaf, Tango
• Leeks: Blue Solaise
• Onions: Alisa Craig Exhibition, Yellow Sweet Spanish
• Peas: Sugar Lace, Mammoth Melting Sugar Snow Pea
• Sweet Peppers: Chervena Chushka, Bull Nose Bell, Chocolate Beauty, Miniature Yellow Bell
• Hot Peppers: Chinese Ornamental, Joe’s Long Cayenne, Jalapeno Traveler Strain
• Potatoes: Purple Viking, Yukon Gold
• Radishes: Cherry Belle, French Breakfast
• Rutabaga: Joan
• Spinach: America, Strawberry Spinach
• Summer Squash: Black Beauty Zucchini, Golden Zucchini 
• Winter Squash: Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck, Waltham Butternut, Table Queen
• Strawberries: Honeoye
• Determinate Tomatoes: Rutgers, Oregon Spring, Tip-Top, Principe Borghese, Roma, Martin’s Roma, Silvery Fir Tree
• Indeterminate Tomatoes: Brandywine, Blondkopfchen, Dr. Wyche’s Yellow, Dester, Italian Heirloom, Riesentraube
• Tomatillo

No Garden This Year

I haven't updated the blog with the realization that hit me just before we moved into our new house: we won't have a garden this year. Why is that, you ask? Well, it's mid-May and our backyard looks like this:

Until that dirt pile moves and our yard is graded, there will be no garden construction. Unfortunately, we don't know when that will happen. It could be next week, or "sometime before July 4." You can't really tell in this picture, but the yard really is a good size. Right now, we're planning on using the back 35' of the lot for the garden, which will still leave us with a large yard. Of course, all plans are subject to change until the actual garden goes in, but this is what I'm currently thinking of using for a layout:

This plot is approximately 60' x 35' and features a living fence (hedgerow). I'm not exactly sure what I will plant yet, but I want it all to be edible. The key is to find plants that will all grow to roughly the same height (I would like 4-5 feet) and won't be damaged with a little pruning. Our backyard is open to all of our neighbors, so I want the hedgerow to be presentable.

Our new neighborhood has bylaws that restrict fence building. If I were to get approval to build a fence, it would have to match the character of the house, meaning it would be very expensive. I think a living fence is a good compromise - I can sink chicken wire on the inside to keep out critters, and all my neighbors will see is the hedge.

The beds in the plan are 3' x 16' and 3' x 3', giving me 456 square feet of growing space in the beds. My previous garden had six 4' x 16' beds (384 feet). I know I definitely want more space than I had in my last garden, and I'm a bit too short to reach the center of a 4' bed. I'm using the long and square beds because I want to try to plant each bed in the same family for crop rotation purposes...and a 3' x 16' bed of some plant families might be a bit much. It also gives me flexibility in terms of early/late season planting to make the most use of the space.

I anticipate that at least one of the 3' x 3' beds will be planted with strawberries and another with rhubarb, and one of the 3' x 16' beds might get planted full of asparagus. Perennial herbs may not be a concern, because I have plenty of other areas to landscape around the house and could work my favorites (chives, oregano, thyme) into the landscape.

I hope to have the garden in by fall so I can plant garlic, and maybe get a cold frame growing to overwinter some spinach and other greens. In the meantime, I've signed up for a CSA with Three Brothers Farm. They're just five miles from my house and in their second year of transition to organic. They've told me I can visit whenever I like, and they're planning some formal on-farm events. Hopefully this will satisfy my need to get my hands in the dirt.

So, this year the blog will probably be a combination of CSA photos and related recipes and an update on garden construction. I'm starting to feel the void where my gardening (and fresh produce) normally is this time of year, but hopefully our new garden will be even better. We learned a lot at out last house, and hopefully can avoid a few mistakes this time around.

Garden Lessons

The garden season is not entirely over (it better not be - there are a lot of green tomatoes on my plants), but I've gotten through enough of it to reflect on things I want to do differently next year. Some of my readers who are more experienced gardeners may say "duh," but this is only my third year of gardening (fourth if you include containers). Hopefully, I have about 50 years of gardening ahead of me. My husband has urged me to write these things down so I don't have the same frustrations next year.

We need to learn how to deal with pests.

