How are you all doing with your seed stash? Will you be doing much ordering this year? (See this guy's face to the left here? He is Mr. Shrimp Goby and I just find him to be so ugly he's cute.....the fish never make the blog, thought I should change that!)
OK, back to gardening. I need to compile a stock list soon. Today I am mulling over potatoes. I love 'em. I want to grow 'em. I just don't have any room for them. There are so many darn methods/suggestions for growing potatoes out there one can get overwhelmed......bags, bins, barrels, wire, tires, straw, and of coarse good old fashioned garden soil. I think I am going to use straw this coming year, but hill it over a standard SFG bed. This will allow me to use a standard depth bed (right now I only have one extra deep). The straw will make hilling and digging at season's end easier as well as keep the soil temp up and moisture level more stable. Last year my yields were terrible, hoping for much improvement this coming year.
My list of wanted seeds is short and sweet this year thanks to my overindulgence last year. I will be adding a few new heirloom tomato varieties (seeds already purchased), quite a few potatoes, and as many peas as possible. The garden needs expanding, sigh.
What will you be trying for the first time come Spring?
What can you absolutely not live without in your garden?
Are you an heirloom or a hybrid tomato grower? (Or maybe a little bit of each like myself?)
As for us the kids ate the peas the second they were ready to be picked, I snacked daily on the heavenly Sungold tomatoes, and the Carmen and Joe E. Parker peppers were picked nightly for some role in dinner or a late night nacho snack. These are the garden favorites in our house.
2 comments:
Gobies are one of my favorites too, along with the puffers... I like goofy looking! I haven't even started doing my seeds yet, but today I stacked my garden journal, seed catalogs and calendar from last year next to the couch so I am ready to begin tonight! I am doing many more potatoes this year, my 3 cages with straw were hugely productive last year, but all I grew was fingerling. Delicious, but I also want to try another variety that will keep longer! Much, much more edamame than last year too. I grew 2 crops of that but only in 2 beds, and I had nothing to freeze as we steamed, salted and snacked every night of harvest week! I am ditching radishes (don't even like them), broccoli, cauliflower (too many worms), squash (too many problems). I will leave those to the market. I will grow fewer jalapenos, lol! I have only grown heirloom tomatoes but will add a couple of other hybrids this year as insurance against the strange summer weather we had last year! In summation: will try growing parsnips & corn for the first time, add more varieties and cages of potatoes, quadruple my edamame plantings, more leeks - can't live without my lettuces, garlic, shallots, tomatoes, basil, edamame, parsley, potatoes, peppers - I can say bye to squash, pumpkins, eggplant, radishes!
Great reply Erin! I want to grow 8 different potato varieties, too bad we weren't closer- we could divide & conquer!
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