Planning for Spring – the garden

As a relatively new homesteader and gardener, I always LOVE to hear what others are planting in their gardens. With this in mind, I decided to share what I hope to plant in mine!

This year I ordered all of my seeds from Baker Creek Seeds:
wwww.rareseeds.com

I’ve heard many great things about their seeds and I’ll be honest and admit that it was their Whole Seed Catalog that truly won me over. Since I’m not real familiar with heirloom seeds, fruits and vegetables, I wanted to know as much as possible about each type I was buying. The Whole Seed Catalog gave me some confidence in my purchases. http://www.rareseeds.com/the-seed-catalog-of-the-year/

Gardening is a lot of work, and as much as I do LOVE to garden, the main goal is to feed our family of eight, plus grow as much as possible for our animals, so the end result needs to be an abundant harvest. As abundant as possible. I don’t expect miracles each year, but I do try to plan for the best outcome by learning as much as I can before I even plant that first seed.

My garden, and the items I’ve chosen to plant in it, will not be the same as another’s garden. I believe a garden is as personal as a home. The basics may be similar, or even the same, but lots will be different. How we use our space will be different according to each person’s, and homestead needs, desires, etc..

I’ll attempt to add a few notes about each seed I purchased, and just in case you decide you’d like to try some of these seeds as well, I’ve included item numbers. I’m not afilliated with Baker Creek Seeds in any way, they have no idea I’m posting this (and I hope it’s ok, I’m sure it is…) I’m simply sharing because it’s info I would want shared with me.

Mary Washington Asparagus Item No: AS101
-while visiting a friend last spring, she showed me one of her many garden plots. The garden was still basically empty, since snow had just melted, yet she plucked a young tender asparagus shoot and ate it while we chatted. I had no idea asparagus could be grown in our climate, and that it would come back on it’s own each year! So this was the first item I added to my wish list when planting the garden for 2014!

Wonderberry Item No: GR105
-I love to grow fruit! Our new-to-us homestead property has a small orchard. We have many apple trees in 4 or 5 varieties, high bush cranberries, saskatoon berries, choke cherries, and even grapes! Here, on the praries! I decided I wanted to add at least one fruit each year to keep the orchard growing, and so that we could keep learning about more fruits. From what I read, the Wonderberry will be a good start.

Minnesota Midget Melon Item No: AML140
Collective Farm Woman Melon Item No: OML110
Blacktail Mountain Watermelon Item No: WM129
-These three melons were decided upon because each one is said to do well in short growing seasons. We planted watermelon last year, and the plants started wonderfully but never got past a certain point, and were not able to produce fruit quick enough. At first I had decided not to bother trying with melons again, but the catalogue descriptions and the online reviews of these three won me over and convince me to give it another try. I really hope they produce! I would LOVE to have fresh picked melons this year!

Connecticut Field Pumpkin 1 oz Item No: SQ129C
New England Sugar Pie Pumpkin Item No: SQ131
-I picked these two pumpkins because I wanted one type for the kids, and one type for eating. Both are described as good for our climate and growing seasons. Our pumpkins grew very well last year so I have high hopes again this year. The only pumpkins that didn’t do well were the giants we planted. This year I decided they are not worth the amount of space and work required (they are VERY needy, if you really want a true giant) and we’ll stick with pumpkins for carving and eating.
I put pumpking in all my stews. I simply bake it halved, and cube it, and throw it in the freezer to be tossed into each stew & soup I make all year. Pumpkin is VERY good for you!

Broad Windsor Fava Bean Item No: FB101
-I gree Fava/Broad beans last year and they grew well, so I’m adding more this year. We like them boiled in a bit of salt water, then fried in a bit of bacon grease. Now that we have home grown bacon, it’s even better!
Royalty Purple Pod Bush Bean Item No: BN101
-I added purple beans simple because I’m a sucker for colour in my garden!
Cantare Beans Item No: BN153
Sugar Ann Snap Pea 1/2 LB Item No: SN107F
-Elsa LOVES sugar snap peas, we all like them, but she loves them. So I’m growing a 1/2 pound of seeds. We’ll see how they do. Last year we went away just as the peas were all coming on well, and came back to them being overgrown with weeds. Our harvest was only enough to eat a few at a time. Hoping for much more this year. I will stagger the plantings a little if there’s time.
Alaska Garden Pea Item No: GP101
-I’m actually hoping to dry some peas this year for soups. I’m hoping to use these peas for that purpose.
Little Marvel Garden Pea 1/2 LB Item No: GP102F
-These peas will be for freezing.

Detroit Dark Red 1 oz Item No: BT110C
-another very healthy veggie! I’m planting these for freezing, pickling (my husband LOVES pickled beets) and this year I’m going to try my hand at dehydrating some beets for beet powder. I would like to use it for homemade lip balms/tints.
Golden Beet Item No: BT102
-planting these for the added colour & contrast, just because I can! I love an array of colours in our veggies and on our plates!

Boston Pickling Cucumber Item No: CU105
-self explanatory. These will become pickles!
Crystal Apple Cucumber Item No: CU149
-I’m planting these because I couldn’t resist! Cucumbers that look like apples? I love trying new things, and enticing the kids to try new things too.
Early Fortune Cucumber Item No: CU176
-these will be for salads and sandwiches

Purple Jalapeno Item No: HPP118
-I’ve realized that my favourite hot/spicey veggie/pepper flavour is jalapeno, so I’m limiting my peppers to three types, this being the only spicey one. My hope is to attempt my own jalapeno oil. Boston Pizza has amazing spicey chips we ALL love. They are made with jalapeno oil. I’m still researching ‘how’ to make it, but I figure growing the peppers would be the best place to start.
Emerald Giant Pepper Item No: PP109
Bullnose Pepper Item No: PP124
-both of these peppers will mainly be for eating and freezing for recipes such as my husband’s chilli, which he cooks at least once a month all winter in HUGE batches. Also great to freeze slices for homemade pizzas etc..