Whether flying, crawling, or scampering, this year's mild winter has made every pest invasion more extreme. There are a variety of measures I can take to keep the pests out of my garden.

• Dig our chicken wire barrier down into the ground.
• Last year, when I put up the chicken wire along our chain link fence that encloses the garden, I didn't dig it into the ground. I knew I should have, but we had already felled 4 trees, added 4 large beds, hauled in garden soil, and constructed a serious trellis/gate. I needed to get plants in the ground, not dig in the chicken wire—or so I thought. The ground-level barrier worked for a year, but this year I've seen mice and chipmunks running free through the garden. They've definitely learned to burrow. Either this fall or early next spring, we're going to have to invest some serious sweat equity - digging in approximately 125 feet of chicken wire.
• Invest in some hoops and cover fabric.
• If the mice do end up getting in, I don't want to let them have my beet harvest again. I know the hoops aren't 100% necessary, but I think I'd like to have them to extend the growing season anyway. I wish I would have purchased some immediately after I discovered the devastation in the beet patch - the entire fall bed (beets, chard, turnips) has had all of its leaves eaten by some type of critter. I dont' think it's going to make it. Hopefully this covering will also keep our plants protected from the bugs that infested our garden this year - at least until they're established enough to need pollinating.
• Figure out how to outsmart the slugs.
• We've tried beer traps. We've tried treating with Sluggo (maybe not frequently enough?) The fact is slugs are still decimating many of our crops. They seem to love our soil, and I need to find a way to get rid of them.
• Pay more attention to my summer squash and cucumbers, and Aaron's hops.
• I think these need to be sprayed much more often than we did (we use pyrethrin). That, or I need to plan to have two rotations of these plants so I have more maturing after the first planting is lost to the bugs.

We need to make better use of our available space.

• After harvesting the early bed, most of it stayed empty (except 4 rows of pole beans on 2 trellises) because it was too late to plant the melons I had planned for that bed. I could have, however, planted more summer squash in that space—it would have started producing fruit right as we started severely cutting back our powdery-mildew and squash vine borer infested leaves and stems.
• Some things can be planted closer together (garlic), while others need to be farther apart (onions, tomatoes, beets).
• I need to give up on planting in the ground on the back fence line (it's overrun with weeds from all the neighbors) and add a few smaller raised beds back there. They'll be perfect for determinant tomatoes, bush beans, or smaller root veggies like beets and turnips.

I need to build better tomato cages.

• I have these great tomato cages that store flat (they're made up of 3 poles and 9 connectors/supports each), but I consistently assemble them backwards. I face the supports the wrong way, so as the plant grows it busts out of the cages. Simply snapping on the supports facing the correct direction will fix this problem—yet I've managed to screw it up for 2 years.

I've got to make the basil last.

• Believe it or not, I think this means planting less of it. I have a tendency to plant too much basil, which results in my inability to keep up with harvests and the premature yellowing of the plants. I need to be ruthless when I harvest so the regrowth continues until the tomatoes are all ripe.
• Related - when I have a glut of basil, I need to make pesto, even if there is a bunch in the freezer. I'm looking at a pesto-free winter because I didn't make pesto in June when I should have.

It's time to start identifying my preferred varieties.

