The garden chairs that never get used.
Here's the biggest secret to gardening. There is no easy time. No space in the season where there won't be as much work. In the spring you're cleaning up and planting. Through the summer you're weeding, cursing raccoons and devising death traps for pests. In the fall you're cleaning up and harvesting.
When I come home in darkness after having spent 8 or more hours planting, lugging, spreading and looking for somewhere secret to pee, friends or family will say to me - Well once you get it all planted you can relax a bit.
My friends and family aren't necessarily gardeners. So they're stupid. They don't know that obsessive compulsive gardening, whether it's edibles or ornamentals, is a 6 month long marathon of non stop work punctuated with the occasional reward. A tomato. Or a rare bloom. Or just a bloom. Or even just a leaf that doesn't get eaten by slugs. We'll take what successes we can get, we gardeners.
It all starts with a garden plan. Or at least it should, I mean gardening is enough of a shit show, why make it even harder by not having a fundamental plan.
So every year I make up my garden plan because even a garden is never perfect in real life, on the garden plan it's always looking lush and orderly. Like I said, we take our successes where we can get them.
This year I'm going to be trying out a couple of new growing techniques which I'll get into later in the season when the time comes to implement them.
For now, I just have my plan. I've planted a few cool weather crops like my kale and swiss chard but in the next day or so I'll be able to load up on everything else. If there's a frost I'll just cover what needs to be covered with row cover.
You'll notice, because you're good like that, that I have several empty spots in the garden. That's because I always fill up my garden then I find something at the nursery or seed store that I JUST HAVE TO HAVE. And then I've already done my garden plan and realize I don't have any space for it. So, this year I've left space in a few beds for new things. One bed will also be used for replanting leeks which is one of the vegetables I'm trying a new growing technique with this year.
The garden is 40' wide by 40' deep and each bed is around 16' long. The smaller beds are 8' x 4' and are official raised beds with wood sides. For those of you who are curious about varieties here's a list of what I'm growing this year.
Potatoes - Kennebec, Russian Blue, Russet, Yukon Gold, Chiefton, and a few rarer varieties like Linzer, Pink Fir, Amarosa.
Flowers - Snapdragons, Dahlias, Cockscomb, Statice, Amaranth, Zinnia, Sunflowers, Gladioli, Dianthus, Sun Balls. Sadly my big hairy balls didn't germinate. :(
Sweet Potatoes - Beauregard
Beans - Emerite, Mascotte
Dried Beans - Wolf's Tongue, Zuni Gold, Blooming Prairie, Stangenbohne Whitsenhausen, Stangenbohne Rassacher Kipfler. - Special thanks to Crystal from Whole-fed Homestead for sharing these rare beans with me.
Beets - Kestral, Detroit Dark Red, Bulls Blood, Chiogga, Golden
Garlic - Music, Russian Red
Leeks - Lancelot
Onions - Copra, Florence (red)
Melons - Cantaloupe (Halona), Honeydew (Diplomat)
Pumpkins - Sugar pumpkin
Carrots - Ibiza, Bolero, Paris Market, Lunar White, Purple Sun
Squash - Sweet Mama, Delicata, Honey Nut, Hopi, Jarrahdale, Thai Rai Kaw Tok
Corn - Serendipity, Honey Select, *possibly* Glass Gem
Kale - Black Lacinato Kale (Black Magic)
Chard - Rainbow Swiss
Brussels Sprouts - (I know) Jade Cross
Strawberries - Charlotte
Broccoli - Green Goliath
*This season I'm mainly growing tomato varieties that are blight resistant
Disease Resistant Tomatoes - Plum Regal, Garden Gem, Garden Treasure, "W", - The last 3 tomatoes aren't available anywhere other than the research program from The University of Florida.
Regular Tomatoes - Black Cherry, Green Zebra, Mortgage Lifter, Black Krim, Speckled Roman, Yellow Pear
There you have it. Not an exhaustive list, but the majority of what I'll be planting and swearing at for the next 6 months or so. You'll notice in the garden plans that my 2 chairs aren't anywhere in them. I rarely use them so I was going to leave them out of the garden, but then I remembered that when people come up to visit me or get some vegetables or flowers they often find watching me work so depleting that they have to sit down.
So I'll be putting the chairs back for them. I'm a gardener. The only reason I'd need a chair is for throwing at a raccoon.
Have a good weekend.
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Lindy
Ah the Pink Fir apple potato variety. Tricky. It seems to like heavy clay and good watering. Far more than I ever gave it on my free draining drought stricken potager. The flavour is amazing, but darn tricky to scrub clean. and if you try and roast them you get really really hard chewy end bits. Not what you are looking for in a spud. And I love the asparagus and flower bed combined - asparagus fronds are so perfect in the flower arranging. But where is the dahlia forest going? (I keep mine in the ground all frozen winter long, no need to lift with my technique and they survive and thrive. I grow them in builders buckets with holes drilled in the base. Pest free!) And I'm so with you on the chair issue. Who on earth has time for one of those?
Heather
Someone once told me, "If you want to make God laugh, make a plan." With that in mind, I generally go out to my side yard in early May, turn over some earth, drop some seeds and push them into the ground with my heel. Then, I wait to see what happens. I won't have the amazing haul you will but I get a surprising bounty most years, and the animals seem not to notice the veggies growing amidst the weeds. It's a method I started when my four kids were small, and I didn't have time to do anything properly. Your garden is a feast for the eyes, as well as the table. Good luck with it! Maybe I'll learn something and do it properly one day.
