Spring is on the horizon, and what could be more exciting than planning your summer garden? There are some things we could be planting right now- peas, potatoes, onions, brassicas, but we have so many collards and cabbages still growing from fall that I don’t even feel like putting the energy into thinking about where to even put spring plants. So, we’re focusing on summer and putting that energy into reconfiguring our garden to maximize space. We are in zone 7b with the last frost date scheduled for April 4. Ironically, it was the same last year. We should begin seeds about 6 weeks ahead of the last frost, so we are a little late. Yet, we at least got started. Last weekend we planted tomatoes and peppers. We introduced a few heirlooms to the garden last year. While the bold, earthy flavors of Cherokee Purple and Paul Robeson could not be beat, the hybrids we grow are tried and true. You simply can’t go wrong with Better Boy or Big Boy. They produce nice sized, uniform fruit all season long, and our results were favorable. So all of these will definitely return to the garden this year. We’ve heard some great things about Granny Cantrell, but they didn’t do so well for us. All is not lost. We will give them a second chance. If they don’t produce this year, we’ll be swapping them cross country for something more productive. Tomatoes are one of our favorite things to grow, so we decided to plant just a few more varieties to round out our experiment. We’ve managed to collect over 50 different types of large slicers, cherry sized, and even green tomatoes. Among the plants debuting this year we have Kellogg’s Breakfast, Aunt Ruby’s Green, Mortgage Lifter, Pink Brandywine, Black Krim and Chadwick Cherry. These are all heirlooms with their own stories. This weekend we added cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, and squash with herbs and a few melons to follow next weekend. We spent just as much time deliberating over cukes and melons as we did tomatoes. Since we ran out of bread and butter pickles and relish, we definitely wanted to be sure we had enough national pickling cukes to replenish. For fresh eating and salads, we chose Marketmore and Yomato.
We’ve done a great deal of research on squash borer resistant varieties, so we will definitely be offering a part 2 to last year’s post about squash. I wish we had done some comparable research on the pickle worm- another garden nightmare! But at least we got enough cucumbers for pickles and relish before that troublesome pest took over. So, as I wrap this up, we got so busy with personal matters these past few months that we didn’t get around to getting our greenhouse erected. That has been put on the to-do list for this spring and summer. That means we are growing in the garage again. Our plants were a little leggy last year which can cut their chances of surviving the heat of the early spring sun here in the south. This year we added heat mats and grow lights to help our plants get off to a healthy start. Happy growing!
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AuthorI'm a wife, mother, daughter, educator, writer and hobby farmer. Welcome to my world of simply living. Archives
December 2023
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