It is hard to believe that it is already time to think about the garden for this year, but it is. We have been receiving seed catalogs in the mail for the last month.
We spent one evening this past week drawing out the garden and determining what we are going to do.
Some garden rows are already filled with things like artichokes that stay in the ground all year and cannot be moved. Other rows have posts and wire strung through them, so things like tomatoes or beans can grow up off the ground. Then there are the rows with nothing for things like squash and potatoes.
Other things we take into consideration when planning is light and water. For example, sunchokes (our wildcard plant last year) get very tall and block a lot of light, so we need to put those in the farthest NW row. For water, all rows have automatic water, but some rows have soaker hoses while others have a handful of drippers
While mapping out what we are going to grow, one of the big things to think about is rotation. Each type of plant uses and contributes different types of minerals and nutrients. Because of this, if you can help it, it is best not to put the same vegetable in the same bed year after year.
After considering all these things, we created our garden plan. We ordered seeds for everything, except tomatoes. We have discovered over the years that tomato plants are best bought from a nursery. Greg has been throwing around the idea of sacrificing some space in the garden and building a small greenhouse for starts, but again, it’s just probably not in the cards this year. If that does happen, then we will be able to grow starts from seeds in the future and have far better yields.
Happy gardening!
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