Pearly Pink Tomato Item No: TK127
-simply adding to the list because of the colour!
Amish Paste Tomato Item No: TM126
-hoping to try my own tomato paste this year, plus I figured these may be a better tomato for tomato sauce. I love Roma’s for sauces, and these are a roma type.
Dad’s Sunset Tomato Item No: TO103
-again, adding for the color. I also think these will be great for sandwiches, burgers, etc..

Little Finger Carrot Item No: CR103
-these will mostly be for pickling and freezing, as well as eating fresh.
Cosmic Purple Carrot Item No: CR112
-wanting some carrot colour! Added this third type just for fun.
Nantes Scarlet Carrot Item No: CR122
-Planting LOTS of these in hopes of storing some for the winter, not just for us, but for our livestock too.

Golden Bantam 12-Row Corn Item No: CN143
-I was a little hesitant to add this corn to my list. Last year we planted a variety we call Peaches and Cream, it’s light and dark kernals and a very sweet variety. They grew well, but the only place I could find the seeds was walmart… I will continue to look for a peaches and cream type this spring, but in the meantime I wanted a good heirloom corn seed in the garden. We have enough livestock (horses, pigs, chickens, sheep) that if the humans on the homestead don’t find this variety sweet enough, it won’t go to waste.

Brunswick Onion Item No: ON120
-last year I was too late buying seed onions, so I figured I’d try my hand at buying some seeds to start myself. I’ll still be on the lookout locally for seed onions too. I really want to have enough onions to store in the cold cellar for the winter.

The next seeds are what I call my salad garden:
Russian Red or Ragged Jack Kale Item No: KA103
-kale is super healthy! I blanche and freeze and throw it into all soups and stews. Plus I will try to make kale chips again. I also dehydrate and keep in a jar to add into thinner soups.
Extra Dwarf Pak Choy Item No: OR130
-I saw these and though “why not??” We like fried rice and I think these will be great. I love that I can freeze it to add into fried rice all winter too. Might not be as good as fresh, but certainly a close second!
Merlo Nero Spinach Item No: SP105
Monstrueux De Viroflay Spinach Item No: SP104
-both spinaches will be eaten fresh as well as frozen. We also add frozen spinach to our fruit smoothies.
Flame Lettuce Item No: LT113
-I couldn’t resist this pretty lettuce. Salads need not be boring! Bring on the colour!
Crisp Mint Lettuce Item No: LT150
-a good lettuce for ceasar salads etc.
Rocky Top Lettuce Mix Item No: SB103
-another pretty lettuce

The next seeds are all flowers.
I’m not actually sure how many of these we will be able to plant this year. Although we have a very large yard, there really are no flower beds and.. even if there were with 6 dogs and animals including sheep and horses which we allow to ‘free range’, flower beds are probably not something we will have in our future. They simply are not practical, even though I LOVE flower beds and have had a few gorgeous beds in the past in other yards.
However, my husband plans to build a fairly large deck this year so we’re planning to incorporate some flower pots/planters into our deck rails so that Julia and I can plant some pretty flowers. If the deck, and planters are able to be completed this year, all the seeds will be planted. If not, I will plant a few of each in my antique buckets and tubs this year, and save the rest for next year.
I should note, some of the marigolds will be planted in the garden to keep some animals and pests away. The 3 sunflower varieties will be grown at one end of the garden, in hopes of a sunflower wall on the treeless/road side of our garden plot. This was the plan last year as well, but I only grew one size, the giants, and although they looked pretty, near the end of the season they were looking too gangly and tall. I thought adding three differing sizes of large sunflower plants could look much prettier. I’m especially excited about having a variety of colours and types of sunflowers!

Chinese Lantern Gigantea Item No: GR1255
Brocade Mix Marigold Item No: FL471
Button Box Zinnia Item No: FL837
Moss Rose Double Flowered Mix Portulaca Item No: FL918
Petite Mix Marigold Item No: FL474
Evening Sun – Sunflower Item No: FL733
Red Sun Sunflower Item No: FL912
Titan Sunflower Item No: FL749
Teddy Bear – Sunflower Item No: FL724C
Fairyland Dwarf Mix – Candytuft Item No: FL002
Baby Doll – Dianthus Item No: FL320

I also plan to plant LOTS of potatoes once again, 50 pounds, hopefully using my own potatoes from last year as my seed.

So there you have it, my entire seed order this year!

I’m hoping to produce more this year. Last year we did pretty much everything by hand from seeding to weeding. This year I have a tiller which I purchased at a farm auction, and… for my birthday I asked for this:

It’s on it’s way now and should be here in time for my birthday! I’m so excited! This year we should have nice neat rows with good spacing. Plus, my seeds should be planted with much more precision. Last year the kids and I did 95% of the planting, and it’s very difficult to make sure kids (and even myself!) plant at the exact right depth for the smaller seeds. 😉

I’m really looking forward to planting with my new seeder!

How about you? What are you planning to grow this year? What are your must-haves?
What are you planning on trying for the first time this year? What worked best last year? I’d love to hear about your gardening experiences as well! If you’ve blogged about them, share your link in the comments!