MUST PLANT!

Seed catalogs are coming in the mail. It has me thinking about what I will be planting this year. With such limited space I need to really be sure that I plant a lot of tried and true plants and limit my experimentation. These are the specific varieties of veggies that I've grown in the past, that I can really depend on every year, and wouldn't be without. These are all very disease resistant, heavy producers in my garden.

Here's my list of 'MUST PLANT!' varieties:

Tomatoes: Sun Gold, Celebrity, Jet Star, Kellogg's Breakfast
Cukes: Salad Bush
Radishes: Cherry Belle
Peppers: Fat n' Sassy bell peppers
Garlic: Music, German Extra Hardy
Lettuce: Little Gem, Jericho

I was wondering if any of you would share the varieties that you just have to plant each year.

Vegetables in the Garden

Tango celery - Harvested it too late last season. It turned hard and bitter. Unfortunately, it was ready when I wasn't. I'm ready this season. It already has harvestable stalks that I can use.
Salad Bush hybrid cucumber- Excellent variety. I've always had to order seed, but it is worth it. It stays quite compact with vines 3-4' long. Excellent flavor and very high yields. It is pumping out flowers. This is a real winner for containers or in the ground. My favorite cuke!

Russet Burbank, Yukon Gold, and a store bought potato used for seed. They are in 3 gallon containers from some shrubs I purchased last season. Behind them are my two composters. To the right is my new Black and Blue salvia plant to help attract some hummingbirds. In the front, long container are some strawberry plants recently purchased that will go into one of my 3'x3' raised beds in the fall.

Russet Burbank potato flowers. I hear that when the flowers bloom it's a good time to sneak out some new potatoes. I'm waiting until they get bigger.

Garlic varieties: Chesnok Red, Silver Rose, Killarney Red, Music, Extra German Hardy, Spanish Roja. They are getting close to harvest time. The foliage is just starting to die back. My Tango celery is in the same bed along with one lonely strawberry plant and some freshly planted carrots.

Mixed Gourds (the first three) and two Baby Bear Pumpkins climbing my new PVC and rebar trellis. Empress of India nasturtium and a self-sown marigold line the front.

Simpson Curled Lettuce

This is my "shell" garden, since I designed it in the shape of a shell. In contains two tomatoes (Isis Candy and Hillbilly) in the far back. A Long Storage Sampler of onions from Dixondale Farms. Three Salad Bush hybrid cucumber plants spaced approximately a foot apart. There are also assorted herbs, a marigold, Empress of India nasturtiums, and one Golden Acre cabbage at the bottom of the picture.

Serendipity Corn - Planted four per square in my square foot raised bed. We'll see how this works. I consider this my experimental bed.

Corn

Last night before some storms hit I harvested the rest of the romaine lettuce. I rinsed it off, left the roots attached, and placed them in a large bowl with some water in the bottom. They have been in the refrigerator all night and look as fresh as it did last night. I wish I had thought of that before.

With the lettuce harvested, and since the spinach has bolted from the excessive heat, I planted the corn that I started two weeks ago in a 72 cell tray under grow lights. They were planted yesterday evening as the clouds from the looming storm started to arrive. They endured the storm beautifully. Only two or three had leaves that were bent over. I'm guessing squirrels since one plant was dug up. I planted them 4 per square foot. I know many of you will think I'm nuts, but I wanted to see if it really would work.

Garden Pictures

Below is my backyard. It is on a very steep slope. This area used to be covered by a very large, diseased bush. That was removed when we moved in. Now this is my perennial and vegetable garden.
On the far left, drooped over by blossoms, is my Bristol Ruby weigela. There is a Pink Knockout rose in bloom to the right of the weigela.
On the far right is my Knockout rose and Pink Delight butterfly bush.
In the bad middle are two climbing roses, William Baffin. The thorns are vicious, but it's just starting to bloom. It will reach its peak very soon. It's very large arching canes work very well at filling in the empty air space below the blue spruces. The spruces won't allow anything to grow in that middle sections due to the canopy created by it's branches. The soil is bone dry. Baffin helps to fill in that area.
Although you can't tell from the picture, there are two large open areas. One on the back left (behind the Walker's Low nepeta) and in front of my Blue Hill salvia on the right. On the left I will be planting a hybrid, bush pumpkin with compact vines, Spirit. On the right I will be planting one Verde tomatillo and one Black Beauty zucchini.

These are my five square foot beds. From front to back I plan on using them for the following:

Bed #1 (front bed): Right now there is Jericho and Little Gem romaine and Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach. Soon it will be the bed used for my Serendipity sweet corn.

Beds #2-4 (the middle three) will hold my tomato plants. One plant in each corner and one in the middle. That's 5 tomatoes per bed.

Bed #5 (last bed) currently holds my garlic that was planted last fall in six squares (16 cloves per square). Another square holds a Fort Laraumie strawberry plant, and one will be for my celery (4 per square foot).

Normally I wouldn't say that thorns are pretty, but the thorns on my Golden Zest rose that I planted last season are quite breathtaking. Who knew?

These are my onions from Dixondale Farms. The long day storage sampler. They are all doing beautifully. I think my first time growing onions from starts is going to turn out very well. The black plastic is just leftover weed barrier that I didn't fully get around to pulling up yet.

:)

Little Marvel peas. These are the peas that my son planted in his large container. They are performing better than any of the other three varieties planted around the garden. I wouldn't exactly call these peas little though. The vines are already over two feet tall. They are very vigorous and blooming heavily. It's great that my son is having such good garden success his first time around!

