It's hard to consider your garden when it feels like 7 degrees outside, but spring is only 48 days away so it's time to get busy! There will be some major overhauls this year as I surrendered 2 deep raised beds in order to raise strawberries. I keep telling myself it will be worth it when those sweet little berries start to ripen! We'll also be doing some crop rotation due to last year's tomato blight. And unless it's a soy year, we won't be planting corn. (Darn you, cross pollination!)
This year, we'll be raising the usual stuff; half-runner beans, bell peppers, tomatoes, snap peas, onions, but we'll be using our corn patch for squash and maybe a few pumpkins. Even if we DO plant corn, we'll go the 3 Sisters route and plant the squash intermittently with the corn.
Did you know that if you have problems with raccoons in the corn patch, planting squash and pumpkins will help? It's true! Apparently, raccoons don't like the bristly, prickly feeling of the squash and pumpkin vines. I don't know if that's true as I've never asked a raccoon what it does or doesn't like...but the years we've had vines growing throughout our corn patch, we didn't have any problems with those doggone little scavengers. So there's your useless piece of information for the day.
The funnest (?) part of it all is starting the tomato plants! Last year I had dozens upon dozens of tomato varieties, but this year, it will be narrowed down to under a dozen varieties. My favorites from last year:
Russian Big Romas. Imagine those little Romas you find at the grocery...now imagine them larger than your fist. Oh yeah.
Trophy. This variety has officially dethroned my usual choices for the all-purpose big red slicer/juicer. The Trophy tomatoes we grew last year had no splits, mars, blemishes or cracks despite the blight and terrible growing weather. They also had no problem with rot and grew to enormous proportions!
Amish Paste. This is a thick, juice-less, nearly seedless variety perfect for paste, sauces and such.
Debarao Black. Small, dark tomatoes that are sickeningly sweet, lacking the acid bite of most tomatoes. We used them for salads and drying.
Black Cherry. Small, dark, sweet and incredibly delicious. They'd probably be great for salads, but the ones we picked rarely made it in to the house.
I was blessed with seeds from all over the country, through exchanges with friends and family, but many of my seeds come from a site in New York called WinterSown. Heard of it? Go through the Gateway to Seeds, play the little word game, print off a form and send in an SASE for free seeds. Yep. That's it. OR, send in a small donation and get tons of free seeds! If you're wanting to try out different varieties, but find the price of seeds cost-prohibitive, try WinterSown!
Well, it's time to get back to reality. All 19 degrees of it.
4 comments:
I know what you mean. I can't believe it already time to plan the garden.
You're right... order seeds NOW! I've heard there is going to be a run on them - more gardeners than seeds this year. Seems like common sense is sinking in and becoming a bit more... well, common.
I'm going to have to watch for those Russian Romas!
My seeds are on their way. Can't wait!
Oh, and by the way, raccoons DO run around here quite a bit. I hadn't heard that tip, so I'll definitely consider this if I plant corn!
getting the greenhouse ready for palnting this weekend!!! Yippeee can't hardly wait!
I'm in a different climate, with different problems...
(And, nearly a year late in reading this!)
But...
When we lived on the East Coast, the practice was to keep a strawberry bed for about 5 years. Year 1, plant. Year 2, harvest a few. Year 3, strong crop. Year 4, start use the shoots (they have a different name that I've forgotten)) to start your next bed, crop is strong, but less than year 3. Year 5, you're back to year 2 in harvest, but last years starts should be taking hold.
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