Sunday, January 22, 2012

Winter Garden Planning

What do I do when January starts "creepin' me out"?
Think garden!!!

A couple years ago I created a map of my garden. Each year I redraw it form scratch. I have no idea why it took me 3 years to realize, oh, I can scan this into my computer and create a pdf file of it and just print it out each year! Yeah, so now I have this to print out...I forgot to mark North. My garden does not lay perfectly east/west or north/south but the corners are the directions. The echinacea is in the east corner and the cherry tree in the north corner. Those things that are written in are perennial or tree/shrub. The rest I write in new each year as I rotate.
I'm excited that the days are now getting longer and in a month or so I can start seeds indoors. I hope to put up at least one hoop house over one bed as early as March so I can start planting spinach, kale, and chard. I might even be able to plant it even earlier if I can get the hoop up earlier than March.
I have a catalog from Seeds of Change and the Victory Seed website and it is my HOPE to do most of my seed shopping via these 2 companies. I want to be able to save seed and these 2 have heirloom seeds. I've never saved seed before, it is a goal I hope I can accomplish. An ambitious goal for this full-plate so we'll see.

There is light at the end of the winter doldrums tunnel. Yeah!

3 comments:

Martha said...

Yes...something to look forward to...fresh backyard pickings! We don't have as much space as you do, so we really don't need to plan that much. Do you rotate where you had the tomatoes last year? I'm wondering if we should just keep things where they are, as last year, we tried to grow some other things, but the tomatoes from the year before (heirlooms), self-seeded and well, took over that spot!

Mimi said...

Based on the newsletter of my CSA, it is a favorite winter pastime of theirs too!

Karen T. said...

Wow! those pictures are so beautiful. I am so glad I can see you and your family on your blog. I miss you.