2014 Garden Plans

[RoseOfGrace]

Has anyone else started planning their garden for this year? We greatly expanded our garden last year to 9 raised beds (12'x4'), plus our herb garden (which is our backyard landscape). I'm still deciding on what exactly to plant this year and in what quantities. But, we will probably do more tomatoes (cherry and roma), carrots, lettuce, potatoes, sweet potatoes, a couple varieties of squash, okra, cucumbers, maybe pumpkin (my son's request), maybe beans (still have lots of low growing bush variety from last year, but may switch to pole beans this year), maybe peas (have extras from last year), peppers. Oh, and the strawberry plants we planted last year should be performing well this year - hopefully! I'm super excited about the strawberries! I'm also planning to grow a variety of herbs. We need to tear out most of our herb garden due to a terrible infestation of morning glories. So, I'm undecided what we will get planted there. I'd like to grow basil, dill, parsley, sage (my sage is spreading like a weed! lol), mint, rosemary, and maybe lavendar and a couple others.

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Oh, and sunflowers! We planted 12 sunflowers last year, but due to storms and squirrels, only got to harvest about 3 of them. But, they were delicious and so pretty! I'll definitely be planting these again.

[CelticJourney]

We've been working on clearing out a new space in the backyard for our garden. Unfortunately we are battling vines that are persistant. But I want to do a much better job feeding my family fresh this year.

[RoseOfGrace]

What kinds of vines are you battling CelticJourney? I made the mistake of planting morning glories on our fence when we first bought our house... And have regretted it with a passion ever since! They are horribly invasive and are now all over our yard - even in our garden area which is far away from where we originally planted them.

[canadiyank]

Morning glories are pretty but SUCH a pest in our area. We have a related weed called bindweed that completely infested my garden at my last house. When I see it here I blast it with Round-up b/c I am so worried about it taking over again. Normally I am very organic but bindweed gets no mercy from me!

I have raised beds, too, and a new area along our retaining wall that I want to do something with. I might be able to harvest a few spears from our asparagus bed I planted last spring, too.

I got a catalogue from The Cook's Garden the other day and have been drooling over several things. I think I'm going to get the purple podded peas, for sure, just for something fun. I like growing the unusual colours.

I bought some elderberry plants last year but didn't get the in the ground, unfortunately (long story, had a minor emergency last fall that interfered with a lot of my gardening goals b/c our money and mental resources were directed elsewhere) but I did get them potted up, so hopefully they'll make it through the winter and I can plant them in the spring.

I had great luck with my hoophouse last year (have a terrible problem with leafminers that affects my chard, beets, etc.) so I'm looking forward to using that again, but need to come up with a better idea for being able to get in/out of it. It was just bent poles with some light fabric on top but since you have to secure it all the way around (we get heavy winds here at times) it makes it hard to actually get in/out. So I want to find some sort of solution for that.

I need a recommendation for a variety of pole beans. The kind I have been using (would have to look up what it was) were horrid and I'm about to give up. I've had way better luck with bush beans.

[CelticJourney]

Unfortunately these totally lack any redeeming value - I'm not exactly sure what they are, but they are strong enough that they take over and bring down trees. As a matter of fact, one of the things that has to happen before I can continue with the garden is to have dh take down a dead tree about 20 yd from the garden - I'm not as afraid of it falling on me as I am the branches that are nested in the vines and might come loose at any time.

[mom2boys]

Started last night, actually.

We are changing the border to our beds to cinder blocks this year, and I plan to plant marigolds in the holes of the blocks. We have so many rabbits...



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[Macky]

We made the switch to pole beans and I'm never going back. This will be the first year I don't plant *any* bush beans, with the exception of one row of a yellow bean I like (haven't found a yellow pole I like yet).

Fortex pole bean - Most flavourful pole bean out there for short-season areas (I'm a lowly zone 2). They get lovely and long - three times the length of a bush bean - while still staying tender. They blanch and freeze very well; texture holds up well cooking from frozen in the winter. Superior fresh, though. Flowers are very pale yellow.

Emerite pole bean - Almost a tie with Fortex and almost as good a flavour. Beans are long, but not quite as long as Fortex; they hold longer, though. BEST bean to blanch and freeze for winter. They don't even do that little skin slough thing when they're cooked from frozen. I pickled these for the first time last summer and they're awesome. Purple flowers.

Rattlesnake - 2013 was my first year growing these. They get rave reviews on gardening forums, but I wasn't impressed with the flavour. (Keep in mind that bean flavour can vary, depending on your soil and climate.) From frozen, though, they're actually tender-crisp, so the lovely texture somewhat makes up for the slight blandness. This is a speckled/striped purple/green bean that is very pretty on the vine. If I recall, the flowers are purple. I'll be trialing this one again. ETA: Rattlesnake is also used as a dry bean.

I will never grow anything with Kentucky or Blue Lake in it's name ever again, pole or bush. They're always terrible in my soil/climate. They're viewed as the benchmark of pole beans, apparently, but I don't know why.

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I planned out our 2014 garden last fall. I had to because I needed to know where best to put the fall garlic (5 varieties: 119 cloves and 836 bulbils).

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Originally Posted by canadiyank

I bought some elderberry plants last year but didn't get the in the ground, unfortunately (long story, had a minor emergency last fall that interfered with a lot of my gardening goals b/c our money and mental resources were directed elsewhere) but I did get them potted up, so hopefully they'll make it through the winter and I can plant them in the spring.

That happened to me this year with two blueberries and a shrub rose. They're doing fine in the basement so far, though the rose brought in aphids. They've infested my hot pepper starts now and I'm in the process of erradicating them. I. Hate. Aphids. They're the reason I don't grow lettuce anymore. They don't touch spinach, so I grow that instead. Less hassle.

