I’m so excited to be gardening again this year, and I want to share with you all what I will be planting. I have ambitious plans for building some new raised beds and planting all the things. I’ve been doing a ton of reading and research, and there are a lot of gardening ideas and methods I want to try.
Gardening isn’t entirely new to me. Years ago, before having children, we started our little 4′ raised beds, and as a clueless gardener I still managed to have success with kale, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes. Last year I had my lovely mini herb and flower garden on my deck (the cozy deck tour was one of my first posts on the blog!). My youngest child was still a baby last spring, so I wasn’t able to do more than the container garden – because I could contain (har har) the baby on the deck while I planted in pots. I kept wanting more plants though. Just ask my husband. This year I’m really excited to go whole hog in the garden.
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen a preview of my seed starting set up and what I’ve started in my stories. Here I’ll go into more detail about what varieties of plants I’ve picked and why.
There’s one thing I want to mention before I get started. I’m going into this season trying out new gardening techniques and new types of plants, not in the expectation of getting a bountiful harvest, but to learn. I hope to learn a TON, not just about gardening, about what plants do well direct sown vs. started indoors and what works best in my yard and climate, but about myself. This is about gaining knowledge, and about getting out there and trying something new. If I get a lot of good vegetables to eat, that will be a wonderful bonus.
What I’m Planting This Year
Cooler Weather Crops
I already have garlic planted. Garlic is a fall crop, and several months ago I had the gardening itch really bad (of course, by then, the weather was turning cold, so I had few options for things to plant). I filled up one large pot with garlic cloves. We added garden soil and compost to one of our existing raised beds, and I filled it with more garlic cloves. These were from garlic bulbs I bought at my local garden center. While you can use bulbs from the grocery store, from my understanding they are sprayed with something to keep them from sprouting.
In our second existing 4′ bed we recently added garden soil and compost, and I put three rows of kale in the center. On two of the sides I put in Parisienne Carrots and Chinese Pink Celery. These are both heirloom varieties from Baker Creek!
Our plan is to build an additional raised garden bed to go next to the two 4″ beds and to also build a raised bed to go around our back deck. I haven’t planned yet what I’ll be putting in each bed, but I have lots of options. I do know that all the zinnias and swallowtail fennel will go in the raised bed around the deck. Marigolds will go strategically around the plants that are prone to pests. (We had a brief problem with Japanese beetles eating our amethyst basil last year, until I put a giant marigold in a pot next to it. Then the beetles left us alone!)
I also want to try another method I discovered from a YouTuber I recently found, “composting in place”. In container gardening, this involves taking a large plastic tub, drilling holes in it for drainage, and adding compost: shredded paper, kitchen scraps, and wood chips. Certain plants can grow really well being planted straight in the compost. Or you can continually add to it and meanwhile put your potted plants inside the tub (potted plant inception!), and the plants will grow feeder roots through the holes at the bottom of their pot into the compost below. This is something I’m very eager to try, as it will allow me to more easily compost the huge amount of kitchen scraps I throw away, thus helping me with my goal this year of living a more natural and eco-friendly life.
Complete Seed List
Flowers
- Marigold – Burpee
- Zinnia cut and come again mix – Burpee
- Summer Pinwheels Butterfly Zinnias – Renee’s Garden
- Swallowtail Fennel Butterfly Flowers – Renee’s Garden
Herbs
- Sweet Basil – Burpee
- Sweet Curly Parsley – Renee’s Garden
Vegetables
- Lacinato Kale – Renee’s Garden
- Zebrune Shallot – Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
- Chinese Pink Celery – Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
- Parisienne Carrot – Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
- Amarillo Carrot – Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
- Glass Gem Corn – Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
- Fordhook Zucchini – Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Peppers
- Albino Bullnose Pepper – Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
- Fish Pepper – Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Tomatoes
- Yellow Pear Tomato – Olds Seed
- Black Beauty Tomato – Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
- Roma Tomato – Burpee
- Red Rosso Sicilian Tomato – Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
- Purple Russian Tomato – Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
I find myself strongly attracted to plants with unusual characteristics such as variegation or unusual color. I also love the plants with interesting stories to them, such as the Fish Pepper! Let’s be real, I can’t eat spicy food, but this pepper has a cool backstory. I’ll grow them for my husband, who enjoys spicy food, and can the extras for later.
Out of all of these, which plants am I the most excited for? Well, hands down, I’m most looking forward to the Black Beauty tomato. It’s advertised as the World’s Darkest Tomato. I’ve never seen a tomato this color anywhere, and I’m so excited to be growing these. I’m also pumped for the Albino Bullnose Pepper. These are a white sweet pepper, and I do enjoy roasted sweet peppers. They will look so pretty.
To be honest, I’m not even done purchasing seeds. We want to plant milkweed for the monarch butterflies, so I need to decide on which variety will work best for us. I may also try another variety of zucchini.
Resources
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds – rareseeds.com This is a great family owned company that works to preserve heirloom seeds. You can find many interesting varieties you’ve never seen or heard of before. I recommend their seed catalog, as it’s more than a catalog, it had articles and great information, but they do offer a free catalog.
Renee’s Garden – reneesgarden.com They offer a huge selection of flower seeds, herbs, and vegetables. In addition to seeds they offer plenty of gardening resources on their website!
Your local garden center. Their prices will be comparable to big box stores, but what you get may be better quality. In addition, their employees will be knowledgeable, and you will be supporting a small business. They may also carry interesting and unique heirloom seed varieties rather than what the big box stores have.
I will continue with a separate post showing my full seed starting set up!
I hope this post encourages you to garden this year. You don’t have to start seeds indoors or have an elaborate set up. You can buy started plants, and you can plant in containers. The point is: grow something this year!
What are you planting this year? I would love to know! Leave a comment below.
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I love your plan and can’t wair to see how your garden performs. So far I have my lettuces planted (red leaf, romaine and butter crunch) and cilantro. My asparagus, parsley and chives are growing in from last year as well. I plan to have potted blueberry bushes as well as tomatoes when it warms up a bit. I’ll probably just buy tomato plants from the farmers market rather than seeds. Oh and lavender and rosemary for the crazy mosquito problem we have. It didn’t help too much last year but I only had 2 pots. I plant to plant some around my kids’ play set and also have some pots on my porch.
Your garden sounds wonderful! I’m jealous of your asparagus patch. I haven’t heard of lavender and rosemary helping with mosquitoes. Maybe I need to get some rosemary bushes. I had lavender last year, but it died. And nothing wrong with buying tomato plants. I’m running out of room really fast indoors for my starts, and that’s without separating the seedlings yet!
My grandpa always had a garden and he had a special way with tomatoes. One year he grew black cherry tomatoes and they were the most delicious cherry tomatoes I’ve ever eaten. I’m looking forward to hearing about your Black Beauties!
I always enjoy hearing about your grandpa’s garden! I hope you can eventually carry on the gardening tradition and follow in his footsteps, wherever you eventually set down your roots. Those black cherry tomatoes sound amazing, and now I need to find some!