Lady Emma Hamilton rose by David Austin. These flowers really pop in the garden. They look like little bursts of flame. They have a strong citrus fragrance. I can't wait to bring some of these indoors. As you can see in the picture, the aphid infestation that has subsided left behind some damage to a few of the leaves.

Immaculee peony. I purchased this peony on clearance at the grocery store last season. It has a light-moderate spicy fragrance. It isn't fully open yet, but I wanted to get a picture in case the thunderstorms knock it down tomorrow.

I call this picture 'Wishful Thinking'. It is one of my five new hummingbird feeders (for a total of six). Every year I only have a couple of sightings. I'm determined to see more! Not only have I purchased the feeders, but I planted some Jacob Cline monarda and red impatiens. I've also have Flare salvia and Empress of India nasturtium ready to plant once the weather stabilizes a bit more. They seem to like my Royal Red butterfly bush in past seasons. My Magnifica coral honeysuckle is blooming heavily right now, but I haven't had a sighting yet. That doesn't mean much though since it is on the side of the house that doesn't get paid much attention.

Potatoes, Strawberries, and Seedlings

POST NUMBER TWO FOR TODAY.

Below, in the left box, are some of the Little Gem and Jericho romaine lettuce plants my son and I are growing this season. I planted these varieties for the first time last year, and they were excellent. Easy to grow. Fantastic flavor. Slow to bolt. Five star varieties.

To the right is Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach that my son started. The spinach seemed to appreciate being started outdoors rather than indoors. Germination was much higher outdoors. Go figure. This is the first time I've tried to grow spinach. Just trying to introduce my family to more healthy foods. I'll sneak the spinach into salads. The kids will never know. The husband may be more difficult. :)

Yes, I realize the picture is sideways. :) I didn't realize it until it was downloaded. With this old computer, it's not worth the time to flip it and download it again. Anyway...this is a store bought potato that sprouted in my composter. It appeared so healthy and vigorous that I decided to have a little fun with it. I planted it in this 2-3 gallon container. What could it hurt? Days after planting this potato, I purchased some potato seed at Lowes. Six seed potatoes for Burbank Russet potatoes for less than $4. (I wanted Yukon Gold but they were sold out). Last year was a first for garlic. This will be the year of the potato!

Florian Strawberries- Started from seed purchased at Thompson and Morgan in the beginning of last season. I only got to try two or three berries. The squirrels ate the rest. These have a beautiful pink blossom and small, sweet berries.

Here are my grow lights. Tomatoes are on the top left. Peppers primarily below them. Mostly annuals and perennials are under the right set of lights. These lights were one of my best investments in my garden along with my raised beds.

Here is an up close look at my tomatoes. Primarily heirlooms. There is a Tango celery and Florence fennel plant in the front left of the photo.

Lettuce

I have never harvested lettuce seed before. In fact, this was my first year of seriously trying to grow lettuce. Turns out it's not very difficult. Little Gem and Jericho romaine lettuce were my experiment for this season. They held up beautifully to the crazy weather we had and were slow to bolt. I let some of my lettuce from the summer go to seed. I wasn't sure how viable the seed would be, so I saved some and sprinkled the rest on two of my empty raised beds. I guess the seed is good, because I have a lettuce field growing out there! I never expected such good results, so I didn't take the time to space the seed. I'm just going to let it go and see what happens. If I really wanted them spaced half decently, I would be there half the day pulling the extras out. These are two great varieties of lettuce. Highly recommended!

Square Foot Gardens

I have three 3' x 3' raised beds that are new to my garden this season.

Bed #1 Contains the Following:

Alaska Peas

Sugar Snap Peas

Burpeeana Peas

Citadel Peas

Mr. Big Peas

Sandul Moldovan tomato from a cutting (back, right corner)

Mucho Nacho jalapeno (left, middle)

Bed #2 Contains the Following:

8 Fat n' Sassy Bell Peppers
1 Mucho Nacho jalapeno pepper (front, right)

Bed #3 Contains the Following:

Middle Square- currently empty (Jericho and Little Gem romaine lettuce is being started indoors for the square)

Clockwise starting in back, left:

Salad Bush cucumbers reluctantly climbing up tomato trellis

Black Krim cutting

Recently planted Cherry Belle radishes

Evergreen White Bunching Onions

1 Tango Celery and Scarlet Nantes carrots (freshly planted)

1 Tango Celery (leaving it bolt) and Chantenay carrots (freshly planted)

4 Tango Celery (freshly planted)

1 Tango Celery (freshly planted); 2 romaine lettuce left to bolt.

My Square Foot Garden

This is my first year doing square foot gardening. At the end of last season I purchased three raised beds. In the fall I started many types of garlic in one bed (8 of 9 squares). I planted 9 per square foot. Also in that bed is a Mucho Nacho jalapeno pepper plant.

The middle bed has eight Fat n' Sassy bell pepper plants and one Mucho Nacho jalapeno plant.

The front bed contains Jericho and Little Gem romaine lettuce (4 per square), Simpson Elite lettuce (9 per square), Scarlet Nantes carrots (16 per square), Tango celery (4 per square), Salad Bush cucumbers (2 per square), and bunching scallions (16 per square).

Overall assessment: After a fall and winter of squirrels digging up the garlic cloves, they seem to be doing well. The beds dry out quickly so plan on watering daily. Growing your own lettuce is surprisingly easy and WAY cheaper.