• This is most important for me in regards to the plants I grow a lot of and put up for the winter—tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, zucchini, garlic.
• Tomatoes: I started growing exclusively heirloom tomatoes because it seemed the most authentic type to grow. Don't get me wrong - they're delicious. But, I need a large portion of my tomatoes to be suitable for canning. Most of the heirlooms I grow are delicious slicers, but they don't put out the volume to give me enough for canning.
• This was the first year I grew some determinant varieties, and Polbig (an early hybrid) is definitely a keeper. It put out tons of fist-sized tomatoes that are perfect for canning, sauce, salsa, etc.
• Blondkopfchen, an heirloom cherry tomato, is definitely a keeper. It takes longer to ripen than some other cherries, but its huge clusters give me an enormous amount of tomatoes at once - they're perfect for roasting, fresh eating, and soon I hope to give them a try in my newly-purchased dehydrator.
• Moonshine is my favorite slicer, so that heirloom will still find a place in my garden.
• Amish Paste, however, is on its way out. The huge tomatoes would be great, except they always split on me, and I end up cutting off way to much to get rid of the damaged parts. Also, I only get a few ripe tomatoes a day - not enough at once to put up anything of consequence.
• Matt's Wild Cherry tastes delicious, but it sprawls way too much for me (the plant is so tall I can't pick the highest clusters) and it annoys me that the fruits seem to ripen in a set order on the cluster - those closest to the stem ripen much faster than the fruits at the end of the cluster. This means more time spent picking, as you can only pick one or two fruits from each cluster at a time. I appreciated that they ripened the earliest, though - so I'm on the hunt for another early-ripening cherry tomato.
• Heinz was on trial in my garden this year, and it will probably get another year. The fruits are small, but they take longer than the Polbig's to ripen, meaning I have an extended canning/preserving season.
• According to this list, I might end up with only 5 or 6 tomato varieties each year (assuming I try something new every year). I need to realize that that's ok. I've got lots of other fish (veggies?) to fry.
• Beans
• I've only been growing beans for 2 years, but I've learned a variety of lessons. 1) Don't plant a double row in front of the trellis - the leaves will grow so thick you'll never find the beans! 2) Don't freak out about getting them in the ground as soon as we're clear of the last frost. Better for them to get a start to grow healthy stems than to be set back by cold, wet weather. 3) I need to stagger my bean planting. This year I planted up until July and I think I'll get everything harvested before the first frost.
• Ideal Market tastes delicious, but it's hard to find in the mess of beans. I'm going to stick with beans that have some sort of color to them so they're easier to pick.
• Using that criteria, I think Rattlesnake and Purple Trionfo Violetto are keepers.
• I'm going to actually grow my pole beans on poles (teepees) next year. The beautiful trellises my father in law makes keep getting blown over in the wind.
• I'll likely try growing edamame again next year, although every single seed failed to come up this year.
• I'll need another year of trials on growing dry beans. The bugs and slugs were so ruthless this year, they didn't get a fair shot.
• Cucumbers
• Actually labeling my cucumbers will likely help me determine which ones I like :) I had a hard time with germination this year, then ended up planting them way too close together. Next year will be better. My husband loves pickles, so I need to plant a lot of pickling cucs and just a few slicers.
• Zucchini & Summer Squash
• I'll probably just stick with black beauty and yellow summer squash. They're solid producers, I can freeze a bunch, and they're easy to process.
• Garlic
• This was the first year of growing garlic, so it won't actually be until the fall 2013 planting that I can make intelligent choices based on their storage qualities. However, based on what I've seen from our Music variety and what I've heard about its storage qualities, it's a keeper. In fact, it might be the only one I plant this fall. We'll see.

I'm sure there's more......but there are another 6 weeks left in the garden season to get it all out of my head and onto the blog, right?

2012 Garden Planning

There's not a speck of snow on the ground, but I'm already well into my 2012 garden planning. I have 384 square feet of raised bed space, and approximately 30 feet of fence line that's perfect for growing pole beans. I definitely didn't maximize my space in 2011, and I'm hoping to do much better next year.

I've done a better job planning the timing of things, and I expect at least two beds to receive two waves of planting this year (and hopefully a cover crop as well).

I received five seed catalogs (Seed Savers Exchange, Johnny's, Pinetree Gardens, Vermont Bean Seed Company, and Totally Tomatoes). Last year I ordered every thing from SSE, but I think I'm going to go with Pinetree Gardens this year. I still have seeds for lots of things, so there will be zucchini, tomatoes, and peppers that don't need to be ordered.

Based on a few hours of planning this evening, I'm likely going to place the following order:

Pole Beans

• Kentucky Wonder (66 days)
• Rattlesnake (65 days)
• Purple Trionfo Violetto (60 days)

Dry Beans

• Jacob's Cattle (83 days)
• Vermont Cranberry (85 days)

Beets

• Boltardy (46 days)
• Early Wonder (50 days)
• Crosby Egyptian (45 days)
• White Albino (57 days)

Carrots

• Rainbow (57 days)
• Lunar White (55 days)
• Adelaide (65 days)
• Red Cored Chantenay (75 days)

Chard: Prima Rosa (25-50 days)

Cucumbers

• Homemade Pickles (54 days)
• Spacemaster (59 days)

Eggplant

• Slim Jim (60 days)
• Black Beauty (83 days)

