My local farmers market opened last weekend and at this time of the year there are a lot of seedlings on sale by Neighborhood Farm. I bought: leeks (six-pack), 1 eggplant Fairy Tale, 1 butternut squash, 1 Early Jedi jalapeno, 1 mini bell pepper (forgot the name and the label only says “Flavor”, so I am banking on that), and 4 tomato plants: Paul Robson, Pineapple (late-season), Green Zebra and Cosmonaut (early/mid-season). I planted the eggplant, the Paul Robeson tomato and the jalapeno in containers on my back porch. Everything else will go in the plot.
Tomatoes: I now have 7 plants for the garden plot. The remaining three plants I bought today and three surviving home-grown seedlings: Paul Robson (the Sand Hill variety, they can’t vouch that it is the exact variety and call it Poll Robson), Dr. Wyche Yellow, Green Zebra. I also started another Poll Robson very late, but it is still very small. Not sure if this seedling will make it. This will give me 6 or 7 tomato plants for the plot, which is plenty. I also staggered the varieties to prolong tomato season and will have 2 or 3 early-season, 1 mid-season and 3 late-season tomatoes.
It is cold outside today. Perfect time for a hot cup of tea, my seed box and a stash of seed catalogs. Time to plan the next gardening season.
The first step is to take stock of the previous season, which I kind of do as I go along. I take notes throughout the season and then make a summary in late fall. I reflect on what worked well in the garden and what did not, and take note of what vegetable varieties I would like to grow again this season and in what quantities (same/more/less). Are there any new vegetables or varieties I might want to try this year? Are there any that I will definitely not grow again (because they did not do well, I did not like the taste, they took up too much space, required too much labor, were decimated by pests etc.).
Second, I take inventory of my seeds. I store all my seeds in a single cardboard box and use simple card stock dividers to sort the seeds by vegetable. Every winter/early spring, I go through the box and discard the old seeds and make a list of vegetable seeds I need to buy for the next season.
I then plan the layout of my plot and draw up a planting diagram for the year. I like to rotate crops and this is this year’s plan:
Here is my general plan for the garden plot for 2019:
tomatoes (6 to 8 plants total: 3-4 early, 3-4 mid/late)
For my back porch, I am planning: 1-2 tomato plants (I will select varieties that are suited for containers), 1 hot pepper, 1 mini eggplant, chard, head and/or leaf lettuce, herbs (sage, thyme, rosemary, parsley, basil, mint) and flowers.
Now comes the fun part — I browse the seed catalogs (paper copies and online) and make a preliminary list of interesting varieties to consider. I will then narrow down the varieties and prepare my final seed orders. I have yet to start saving my own seeds. Maybe this is the year?
