Planning Our Garden

When there is 16 inches of snow on the ground in some parts of the country, one wonders how we could think of working outdoors in a vegetable garden. We are so fortunate to live in an area that although we do get some extreme temperatures in January and February we still have some good days that we can get out and do some gardening.

Planning

The First Thing We Plan Is The Plot

 Up Stairs Garden

We have several garden area's here at the cottage. We have the Up Stairs Garden an area where we sometimes put early plantings of vegetables that will harvest before the August heat. 

That's A Lot Of Onions!

The Garden Gate Area

I just love this garden area with 4 rectangle's and a stone path through the garden. One of the rectangle's has just herbs, one has just tomatoes, one has different peppers and the last has some specialty items with a few Zinnia's.;

Every garden needs a few Zinnia's.

I draw a plot plan of each section of the garden and name the rows and what will be in them. Then from that plan I can make a list of the seed and plants that we will be needing and what time of the year we will need them. I also refer to myGarden Journal, to give me more insight about rotation of the vegetables and what works best.

The Seeds And Plants

Now that the holiday decorations have been put away, there are seed catalog's laying on the table with sticky note markers on the pages.I love looking at the seed catalogs and checking out the new seeds for the year.

I like to try new seeds as we go along and one of the new seeds I will be trying this year is the Hutterite Soup Dry Bean. This will be a great soup bean and we sure love a good bean soup here at the cottage.

Another great soup bean that I will be trying this year is Jacobs Cattle Dry Bean, also known as a Trout Bean. This bean is often used for Boston Baked Beans.

Soil Preparation

We take care of a lot of our soil preparation in the fall after the last harvest. The grounds are all cleaned and the soil is turned with a compost preparation from our own compost bin. We compost the year round making it easier for us to have an organic vegetable garden.

We have a lot of fun with our Garden Compost Helper, named "Shreck"!

Whats A Good Time To Plant

Whats a good time to plant, is the one question that I get the most. That question is easy to answer for the local area that we live in, however if you asked me about any other area, I most likely won't know. One tool that I have found that you may enjoy from the Old Farmers Almanac isPlanting Dates Calculator. This link is awesome, just plug in your location and it will give you all the information you need for your area. Of course I still read the paper back Farmers Almanac, I guess I always will, but I sure like the convenience of the new technology.

We will be planting onions, cabbage, and collards this month. We will also be starting some very speical plants indoors.

If you are planning on going out to your garden in May and June to pick some lovely vegetables for your table then all that starts in January.I hope that you will start to plan your awesome garden so your harvest will be abundant!

My best garden buddy, and loving husband, Leonard, without whose help in the garden we would not have near the harvest that we have. He is AWESOME!

Thanks so much for stopping by to spend some time with us today and enjoying some garden planning. Happy Gardening and come back to see us real soon!

Peace and Joy

Miz Helen