One of my New Year’s resolutions is to relax about the garden this year. To plan and plant for our real lives, not our ideal lives, and for what we really want to eat.
In 2009, I planned and planted a garden that assumed I had just as much time (and water) to devote to it as I did in 2008. But that wasn’t the case. The horses and other activities reduced my garden time for weeding and succession planting. The hot dry weather and uncertainty about how good our well is reduced the amount of watering I was willing to do. The two combined to cause a reduced harvest and a lot of guilt on my part.
With that in mind, I’ve been reviewing 2009’s monstrous seed list, what’s left of it (and 2008’s) and consulting with Mike about what he really wants to eat in 2010 and early 2011. What’s the result going to be?
We’re trimming out seeds for things we don’t really like (why grow them?) like eggplant, rutabagas, parsnips and butternut squash. And we’re adding back in some F1 hybrids that performed well in 2008 to replace open-pollinated varieties that did not in 2009.
I’m going to be planting with greater spacing to allow for dry farming of some crops and grouping by similar water needs to allow adequate watering of others.
I’m going to be using burlap and straw around a lot of crops to try to reduce the # of weeds that sprout and grow to reduce my weeding time. The well established beds are pretty weed free, but some crappy compost has almost ruined 3 rows on the east side of the garden with aggressive weeds. These rows are going to get heavy tilling, hot compost and serious burlap mulch this year. If that doesn’t work, other methods will be considered 
Finally, I’m going to order tomato seeds even though I still have enough of 9 varieties to plant this year. I’m not happy with how well a few of them did, even with last year’s extra heat days, and I’m exercising my right as the “decider” to not use them and replace them. Same goes for broccoli, bush beans, lettuce and radish.
And, even though I know I shouldn’t really, I’m going to buy organic potatoes at the local farmer’s markets and use them as seed this year. I figure that if they grow well for local farmers in our typical Seattle weather, they’re likely to do better for us than seed potatoes from far away. Plus, at an average of $3 - $4 per pound, they’re a heck of a lot cheaper than organic seed potatoes.
What changes are you planning for your garden this year? What new varieties are you adding? Any traditional ones you’re not planting this year?
*****
Possibly Related posts (newest to oldest):
I’m at the same spot as you are with the seed lists and rethinking the garden. I’m moving to some raised beds, as I’ve been planting all in ground, and other than for the three sisters (corn, beads and squash), cucumbers, garlic and tomatoes I’m moving everything to raised beds to see if I can better control the fertility of the soil, and make tending them a little nicer on the back.
I’m giving up planting swiss chard and lettuce, and moving to more spinach because I like it better than lettuce for salads, and it can be cooked or left raw and I like it both ways better than I like the chard and lettuce. I too have been looking at 2008 and 2009 to decide what works for me, and what I’m changing.
Good luck with your garden, and thanks for the encouragement of hearing someone else with the same basic thoughts in their head.
We have a few changes planned for our garden this year. We’ll be adding in some new beds this spring (that I’m very excited about). So hopefully that means more room for me to plant more veggies.
I’m working through the seed inventory now and trying to figure out what we still have left from the last couple of years and what we need to order new. I have a couple new varieties that I’d like to try this year and I will probably order those seeds this week.
I’m going to focusing on stuff that grows well for me. Tons of tomatoes of course and celery, lettuce, spinach etc. I’ll be growing onions at my mom’s house, hopefully I finally get a nice big harvest of decent sized onions. Speaking of onions, it’s almost time to start onion seeds.
I’m trying not to think about gardening yet, I have tons of work to get done for my job at the moment.
Yeah, I have finally quit beating myself up about planting hybrids - if an heirloom performs well, it gets to stay, otherwise I need the time and space devoted to true producers. I am actually going to cut my garden space by 1/3 this year to get a better handle on weeds and fertility. That’s the plan anyway… .
I’ll be ordering seed from Irish Eyes this year. I’m not sure where you’ve been ordering potato seed from, but their organic seed potatoes run $3.50/lb or less, depending on how much you buy. Of course, that doesn’t include shipping. They’re located in Ellensburg, with local seed sources.
Laura,
On your watering concerns, you might check to see if you can get a copy of Steve Solomon’s Water-Wise Vegetables, 1993. Steve moved to some land near the Umpqua River close to Elkton, OR in the late 1980’s.
By a process of trial and error, he developed some good ideas for reducing your water demands.
I do have a few things items that I’d caution about. First, most gardens are not as close to a river so that the water table is not far below the soil surface.
I do not agree with Steve’s opposition to using drip irrigation. You can get much better control of amounts with the vegetables grouped using drip irrigation. You can also reduce the weed germination with drip. A low cost hose bib battery timer can save some of your garden time.
And recall that too much “heavy tilling” just keeps bringing more weed seeds to the surface. Cultivate the surface few inches and use a “dust mulch” (pp. 34-35)to slow weed germination
I need to relax about the garden, but do some sorting out too. Like Susy, part of my challenge is focusing on things that will grow well for me, given the space and climate I’m dealing with. Another challenge/thing to think about is what veg/fruit I can actually produce - there are some things that I just eat more of than I can grow. I need to be smart about how I use my space and what I get from my CSA/local farmers.
I’m looking through my seed catalogs now, and I think planning my imaginary garden is helping me be a little more practical for my real one. Likely I’ll put in more spinach and greens, those did well last year - too bad they wilt so much when cooked! And even though last year was horrid for tomatoes, I did well with cherry tomatoes in the summer of 2008, so I’ll give those another shot.
Cheaping out on seed potatoes is only worth it if you consider your time and effort worthless. I always invest in good seed. It’s such a small expense compared to the work and the rewards.
I told my husband this year that I’m growing fewer tomatoes. I’m sure as some point he’ll stop snickering at me. I’m also going to add a hybrid - I love my heirlooms but I’m having problems with blight and I need to get more tomatoes just for canning.