24 March 2010

Veggie Dreams and Garden Plans

This year I'm sticking to the list. No extras, no impulse buys. No growing things we don't eat. Too much wasted money, time and energy. Let's see how resolved I am when I'm in the greenhouse, shall we?


The Veg:
-Heirloom tomatoes only this year, varieties to be determined by plant availability
-Sweet Millions cherry tomatoes, a fav
-Chocolate Cherry tomatoes, if I can find a plant
-Cucumbers, only 2 plants, can only eat so many cukes
-Zucchini, 4 plants this year, that's more than last year, but I plan to slice and freeze for sauteing
-Yellow summer squash, 2 plants, completely new this year, will give color to my saute mix
-Beans, beans, beans, a variety of greens and yellow, couldn't get enough beans last year and they can always be frozen
-Swiss Chard, because it is so pretty, and with a vow to actually learn to cook it and eat it this year
-Artichokes, an experiment, because we have been buying many jars of artichoke hearts lately
-Bell peppers, a garden necessity, 6 plants because I didn't get a great yield last year
-Peas, who doesn't love peas?
-Spinach, because fresh from the garden is the only way to eat it


The Herbs:
-Parsley
-Rosemary, lots for drying, needed in rosemary bread and my best pork roast
-Basil, many varieties
-Thyme
-Oregano
-Summer Savory
-Mint

And some flowers mixed for pretty:
-Sunflowers
-Cosmos
-White Salvia
-Blanketflower
-Melampodium
-Petunias
-Pansies
-Marigolds
-Calendula
-Nasturtium

I'm too tired to try to start a bunch of stuff from seed this year, and mostly I only want a couple of this and a couple of that, so I'm going to buy plants from our favourite nursery, Noggle's Sweet Meadow Greenhouse in Mechanicsburg.

See? I've got all my plans posted on the fridge, including my master list and shopping list.I've grouped them into families.

The Heirloom Tomato family.The Cucumber family.
The Zucchini family.The Cherry tomato family.

And that should fill my "flower" beds around the house with useful plants for the summer!