Lettuce

• Pinetree Lettuce Mix (40 days)
• Freckles (70 days)

Melon

• Banana (80 days)
• Minnesota Midget (60 days)

Onions

• Yellow Sweet Spanish (107 days)
• Red Wing (110 days)

Peas

• Knight (56 days)
• Sugar Lace (65 days)

Peppers

• Big Red (75 days)
• Sweet Banana (72 days)
• Hot Portugal (65-75 days)

Radishes

• Cherry Belle (21 days)
• French Breakfast (25 days)
• Easter Egg (28 days)

Spinach: Dash (39 days)

Tomatoes

• Polbig (54 days, determinant)
• Heinz Classic Processor (75 days, indeterminant)
• Matt's Wild Cherry (55 days, indeterminant)

Turnips

• Toppers (35 days)
• Tokyo Cross (30 days)

Summer Squash

• Eight Ball Zucchini (35 days)
• Papaya Pear (40 days)

Herbs

• Borage
• Chervil
• Zefa Fino Fennel

Cut & Come Again Zinnias

Once I place the order, I'll need to create my seed starting and planting schedule. Winter's not too bad after all :)

Lessons Learned

Looking back on my garden, I've learned a lot of lessons regarding how and what to grow. I'm documenting them here so I can remember for next year.

Beans: Red swan were the first to harvest, but they were a pain to pick (and somewhat hard to find in the low-to-the-ground bushes). Ideal market were...well, ideal. I grew them up the trellis, so they were very easy to pick. I confounded things a bit by planting vine veggies in front of the trellis, but I'll fix that for next year. Edamame - well....they're harvested but not eaten. We let them to too long, and we need to use them as dry beans. I'm not exactly sure how that's going to work out yet.

Beets: They were delicious, and we didn't have enough. I need to plan to have 3-4 turns of these (and carrots)

Broccoli: Great crop that I didn't eat nearly enough of. I'll probably plant 2 plants next year.

Carrots: Other than the carrots that got eaten by a critter, they were great. We're still eating some of them that are stored in the fridge. However, again, we didn't have enough. We'd like to plant 2-3 turns of these, and maybe focus on some easy-to-grow varieties instead of really cool heirlooms.

Leeks: I haven't picked them yet, but they look good.

Lettuce: We planted too much all at once, and then didn't harvest it aggressively enough. Next year, more turns, happier harvests. The varieties we chose were good. My favorite was Forrellenschlus.

Arugula: Was great while it lasted...again, plant more turns.

Spinach: see Arugula

Melons: I got one Charentais that unfortunately was over-ripe, and it doesn't look like any Emerald Gems will make it to maturity. I might try these again, but in the garden beds, not back against the fence - and on a trellis, now that I realize how small they are.

Peppers: I didn't end up growing any of them in containers. I also screwed up my labeling so I grew 6 or 7 jalepeno plants and only 1 or 2 bull nose bell :( More bell peppers next year....probably less little peppers, and more large hot peppers (I picked up a hungarian hot pepper at the farmer's market that's just about ready to harvest).

Swiss Chard: Good to eat, but I planted WAY TOO MUCH. It's sort of a pain to harvest it all. Next year I'll only plant 1 or 2 rows (this year I had 4 or 5).

Summer Squash: yum. But, I planted too many plants, too close together. Next year I'll do 2 of each plant. It's so easy to shred and freeze, and include in roasted tomato sauce :)

Winter Squash: I have 2 Marina di Onioggia, but they're not mature yet. It looks like I have about 12-15 butternut squash, but I haven't picked any yet. Butternuts will definitely be grown next year, with something to climb

Tomatoes: Not enough blondkopfchen (now that my niece and nephew love them). And oddly, not enough for preserving, even though I grew 8-10 paste tomatoes. We'll probably plant 2 beds of them next year, and I'll grow some determinate paste tomatoes for canning, saucing, etc.

Basil: Too much, if that's even possible. We had about 16 square feet of basil. Four square feet would suffice.


Overall: I need to plan for seasonality. I didn't grow enough early-season vegetables (radishes, peas, garlic scapes, etc) and the bounty started to come in in July, right when we went on vacation (also: no more summer vacations). I need to plan for multiple turns, and re-using garden space.

Garlic is ordered, so it's almost time to get started on next year's garden!

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.