The 2014 Garden Plan – you’re able to press the picture to see the full size plan in detail .
As much as we sleep together the vacation season – at the stroke of midnight on December 31st we mirthfully turn our thinking to the do growing season at the farm ! It ’s crucial to have our garden plan make out in monastic order to have seeds and plants ready to part indoors in the come months . ( see : Starting Seeds Indoors ) .
Grow What You jazz To Eat :
The 2014 Garden Plan – You can click on the picture to see the full size plan in detail.
We create the plan first and foremost based on what our family likes best to consume – and for what we will need to store , can and preserve for the year . It sounds so basic – but it ’s so important when project to grow what you wish – making your garden and the time you spend be given it as useful as potential .
Canned Salsa is a staple in our menage – so our design includes a good deal of love apple , peppers and onions !
It ’s somewhat comical , but whenever we publish ours – it ’s not long before someone asks why it does n’t include beets , lima beans or brussel sprout . Well – quite honestly – in our crime syndicate , nobody will eat them ! We stick to growing what we sleep with . Our plan is always full of a large amount of tomatoes and Madagascar pepper – because all of us ( and an ever - growing portion of our extended crime syndicate ) love the salsa , catsup , pizza pie sauce , pasta sauce , tomato succus and more we make from them.(see : arise A Garden For Canning )
Canned Salsa is a staple in our house – so our plan includes a lot of tomatoes, peppers and onions!
The 2014 Garden Plan
We added the Cherokee Heirloom Tomato to the garden design this twelvemonth . It has a beautiful color along with great taste .
For this year ’s architectural plan – we continued to use more heirloom varieties , adding Brandywine ( all purpose and great predilection ) , Cherokee Purple ( dark purple meaty interior ) , Taxi ( yellow ) and Moskvich ( former slicing and juicing tomat0 ) to the mix . For the peppers , we added a angelic lunchbox variety to the plan – and keep in the hot Chinese Lantern capsicum pepper plant ( great for drying into powder or fresh ) that perform so well last class . In addition to the endless variety and amazing discernment of heirlooms – the real beauty is that the cum can be saved and re - used each class – an crucial part of becoming more sustainable and less reliable on having to buy our seed every twelvemonth .
We added the Cherokee Heirloom Tomato to the garden plan this year. It has a beautiful color along with great taste.
This yr – in expectancy of have the novel root and wine-colored root cellar completed by fall – we added two long raised rows of potatoes and onions outside of the principal garden . onion and potato do well together – and we are hoping the two 50′ run-in will provide enough supernumerary to store for use of goods and services all through the winter .
The Importance Of Companion Planting and Crop Rotation .
Although not perfect – we attempt hard to employ two very important practice to our garden plan – fellow traveler planting and crop rotation .
Using crop rotation and companion planting can lead to more productive harvests
Using harvest revolution and associate planting can lead to more productive harvest time
fellow traveller planting takes advantage of the positive family relationship between works to help with everything from growth rate , pest resistance and soil birthrate . In canonic terms – some plants – such as clavus , pea , bean plant and Irish potato perform well when planted close to each other . On the other script , cabbage can have issues when planted around tomatoes – so we seek to keep as much separation as we can between them . For example – this year we are grow our cucumbers in the same row as our popcorn . They do well together , and the cucumber vine can grow up and around the caudex for sustenance . It ’s not an exact science – but every little spot helps !
We rotate our plants each year to help keep our plant life originate strong
We rotate our plants each year to help keep our plants growing strong
We also rotate our crop around in the raise rows each year to avert planting the same crop in the same place . Tomatoes and pepper ( related in the nightshade family ) , go from the top of the beds to the bottom , and then back up for year three . We also splay the rows – so a specific plant life ( i.e. tomato ) wo n’t be implant in the same soil for four years . It really help keep pest and soil borne diseases at bay , and lets the soil recover from the specific nutrients that each plant takes from it .
So there you have it – our 2014 plan !
felicitous Gardening ! Jim and Mary
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