Anita
Ahh, Karen but what about the chickens? I have four hens whose daycare playpen is my former veggie garden. Former. The plants that remain are the chicken resistant ones (fennel, tarragon, mint...sounds like the beginning of a chicken-based recipe?). My veggie gardening has gotten a lot easier!
Julie
Very impressive! My dad and I just wander around our dirt and point in various directions and go, "yup...tomatoes here. Maybe squash there?"
I'm kind of excited for this year. We want to grow a giant pumpkin this year. Don't know what the hell I'm going to do with it if it takes but whatev'! LOL!
The Widow Badass
Jeez. Ambitious! I am in awe.
My garden plan is as follows: Plant pole beans in containers on patio. Buy everything else at the farmers' market. Have a beer and admire gardening handiwork.
Caroline
You have achieved the ultimate in Gardening Cool!
Donna Horne
Chuckles about the chairs--I also never sit and my chairs stay in the shed unless someone is coming.
Kathy Wright
I was wondering about your front yard vegetable garden and may have missed that post....is it now grass?
Debbie D
Ah, no Cranshaw melon? My personal favorite when ripe. The scent and taste is to die for (again when ripe which most don't let them get ripe). Maybe your season isn't long enough, but I would encourage you to grow them and eat them (ripe of course). Great garden plan and from one gardener to another best of luck to you. May you be overflowing with veggies and flowers.
Kielian DeWitt
I enjoyed reviewing your extensive list of veggies and visualizing it all with your plan. I admire your organization!
I’ve not yet put a set of chairs in my garden (good idea), but I did manage to erect a pumpkin vine trellis. It did pretty well the first year, even though I mistakenly planted several squash bushes instead of pumpkins! This year should be better!
Erin
Wow! That's gorgeous! I've never had luck with pumpkins, but your trellis is beautiful!
Sabina
That is ingenious and now I may have to do some thinking on how to implement one in our plans!
Alena
My plan is done, too.
I have purchased two dahlia bulbs (nobody around me had any that were acceptable to me - I don't do red, yellow, peach, orange etc.) only one nursery had Blackberry Ripple dahlias (white with dark purple streaks). I was exhausted from the search so I got them.
I did find some online but in general, I will not pay upwards of $15 for merchandise that cost $10.
The first day the pots were out I noticed squirrelly squirrels got interested (at least I assume it was them). Somebody also ate half of the pansies (leaves and all) in the pot two feet away from the dahlias but I assume that the bunnies did that (I have a Momma Bunny and a Baby Bunny living under my garden shed and I don't have the heart to evict them).
Leslie
Looks great Karen! I love the growveg planner. Just wondering what the lines are in each of your garden beds. Is that your watering system? Or some new technique for planting sections??
kelle
I do not know how I found you on the internet, but I look forward to every post and literally laugh out loud every single time I read them! I just love the way you think!
Sideroad40
Wow! Amazingly ambitious list :) Wishing you heavy rain once a week, no hard frosts, and only friendly bugs in this 'what will be' a beautiful garden!
Susan Claire
Everything looks great, but how are you going to live without your big hairy balls?
Vincessa
I am brand new to your blog, and I'm so glad I found it. This gardening blog had me laughing very hard, and it's wonderful to know that I am not the only crazy Gardner. Out of curiosity, what is your new technique with the leaks? I'm growing them for the first time this year.
Phyllis Kraemer
The plan looks beautiful...I got tired looking at it...you are amazing!!
Jen
I have been growing Jarrahdale as my go-to pumpkin for years and am sad that the last of my seeds (from 2014) don't seem to be germinating. They are WONDERFUL for pie...nice and dry but not too, sweet, and meaty. And such a pretty dusky gray-blue....
Karen
Mine germinated but they're brand new seeds. My Hopi however did not germinate at ALL. :( ~ karen
movita beaucoup
In the 'melons and sugar pumpkins' row - far right - is that a spider web? It seems large and I'm wondering how big the spider you've invited to live there is.
Destovka
😂😂😂😂👍🏻
Karen
Ha! No it's a teepee type trellis to try to grow the pumpkin vertically. ~ karen!
Centi
I'd love to hear you saying "Rassacher Kipfler" three times!
Biggi
Hahahaha I’m German and I stumbled over this one 😂
Heather
What? No cucumbers! Sad day for you, we plant and pickle loads of cucumbers... I’m sure given your last post on the garden it’s for disease issues.
We struggle with blight here in Iowa on tomatoes too. I find that alfalfa hay for mulch under them helps significantly. It keeps the soil from splashing up on the leaves which in turn prevents the disease from manifesting. It has really helped me turn a corner with my tomato plants.
Karen
I might try mulching under the tomatoes this year. I string train them and remove all the leaves below the lowest flowering/fruiting branches so there isn't much down by the soil but ... I will have cucumbers. :) One English cucumber and the rest will be pickling cucumbers. I'm just not sure where they'll go yet, lol. ~ karen!
Nicole
We're trying the string training this year again. It worked pretty well last year but we were late getting them strung up and the tomatoes had grown everywhere. After that fiasco, my partner really understood when I said that we needed to build the tomato trellis BEFORE we planted the tomatoes. So . . . now we have a trellis that is 8.5' tall and is sturdy enough to put a roof on and call a cottage. No half measures here! :)
Nicole
Here's a photo of the trellis beyond the chair and the blueberries.
Karen
Geez. I don't know. Which little pig built that. ;) ~ karen!