[Benjaminswife]

I am planning right now. Last year was my first real year gardening and I did so many different things. This year I want to plant more of the same types of things. I have 2 raised beds, 1 little raised beds and a bunch of pots. Trying to figure out what I want to do about an herb garden. We also want to plant some blueberry bushes.

[RoseOfGrace]

Oh, blueberry bushes would be awesome! We have raspberry bushes and strawberries. We are hoping to buy some larger property in the country in the next few years, so haven't invested in longer-term berries like blueberries. But, I definitely want to plant those when we buy our property to settle down in!

We started out with 2 raised beds too and experimented with those for a couple years before finally expanding last year. What kinds of herbs do you want to grow?

[treehugginmama]

I keep sitting down to plan but never do it. I need to start though.

[Benjaminswife]

Originally Posted by RoseOfGrace

Oh, blueberry bushes would be awesome! We have raspberry bushes and strawberries. We are hoping to buy some larger property in the country in the next few years, so haven't invested in longer-term berries like blueberries. But, I definitely want to plant those when we buy our property to settle down in!

We started out with 2 raised beds too and experimented with those for a couple years before finally expanding last year. What kinds of herbs do you want to grow?

I think I just want to do Basil, Cilantro and Oregano since that is what I like to cook with the most. I also have a peppermint plant from last year and wonder if I can revive it?

[milkmommy]

we have tomatoes spinach peppers lettuce beans peas and broccoli watermelon as well as some herbs growing right now We will be waiting till early spring to get more into the ground but hope to get the rest in before the heat hits.

Deanna

[Macky]

Got my seed list together finally this morning. Everything is here except my spinach and green onion seed (backordered). The first batch of peppers is already on the go under the lights and the second round was seeded last night along with the leeks. Oregano is growing as well as my rosemary and tall curry cuttings. The bay laurel is seeded, but that's a slow-to-germinate plant.

Asparagus: Guelph Millennium (established perennial)
Bean (pole): Emerite, Fortex, Rattlesnake
Bean (bush): Gold Mine
Broccoli: Blue Wind, Gypsy, Premium Crop
Brussels sprout: Jade Cross E
Carrot: Bolero, Mokum, White Satin
Cauliflower: Symphony
Celeriac: Giant Prague
Celery: Tango
Corn: Extra Early Super Sweet (SH2)
Cucumber (pickling): Jackson Classic
Gourd: Birdhouse, Luffa (aka. cee gwa smooth)
Leek: Lancelot
Onion: LaSalle (yellow), Red Baron (green), Red Zeppelin (red)
Peas (English): Alderman (pole), Cavalier, Homesteader, Legacy, Maxigolt
Pea (snow): Norli, Snowflake
Pea (snap): Sugar Snap (pole)
Pepper: Boldog Hungarian Spice (sweet), Pasilla Bajio (100 to 250 su), Aji Dulce (500 to 1,000 su), Ancho San Luis (2,000 to 4,000 su), Guajillo (3,000 to 8,000 su), Jalapeno M pepper, Purple Serrano (5,000 to 22,000 su), Fish Pepper (5,000 to 30,000 su), Chili Grandé (5,000 to 35,000 su), Long Red Slim Cayenne (30,000 to 50,000 su), Filius Blue (30,000 to 50,000 su)
Potato: will choose varieties in spring, but will at least include Yukon Gold and Russet
Pumpkin: i (hulless pepo), Racer (maxima)
Raspberries (unknown variety, established)
Rhubarb (unknown variety, established)
Spinach: Regiment
Strawberry (alpine): Ali Baba (red), Yellow Wonder (white)
Strawberry (everbearer): Pikan
Tomato: Applause (in process of stabilizing hybrid; at F4 seed this year), Cherokee Chocolate, Dufresne (aka. Savignac), Garden Peach, Gold Medal, Indian Curry, unknown tomato from Israel (given to me by a friend, old seed that I'm going to try and germinate for him)
Zucchini: Eclipse

Kostyn’s Red Russian garlic (marbled purple stripe)
Leningrad garlic (porcelain)
Northern Quebec garlic (porcelain)
Persian Star garlic (purple stripe)
Rose de Lautrec garlic (weak-bolting hardneck)

Cilantro: Calypso
Dill: Bouquet
Horseradish
Oregano
Parsley: Flat Leaf Italian
Sage
Tall Curry
Thyme

Foxglove: Fine mixed (still sort of undecided on this one as it's poisonous)
Lupine: Russel hybrid (red), mix collected from neighbour's garden
Marigold: Queen Sophia
Nemophila: Baby Blue Eyes, Penny Black
Poppy: Ladybird
Rudbeckia: Prairie Sun
Sunflower: Jerusalem Gold
Sweet Pea: Matucana
Zinnia: Will Rodgers (red), Envy (green), Illumination (pink), State Fair (mix: lavender, orange, pink, purple, rose, scarlet)

And finally, these are (non-veg) seeds I've either never grown before or have had trouble germinating in the past: Bay Laurel, Quince, Stevia, Swamp Rose.

[canadiyank]

Hey how did your pink-flowered strawberries turn out, Macky?

[Macky]

They were awesome! (And sheesh, you've got a good memory! lol) DH said he especially liked that they weren't as sweet as other varieties. They're sweet, but you notice the flavour before you notice the sweet, which is nice. We had a lot of them stolen by birds, so I'm putting them in a spot this year that will be easier to cover with netting. Starting another two dozen Pikan this year to expand the patch (last year's plants didn't send runners after being planted outside) and am trying alpine strawberries for the first time (just targeting a dozen of those to see if we like them; there are a zillion seeds in the packet).

ETA: I'm declaring this my 'Year of the Pepper and Pea'. Eleven pepper varieties and eight types of peas.