2013 Spring Garden Thread

[Guest USMC 2013]

I just got starter trays in for my 2013 spring garden so I figured I'd start a post.  For early spring I am going to plant a lot of cabbage, chinese cabbage, beets, carrots, turnips, radish and a couple varities of lettuce.

 

Main season crops will  be cherry tomatoes, roma tomoatoes, green beans, new mexico green chili, jalapenos, bell peppers, zuchini, sunflowers and lots of herbs. 

 

Late season will be cool weather crops again and lots of pumpkins.  My focus is on stuff that is expensive, or hard to get.  For example, the zuchini I am growing is a heirloom variety that grows a little smaller and tastes much better than regular zuchini.  Good lettuce, not iceberg, is expensive in the store so that is another crop I am growing for myself.  The rest of the stuff I am growing because I like too and it is stuff that can be canned easily.

 

What's everyone else planning?

 

Joe

[vontar]

I am going with cherry tomatoes, green beans, corn, peppers.

 

Not sure how much I am going to grow due to limited space but I am going to try to grew items together as much as I can.

 

I also plan to grow from heirloom seeds.

[Dennis1209]

It's not going to be the 300 linear yards of green beans and 42 tomato plants I did last year, that's for sure. It was spring and I got carried away. As it turns out, after 40 years of planting tomato's, this was the best and biggest crop I've ever seen! The first month (the ones the bugs and critters didn't get to) were as big or bigger than soft balls, and dozens of them!

 

I canned enough green beans, tomatoes, tomato paste, spaghetti sauce to last two years.

 

With just the two of us, I planted 8 zuchinni plants, half of them three weeks apart. I'll be dog gone if they didn't all start producing at the same time? We couldn't find enough people to give them away.

 

This spring my goal is to plant enough spinach and greens to can a lot for next winter, and there is the problem. All greens are not created equal and I really only like one type. I don't remember if it's turnip greens, collard greens or the other one I can't think of?

 

What really burns my behind... Me loves sweet potato's, watermellon and canaulope, like craving and dreaming about producing my own.

 

Sweet potato's are out... Planted them three years in a row, and when the leaves start to look really wonderful and go out the next day... Where the heck did I plant the sweet potato's? The deer eat everything to the ground!

 

Canaloupe same thing. When they are ripe and about ready to pick, I go out and they are destroyed. The deer use their hooves to smash them open and eat them, Bad, Bad deer!

 

Watermelon? I'm here to tell you about watermelon, no problem with the deer on this one! Nine out of ten watermelon I pick are not ripe and only have a core that is red and delicious. I've left them alone until their umbilical vine has dried up and still not ripe. Hell, I can't even pick a ripe one up that's suppose to be nice and ripe from the road side vendor? I've thumped them until the cows come home and asked advice. I've got forty (40) years trying to figure out how to determine if a watermelon is ripe or not with no success. So, I've come to the conclusion, it's not possible for anyone short of x-ray vision to determine it. Don't need no advice on this one gentleman!

 

Loves me some carrots too! One of the few vegetables I never have much luck with, as they are mostly stunted and slightly bigger than baby carrots. Probably because I'm too lazy to thin them out once above the soil.

 

Anyway, garden produce is delicious and reduces the grocery bill and I'm excited to get at it this spring again.

 

BTW. My potatoes did pretty well last year (first time try).

[UncleJak]

I plan on radishes and peppers only this year.  I may get a tomato plant, but not in the garden.

[Guest TNSovereignty]

I plant about a quarter-acre.  Last year our new trials were peanuts & popcorn ... both did great & will be doing again.  I've yet to have success with snow peas; maybe I'm not planting early enough - Feb?  Last year I did 70 tomato plants & we put up about 300 quarts but this year I'll scale that back a bit.  Eight mouths to feed in this family though.  Then we do the smattering of all the other veggies.

 

Here's a great treat ... plant some cherry tomatoes, let them get good & ripe, then slice in half & dehydrate.  If you like sun-dried tomatoes you'll love this ... I probably dried enough for 3 years last season.  

 

New stuff this year - I want to try some grains - primarily for animal feed.  Also mangel beets.  

[Wingshooter]

I am looking forward to a garden this year. We purchased about 40ac this fall and the old Ford tractor is ready to do some diggin'. My grandfather was a very good gardener, but unfortunately I did not ask enough questions about it while he was around. I'll have a learning curve ahead of me, so any tips and "tricks" are appreciated.

 

I plan to keep it simple and limited this first year until I figure out what I'm doing. I'm not sure what size and how many different plants to put out yet. Eventually, I would like to grow some green beans, carrots, potatoes, lettuce, broccoli, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, sweet potatoes, peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon, and a little corn. Some herbs too. In the fall I hope my garden "produces" some venison, because it seems like the perfect food plot for bowhunting.

 

I also intend to plant a small orchard of fruit trees. Primarily apple and peach :yum:

 

My wife is very interested in learning to can, so it might be a busy summer for us and the kids. At least it will keep them off the couch and ipad :pleased:

 

 

Good thread!