A little over a week ago, I started my first seeds of the year! How I love to be able to anticipate spring even with winter swirling about my door!! Cost savings aside, it is my favorite part of starting my own seeds! A sure-fire cure for Seasonal Affect Disorder were you to suffer from it!
This year, we’re making some big changes to our garden. We only have 2 1/2 acres of land to work with here (a small portion wooded, another portion swampy, and another fenced in so that I can allow the children up front without worrying about the busy road we live on) so we have to make the most efficient use of what we have. Our plans for this summer include raising a small barn and pasturing in an acre of the land to contain the chickens (both laying and meat) so they quit visiting us and leaving little unwelcome presents on the deck, porch, and driveway and also for a family milk cow. That pasture will run straight through the garden so I’ll have to move most of the garden to a new location. We’ll also be starting our first herb garden and (oh I’m so excited about this!!) sowing ten pounds of organic hard red seed wheat to grind for making bread!! I know it won’t take us far, but if the experience gives us a greater understanding of the Bible and the multitudinous references to wheat and reaping and sowing in it, it will be well worth the effort!
There will be two garden sections. Half of the old one will remain and on it will grow the taller, messier looking produce. The new section will be raised beds (which I’ll share my plans for later) and will hold all of the rest. We’re going to repurpose some black fabric mulch/row cover that I’ll sew into sacks to grow potatoes instead of hilling them up in the ground.
This year I’ve primarily purchased heirloom seeds for I’d like to begin saving my own seeds for use starting next spring!
Our 2010 Vegetable Garden:
(For the starting dates, bear in mind that I live in zone 5 with a last frost date of 5/24)
Beans– Blue Lake Pole
5/29 (direct)
Broccoli– Green Sprouting
4/10 (indoors)
Cabbage– Early Jersey Wakefield
4/10 (indoors)
Carrots– Tendersweet
5/29 (direct)
Corn– Bon Appetit (not heirloom, but we loved it last year and couldn’t bring ourselves to switch)
5/29 (direct)
This is for fresh corn-on-the-cob eating. For preservation, we’ll be going in with some relatives and planting a large patch on other property. We did this last year, thanks to an ordering mistake they made. They had so much corn leftover, they shared it with us. So far it has been enough to last us for five months and I still have more! The best part about this was getting together with several ladies of the family for a couple days and preserving it! It felt like such old-fashioned fun!! Some day I hope that my grand daughters will join me in my kitchen to preserve the bountiful harvest the Lord has blessed us with!
Cucumber– Straight Eight Slicing
Boston Pickling
5/29 (direct)
Lettuce– Parris White Cos Romaine
Iceburg
5/1 (direct)
Onions– Redwing
2/6 (indoors)- DONE
95% Germination rate (so far) for 201 seedlings
Parsnips– All-American
5/1 (direct)
Peas– Lincoln Shell
5/1 (direct)
Peppers– Paprika Alma
Banana
Anaheim Chili
California Wonder
3/13 (indoors)
Popcorn– Calico
(I like to throw something fun and new in for the children every year. This is my choice for this year.)
5/29 (direct)
Potatoes– Red Pontiac
5/29
Pumpkins– Small Sugar
6/5 (direct)
Summer Squash– Early Straightneck Prolific Summer Yellow
Black Zucchini
5/29 (direct)
Tomatoes– Roma
Pruden’s Purple
3/13 (indoors)
I intend to update the information on this page as I go through the year as an incentive to keep accurate records.
Because I’ve never purchased heirloom seeds before, most of these are new varieties for us this year. Has anyone have any experience with any of them that they can share while it’s not to late to change my plans?
Also, I’m intending to start my own sweet potato slips this year and have been unable to find any information regarding how long it takes from start to planting. If anyone has tried this before please share lest I have to make a guinea pig of myself 🙂
And one final question… What are you planning to grow this year?
In my humble opinion amish paste(heriloom) are much better than roma, bigger and meatier and thus much easier to make into sauce. it’s what we have always done.
For pumpkins we grow fairytale, they are bigger and much meatier, and the flavor is so light! They actually smell like canteloupe when you cut them open. Very easy to save the seeds and freeze the puree, one pumpkin gives me 14 cups of puree(or 14 batches of pumpkin muffins). I like the sugar also but they are more work.
We have never done sweet potatoes, currently we don’t have any room for them or any potatoes. I miss them!
My husband started the peppers last week! He says they give better flavor is you start them really early. You have to baby them more and carry them in and out of the house until they are ready to plant but boy are they hot! Even the bell peppers. He will start tomatoes this week or next. I can’t remember the varieties he uses for eating, we usually grow 3 or 4 different ones. I can ask him if you are intrested.
