Planting food, 2012

Now that I've been blogging more than 4 years I've decided it's time I have an actual blog design..so with my photo and my husband's photoshopping skills, new banner has now been designed!

It's winter, which means it's time to hibernate inside and plan next year's garden! I'm greatly expanding my veggie garden for this year, moving it to the south (vs. the north) side of my house, where last Fall I built a little stone wall less than a foot high leaving about 3 feet of dirt between the wall and the house that I will soon dig out and amend with new dirt. Also this spring I plan on doing some landscaping stuff that is non-veggie related. Today I ordered a bunch of seeds + a bunch of plants which will be shipped to me later in the spring when it's actually time to plant things.

Already planted:
A ton of garlic. Due to living in the freaking south and what I'm told is fairly normal for winter, the garlic has all sprouted already because it's been in the 50s and 60s (and even 70s some days) all winter long. Hopefully that won't be bad for it.
Oregano and rosemary grows perennially here so is still around from last year. My strawberry plant from last year sent out some runners which I expect will grow more strawberries next year

Seeds ordered:
Mesclun lettuce seed mix
basil seeds
thyme seeds
(still have bell pepper, eggplant, zucchini, snap peas, cilantro and dill seeds from last year which will be planting again).

Corn-heirloom golden cross bantam seeds
Green beans- heirloom kentucky wonder bean (pole bean) seeds
Jack o' lantern pumpkin seeds

These last 3 are the "three sisters" which are 3 crops traditionally grown together by Native Americans. The corn supports the climbing beans, the beans add nitrogen to the soil which helps feed the corn, and the squash creeps along the floor and keeps the ground free of weeds. I'm going to plant these in the backyard because we're not going to eat the pumpkins (using them as jack o' lanterns) and the beans and corn grows high enough that the dogs can't pee on them.

I might also grow some pickling cucumbers to make pickles. I hate cucumbers but I love pickles. I haven't decided yet- still plenty of time!

I also got plants that will be delivered later on in the spring:
Jersey Knight asparagus (10 crowns, to be planted in the front yard and not harvested for 2 years- the plan is to remove a dead bush on the side of the house, move the hostas in the front yard to where the dead bush is which is a shady areas, and plant the asparagus where the hostas are in the front yard where they will turn into pretty fern-like bushes every summer after harvest)
Red onion "Sets"
red seed potatoes

A japanese red beauty painted fern (to be planted on the sinkhole)
Honeysuckle major wheeler (a red flower honeysuckle vine to be planted on the trellis on the north side of the house where I grew peas last year)

2 blueberry bushes (highbush- which grow to about 5-6 feet tall- gulf coast and sharblue varieties) to plant along the backyard fence where two of the evergreen bushes died leaving a gap that my dog (Max) likes to sit in and howl at the neighbors from.

The crape myrtle I planted last year did very well over the summer- the flowers were pink, not purple, but the instructions said they are lighter colored when the plant is younger, and it's now only about a year or two old. I'm going to prune it around February, since the flowers grow in clusters on the end of each branch, and every branch you cut in February grows 2 new branches over the year- if you prune it back every year, you get a lot more blooms.

My meyer lemon tree (which I'm growing in a container which lives indoors in the winter and outdoors in the summer) has grown about 4 branches, but so far no flowers or lemons.