The 2010 Garden Plan

It's time for gardening!  Why yes, it IS January.  Apparently, cold-hardy truly  means cold hardy!  At time of writing, peas have been planted.  Kale, beets, spinach, and green onions are all on the bench to go in next time I step outside.  I've (unwittingly) already missed the window of opportunity for leeks and onions.



Our final frost day is April 1st- after that, melons, squash, beans, etc. are all cleared for planting.  Nothing like planting the garden to make us feel a little better about the last days of winter!



Here's the lineup for this year:
green arrow pea 
tom thumb pea 
golden zucchini 
ground cherry 
table queen squash 
blacktail mountain watermelon 
early silverline melon 
rainbow chard 
calypso bean 
royalty purple pod bean 
red potatoes 
genovese basil
mint
lemon balm
beets
carrots
nasturtium
marigold
small roma-type tomato

And if you're seeing my ground cherry intentions and laughing...my friend pulled these seeds from her own plants. She promises they're the real deal. (Yes, last year I planted ground cherries. 23 of them. And they were all tomatillos. My family loved the salsa they all got for Christmas. So did the friends. And most of my congregation.)

Most of my seeds are ready to go, thanks to my ground-cherry-promising friend, Mama Papaya- she pulled all kinds of goodies from her garden and sent me home with an armful of bagged seeds. (Everything with a fancy name up top came from her garden, which in turn came from Seed Savers.) Lovely, lovely lady. I just hope I don't kill them all.


Have you started your plans for the 2010 garden? Is it in the ground? In your head? Just a pipe dream?


And listen, if you're wanting to start gardening but really don't have space or time, here are a few things to throw on the back porch.

• Potatoes in a garbage can. I've done this twice now, it's magic every time to dump out my can and find real food in that dirt.  (You can purchase ORGANIC potatoes at the grocery store to use as seed- conventional potatoes are normally sprayed so they don't sprout. That's no good for gardening, is it?) I recently read of someone doing potatoes in burlap sacks. That's wonderful!!
• A big fat pot of basil. Start seeds indoors (my mom starts mine, and uses big 20 ounce cups so she doesn't have to transplant until planting time.) When they're nice and big, about 5 inches, put about 8 in a great big pot, like the size a tree comes in from the nursery. (Last year Trader Joes had nice big basil plants for a good price, if you want to just buy starts.) Trim them right when you harvest, and you'll have fresh basil all summer long!

• If you have an isolated patch of dirt, tap a friend for some mint- just dig up a chunk in the spring and plonk it in the ground. You'll have more mint than you know what to do with. (I haven't had good luck with this in pots, but others have.)
• If you buy green onions at the store and just use the green part, put the white bit with roots into a glass of water- it will keep growing! If you like, you can plonk it in the ground when the roots have grown out a bit. Green onions are amazingly cold hardy.

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For more winter home ideas, check out Melissa's Carnival at The Inspired Room!