sunny donkey herder on Nostr: Oh my god, winter garden planning is like the worst type of traveling salesman ...
Oh my god, winter garden planning is like the worst type of traveling salesman problem. My garden layout is the opposite of Richroll’s beautiful rectangle of topsoil. I’ve got 27 small beds (4’x8’ or 4x10), 8 larger terraces (all 8’ wide, ranging from 10-25’ long), and the corn patch. Our property is on a gentle slope with shitty native clay, and putting in dozens of beds seemed like the best option. And honestly, a big half-planted rectangle would be just as confusing to me at this stage.
I’ve decided on my fall/winter crops: beets, purple sprouting broccoli, three types of cabbage, fava beans, rutabagas, kohlrabi, carrots, radicchio, and turnips. Maybe fall broccoli too, if I can ever finalize a Plan. (Already living in their own beds: kale, cilantro, and sunchokes.)
Favas go in last, in October. Garlic needs to be back in the ground a little before them. August is a big month, when I’ll transplant the psb, cabbage, kohlrabi, raddicio, and broccoli(?). I’ll sow the rutabagas later this month, and I’ve got the supplies to make another carrot pot.
Some of these little dudes want to be direct sown at their particular time. Some of them are happy to spend a month or so in seedling pots. The cabbage, psb, and radicchio are already sprouting on the wheelie bin nursery. I think the beets are the only thing that needs to be direct sown right now, so at least that’s done.
I’m counting on the favas as my direct-sow fall bed-fillers, for whatever hasn’t finished up by the end of August. I don’t know! but I think the dry beans and field corn will take ages to finish, so their patch will probably go to favas over winter. I think all the potatoes should finish in time to put seedlings in the terraces in August.
But it’s time to cull too. We’ve had an endless cold spring, with a record setting cold June, and a lot of my heat loving crops just aren’t gonna make it. Half of the tomatoes look truly great and the other half are starting to perk up. The month old basil seedlings are dying from chill. The peppers are largely a loss - I think one Peace Bell might go for it. The eggplant sulked until the lows finally got above 50f but now one of them is blooming! Two of the bean beds looked yellowing and puny, so I side dressed them with good aged compost and I think they’re already perking up. Most of the garlic looks terrible, but I keep reminding myself that most of it is an *experiment* that *I* set up. I’m growing some bulbs from last year’s bulbils, the fingernail sized bulbs that form in the scapes. They should grow into marble sized roundels this year and, if I replant them *again,* full size bulbs next summer.
#gardening #tldr
I’ve decided on my fall/winter crops: beets, purple sprouting broccoli, three types of cabbage, fava beans, rutabagas, kohlrabi, carrots, radicchio, and turnips. Maybe fall broccoli too, if I can ever finalize a Plan. (Already living in their own beds: kale, cilantro, and sunchokes.)
Favas go in last, in October. Garlic needs to be back in the ground a little before them. August is a big month, when I’ll transplant the psb, cabbage, kohlrabi, raddicio, and broccoli(?). I’ll sow the rutabagas later this month, and I’ve got the supplies to make another carrot pot.
Some of these little dudes want to be direct sown at their particular time. Some of them are happy to spend a month or so in seedling pots. The cabbage, psb, and radicchio are already sprouting on the wheelie bin nursery. I think the beets are the only thing that needs to be direct sown right now, so at least that’s done.
I’m counting on the favas as my direct-sow fall bed-fillers, for whatever hasn’t finished up by the end of August. I don’t know! but I think the dry beans and field corn will take ages to finish, so their patch will probably go to favas over winter. I think all the potatoes should finish in time to put seedlings in the terraces in August.
But it’s time to cull too. We’ve had an endless cold spring, with a record setting cold June, and a lot of my heat loving crops just aren’t gonna make it. Half of the tomatoes look truly great and the other half are starting to perk up. The month old basil seedlings are dying from chill. The peppers are largely a loss - I think one Peace Bell might go for it. The eggplant sulked until the lows finally got above 50f but now one of them is blooming! Two of the bean beds looked yellowing and puny, so I side dressed them with good aged compost and I think they’re already perking up. Most of the garlic looks terrible, but I keep reminding myself that most of it is an *experiment* that *I* set up. I’m growing some bulbs from last year’s bulbils, the fingernail sized bulbs that form in the scapes. They should grow into marble sized roundels this year and, if I replant them *again,* full size bulbs next summer.
#gardening #tldr