And now a question for you. 🙂
How do your preserve your squash and zuchini as they produce so much!
We will also do peas, broccoli, onions, corn, strawberries, and my herb garden should take off this year as I started it last year.
GRRRRRR!! If you only knew how long I grappled with the roma vs. amish paste question!! I went with roma out of fear- it’s what I used last year and it didn’t get a fair shot because of late blight taking out the entire crop. It’s not too late, maybe I’ll switch out or mix and match if I come across them locally.
I remember you mentioning the pumpkins before and made notes in my binder as I had already bought seeds for this year. That per pumpkin yield is quite the incentive!
As to the squash, I was really surprised that we kept up with it last year! I posted some new (and old recipes) we were trying:
http://onjustacoupleacres.blogspot.com/2009/08/medley-of-zucchini-recipes.html
Between the cake, the pancakes, and the garden patch saute, there were actually times where I was waiting for the zucchini to grow. In the past, I have frozen the zucchini for baking according to this site:
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/freeze/squash_summer.html
I hope to have enough to freeze this year. I’ve been longingly looking at the Pineapple Zucchini Cake recipe for a couple of months already 😀
My amish paste did not get the blight as bad as some of the others. In fact the heriloom varieties were much more resistant and I mamnaged a decent yeild, compared to my neighbors who were loosing all their crop. Another good reason to go with heriloom. 🙂
For all the talk the seed catalogues do about resistant this and that, I’m surprised (and glad!) to hear that. They’d have you think you were taking a gamble going the heirloom route- glad I did.
I’m already quite behind this year, and am still waiting for a few more seed catalogs to arrive. But I think I might be in zone 6, so I have another week or two to play with. But I’ll probably end up with all direct sown seeds, oh well. You will be sharing with us the potato sacks… right? Best wishes!!
Emily,
I did not start this early last year, but my onions were a complete flop so I thought that I would try starting them sooner. Without looking in my binder (or back at the post) I don’t think I’m starting anything else for at least another 3 weeks.
I hope the potatoes in a sack thing is successful- I hate hilling potatoes over and over again! I will be sharing about it as I go:D
I love hearing other’s garden plans! And know that I’m not the only crazy one who is planning for summer when there is still a foot of snow on the ground.
I will second the recommendation for Amish Paste tomatoes. I tried them for the first time last year and they were incredible! I often have blight problems but even with a wet summer I had no problem with them! And they produced abundantly!
We have talked of planting wheat and I’m eager to hear how it goes for you! I didn’t know if we were crazy to think we can do it in small scale. We read Gene Logston’s small grain book and were totally inspired!
We have almost three acres – and like you, it is not all tillable. Keep sharing your progress!
Gina
Alright, I think you guys have me convinced- I’m going to have to buy new tomato seeds now!! 😀 Thanks for the recommendation Gina.
I hope all goes well with the wheat- if it doesn’t don’t let that discourage you- I’m not sure the place we chose for planting is appropriate. Our property has an abundance of mature trees and we planned in the fall after the leaves fell off, so it’s hard to say exactly how shaded the plot will be. Also, our ground seems to be generally low so it can be pretty wet there particularly in the spring. I’m hoping for the best though and won’t be discouraged from trying!
Your garden plans sound great! We live in Zone 4 so it will be a few more weeks before we can start any seeds.
We had to move 6 months ago from our former home which we had several large gardens on. So now we’re starting from scratch at our new farm. We already have a plot plowed up and ready to roto-till come spring. We plan to grow beans, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, corn, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, parsnips, peas, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, radishes, spinach, summer and winter squash, tomatoes, and watermelon. I’d also like to get a nice big herb garden going.
I can’t wait to get my hands in the dirt!
I can’t wait to get my hands in the dirt!
Amen Leah!!
How I would love to pick your brain about growing onions. (Mine were a colossal failure last year and I’m babying them this year, but still pretty much flying by the seat of my pants.) Are you in the same zone as last year? Have you grown watermelon there before? I ask because my daughter asked to grow some just this morning and I shot her down because I’ve never grown a melon plant that produced fruit.
Yes, surprisingly we’re still in the same zone as last year despite moving 3 hours straight north! My husband is the one who knows about the onions. I’ll ask him when he gets in from milking. Last year was a poor growing season for many throughout the country. Definitely try the onions again!
As for the watermelons, we grow Blacktail Mountain. We purchases the seeds from http://www.heirloomacresseeds.com . Here’s a link to their watermelon page, http://heirloomacresseeds.com/CatalogPrd.asp?prm=43 . Hope that helps! 🙂