Spring Garden 2019

I’m so cold right now, I can’t even stand it.

I take solace in planning the spring gardens.

I think this is really going to be a good year for us. Granted, I think that every year, but I’m not going to let that dampen my optimism.

I have really enjoyed the “zone gardening” planning model. Each terrace is given a zone. Here’s my diagram from last year.

I’m implementing a couple new things this year. For starters, one of my terrace beds is being dedicated to perennial crops of asparagus and strawberries in zone E.

I have a new terrace bed (Zone B) that was completed just before it snapped super cold. We’re Christening it with peas and beans to fix the nitrogen in the soil.

Zone C, which was home to our 3 sisters bed is going to be home to our tomatoes and peppers this year. I plan on giving it a layer of compost from our bins about 3-4 weeks prior to transplanting the seedlings out in it. My thing is feeding the soil, rather than striving to feed individual plants. If the soil is well fed and healthy, the plants can draw all they need from it.

Zone D was supposed to get sunchokes last year, but I didn’t have any to plant and ended up having potatoes and turnips there. Turns out, my son is crazy allergic to potatoes (like vomit away 10 lbs allergic 😓) and none of us really care for turnips. So, this year, I have the sunchokes, and I think they’ll do nicely there, probably with cukes and maybe some companion herbs/flowers.

I’m just totally done even trying to grow corn. I can’t eat it, deer steal half of it, and what’s left attract those stupid saddle back caterpillars, which stung me last year! So I’m done! Goodbye, 3rd sister!

Zone A is going to be my “salad and herb” bed this year.

Zone E is dedicated to my perennial bed of sparkle strawberries and purple passion asparagus. I am SO excited to see how that does this year. I’ll probably inter-plant some borage as companion plants.

I’ve got some heirloom pole beans someplace. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on with the potager this spring since we only managed to clean out half of it. I suppose we’ll set to work on it again when the weather warms up some.

I don’t believe we’re planning on brooding any new chicks this year, so that actually opens up space and opportunity for my indoor seed starts. I may try starting things in the basement this year and see how that goes. If all else fails, there’s always the farmer’s market.