2015 Garden

It's Tomato time again!!! Yea! I just started some of my tomatoes today. Since I usually have a number of volunteers from the previous year, I decided to scale back a little on the ones I start indoors. It's fun to see which varieties spring forth in the garden, although they usually tend to be cherry tomatoes. One cherry tomato plant is more than enough, but allowing the volunteers to live almost always means we have more than one cherry tomato plant.

My husband's cousin planted around 15 cherry tomato plants in her first garden. I'm not sure if she didn't realize how prolific cherry plants were or if she really just loved them. Near the end of the season, she was certainly sick of them. But she didn't want anything to go to waste, so she actually made salsa with a blue million cherry tomatoes by squeezing each little one out of their skin. That's a lot of work, but her salsa is the best I've ever had, so it was most likely worth it.

I think I finalized my garden plans. I say "think" because I usually chart my bed out, then once it's time for planting, I tend to toss my chart out and throw stuff wherever I want. So much for the planting chart :D

Here's what's going in this year:

• Scarlet Nantes Carrot
• Kuroda Long Carrot
• All American Parsnip (planting this last year, but it didn't take, so I have new seed to try)
• Red Winter Kale
• Frisee Endive
• Salad Blend Lettuce (Black Seeded Simpson, Green & Red Salad Bowl, Marvel of Four Seasons, Bibb)
• Little Gem Romain Lettuce
• Green Towers Romain Lettuce
• Valentine Mesclun Lettuce
• Rainbow Blend Swiss Chard
• Amish Paste Tomato
• Black Krim Tomato
• Seed Savers Exchange Organic German Butterball Potato from City Folks Farm Shop
• High Mowing Organic Rose Finn Fingerling Potato
• Provider or Blue Lake Green Bean
• Green onions

That sounds like a lot for a a 6' x 16' raised bed. I'll do succession planting for the lettuce and beans, then probably do some carrots in the fall. Hopefully I'll have a little more room in the garden since I'm hoping to plant the potatoes in a trash can so they can grow vertically. 

It's going to be a year for making salsa, so I plan to do at least 10 tomato plants. Amish Paste is a good solid tomato for salsa. Black Krim is the BEST tomato I've ever planted and really beautiful as well. 

A little bit of Endive and Kale goes a long way, so I don't plan to go crazy there. Although I may try to dehydrate my Kale this year to make my own green supplements, so maybe I can sneak in a few more plants than my husband would like.

I haven't planted the Rainbow Chard before, although I've purchased it at the farmer's market a few times. It's almost too pretty to eat. I'm not a "cut flower" kinda person, but I would totally put Rainbow Chard in a vase for a centerpiece. I've always had success with the Rhubard and Fordhook Chards, so I'm optimistic this variety will be a super star in the garden this year.

I can hardly wait for the season to start!!!