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Click to open a larger garden plan.
This week while my site was non-functional I’ve been planning the spring, summer and fall/winter garden boxes. It’s always a well-choreographed dance getting things started and transplanted for fall right around mid-summer when the summer veggies are just getting to full size.
I used the free trial of this garden planning tool at www.growveg.com last year and loved it so much I paid for it this year. Sure, you can do this in excel but it takes a lot of time to map things out. The real value here is that you can quickly drag and drop images and it will automatically fill in for you just how many you can grow in that space. Plants are color coded to let you know they are in the same family so you can group them together, making easier future crop rotations.
And when it comes time to plant, having a diagram like this will save you a lot of hair pulling. Mine looks too full because I’m planting very densely and planning for successive crops. Just as the spring raab and kohlrabi are done the brussel sprouts will be getting large and bushy but by carefully planning I’ll be able to get all three crops in that one bed, and hopefully before it’s time to plant my fall stuff. I also plant on both sides of the T tape (don’t take the wrong way) so that I can get 6 rows instead of 3. It makes my planting style much more like square foot gardening but allows for automatic watering (on a timer even!) This is lazy girl gardening at it’s best. But planning is crucial.
My goal for this year is to grow 90% of our vegetables for 2010. In 2009 it was also my goal, once the garden matured for harvest but I got the fall/winter crops in too late and they only fed us until nearly Christmas. Rather than eat everything out there I’ve left some things overwintering and this recent warm weather has woken them back up. If this continues I’ll be done shopping at the farmer’s market but I’m not counting my chickens. It’s nice to have that to fall back on.
The reason I’ve selected 90% instead of 100% is because I’m not positive I can grow onions large enough to last us all next winter and the perennials should be much larger this year, giving me less room for the bags of potatoes I had scattered around last year. I’ve dedicated one garden bed to them and my dream is to take out the parking strip this spring and put something raised (and fenced from dogs) there. Potatoes would be a great use of that very sunny space. I’d also like to get a few hazelnut trees for that strip as well.
The final reason is that I had late blight last year in the tomatoes. I’m rotating crops and moving the tomatoes as far away as possible from that spot but my front yard is 30 feet deep so there is only so much you can do. I’ve planned for some heirloom slicers and saucers but I’m hoping to buy the bulk of my canning tomatoes directly from a farmer. Since they are for processing I’ll look for #2 (slightly irregular or blemished) fruits which will help soften the financial blow.
It’s funny how tomatoes turned out to be the largest common denominator in every jar that went into my pantry last fall. I grew 30 tomato plants, which I sauced, dried and canned whole and still ended up buying 25 pounds for ketsup. We are down to 3 pint jars of spaghetti sauce, 5 jars of romas recipe-ready, and 2 frozen quart jars of dried tomatoes. Not enough to take us to August, that is for sure.
I’ve ordered my seeds from Uprising Organics and will fill that out with seeds from the non-Seminis (owned by Montsanto) list from Territorial Seeds.
Uprising Organics is a newer seed farm in Acme, WA working hard to restore as many heirloom and ARK varieties as possible, growing most of them in our same crummy gardening climate. Think Seed Savers on a local, much smaller scale although they are adding new seeds at a good clip.
Here is my list of seeds ordered from Uprising:
Beans, Empress Bush Snap
Beans, Provider Bush Snap
Beans, Tiger’s Eye Bush Dry
Carrots, Scarlet Nantaise
Carrots, Red Dragon (we LOVED these this winter)
Greens, Magentaspreen
Radicchio, Variagata di Castelfranco
Radicchio, Early Treviso
Rapini, Spring Raab
Salad Mix
Kale, Lacinato
Kale, Dwarf Blue Scotch
Kale, Red Russian
Lettuce, Romaine, Flashy Trout’s Back
Lettuce, Romaine, Parris Island Cos
Lettuce, Oakleaf, Mascara
Peas, Cascadia Snap
Peas, Sugar Ann Snap
Peas, Maestro Shelly
Peas, Schweizer Riesen Snow
Squash, Costata Romanesca Zuchini
Squash, Sweet Meat, Winter
Tomatoes, Jaune Flammee Slicer
Tomatoes, Super Lakota Slicer
Watermelon, Blacktail Mountain
Cilantro, Pokey Joe
Echinacea Purpurea
Marshmallow
Marigold, French Brocade
Sunflower, Tarahumara
And from Territorial, 2009 or 2010
Arrugula, Rocket from 2009
Basil, Mammoth Sweet from 2009
Beans, Sunset Runner Snap
Beets, Early Wonder
Brussel Sprouts, Roodnerf from 2009 – these were amazing in flavor!
Brussel Sprouts Rubine
Buckwheat cover crop
Cabbage, Red Express from 2009
Cabbage, China Express
Celery, Utah from 2009 – died off in the December freeze
Celeriac, Brilliant
Clover, Crimson Cover Crop
Collards, Champion – currently overwintering some that is doing great
Corn, Bantam Sweet from 2009
Cucumber, Marketmore 97 Eating from 2009
Cucumber, Alibi Pickling
Cumin
Dill, Dukat
Dill, Fern Leaf
Greens, Claytonia from 2009
Greens, Purslane from 2009
Greens, French Sorrel from 2009
Greens, Belle Aisle Cress from 2009
Greens, Vit from 2009
Johnny Jump Up
Kale, Fizz
Kale, White Russian from 2009 – growing great right now
Kohlrabi, Kolibiri
Leeks, Giant Musselburgh from 2009
Lemon Balm
Lettuce, Continuity Butterhead from 2009
Lettuce, Italienischer from 2009 – did great this winter with some protection
Lettuce, Provencal Mix from 2009
Fennel, Perfection
Onions, Guardsman from 2009
Onions, Talon from 2009
Orach
Parsley, Italian Flatleaf
Potatoes, German Butterball
Pumpkins, Magic Lantern from 2009
Sage
Spinach, Bloomsdale Savoy from 2009 – overwintering just fine
Spinach, Malibar
Swiss Chard, Bright Lights from 2009 – mildewed in early fall
Tarragon, French
Tomatoes, Black Plum
Plus tons of varieties of fall/winter broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower that I probably won’t grow again.
And my shorter list from the upcoming (March) Tilth Sale at Magnussen Park:
2 Hazelnut Trees
3 Seaberry Bushes
1 Elderberry Bush
1 Black Currant Bush (to join my existing one)
1 Red Currant Bush (to replace my native non-edible one)
1 Concord Grape Vine
And even shorter list From Rockridge Orchards late Feburary or March when available:
Horseradish
Hardy Ginger
Black Peppercorn
I did manage to save some tomato seeds from the Cherokee Purple and Stupice but neglected to get the black plum. My goal this year: save seeds from every tomato, the 4 beans I’m trialing, the 4 peas I’m trialing, the pumpkins (since they will actually be outside the yard this year and away from the others), and the basil. Someday I’m going to figure out how to save carrot and beet seeds. I’ve never seen a flower off them so I’m completely befuddled how that works.
How about you? Have you started your seed lists and garden plans? Starting seeds is just a few short weeks away.
Next week I’ll be hosting a seed giveaway, digging out my seed start up gear and showing you a few ways that you can very inexpensively get some seeds going by Valentine’s day.
Trowels to the ready!
and 
If you are at all interested in growing food in the city I hope you’ll check both of these out.
