This weekend I tried out the free trial of www.GrowVeg.com. We are in the process of taking out the front lawn and converting that growing space into raised garden beds with an intensive orchard along the side and raspberry bushes lining the driveway.
Because I haven’t seriously gardened for many years now and this is a new garden this tool was invaluable. I saw immediately how many seedlings I would need to get the number of plants that I could grow in order to maximize the space. The program also made it so simple to plan the crops by family so that I could rotate them every 3 years to avoid pests and diseases easier (a must for the organic gardener!). I probably wouldn’t have spent the $29 they charge for the annual membership but now that I’ve used it I can see how invaluable a tool it is for the new gardener.
Today I had to run out and buy some more saucing and drying tomato seeds and will start them tomorrow along with more leeks and storing onions.
It also proved to me just how many fruit trees I could get. I ordered 2 full size apple trees (Cox Pippin and Liberty), two plum trees – one eating and one drying, two dwarf cherry trees – one eating and one baking/drying, a bay laurel tree which I will need to keep pruned but I’ve always wanted, one crabapple tree for cider, fruit leather and saucing, two fig trees (one desert king to put in the ground and one viola to pot and bring into the garage during the winter), and two columnar apple trees to pot (one northpole and one golden delicious).
I also would love to order an improved meyer lemon to pot and bring into the house during the winter but we’ll see. I already have purchased one small grafted Yuzu from Wade of Rockridge Orchard, who also has a large Asian nursery business and is my role model in sustainability. I also have some evergreen huckleberry, smaller variety blueberry, lingonberry, currant and serviceberry in the backyard – which is where the peas and beans go. I’m hoping to make May wine from my sweet woodruff patches too.
You can see in addition to the perrennial veggies we plan I also have carved out trellises for hardy kiwi, table grapes, blueberry, raspberry, rhubarb, artichoke, asparagus and horseradish.
It should be an interesting year!
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