Garden Planning

I've done a bunch of work planning for the 2011 gardening season. First thing up is the garden map. There are some big changes from last year. I'm growing less cucurbits (squashes, zuchinni and the like) since they took up so much space in the garden last year. I wish there were ultra-compact cucurbits that only produced a small amount of vegetables, but even the supposedly smaller ones like the "Spacemaster" cucumber still took up at least 16 square feet and produced more cucumbers than we could use. So this year there is a focus on a broader array of smaller plants. I'm also going to try corn in a "three sisters" arrangement. That is basically corn with pole beans climbing up the corn stalks and cucurbits growing along the ground between the corn and beans.

I've also made a spreadsheet for tentative planting dates. Its clearly aggressive in terms of early plantings, but last year I could have planted things earlier than I did. I'm going to try to plant some very hardy stuff in mid-march right before I go away for vacation. If it doesn't survive, no big deal, I'll just replant it in early april. Remember also that the garden sits in a pretty mild micro-climate, so the growing season is longer here than it would be at a regular farm.

Lastly, the seeds have been purchased! It was about $40 worth of seeds, but the purchase of a heating mat for helping seed starts plus taxes and shipping brought the total up to almost $90.