Always Learning

I am always learning about gardening. I consider myself an expert flower gardener, having been doing that for over 20 years now. I still find out new things about old plants that surprise me. I think that is part of what I love about gardening. I am always learning.

Vegetable gardening is relatively new to me. This year will only be my third year at trying them. I have grown previous crops in my flower garden, between the flowers and also in containers. This will be the first year for me to have a proper kitchen garden and the crops I am planning are much more than I have tried before. It is a lofty goal for a flower gardener.

Organic Gardening has a wonderful article on succession planting which is a concept I plan to try next year. This year, my kitchen garden is new and I am not yet certain where or what size it will be so making a plan for succession planting feels beyond what I can accomplish quickly. But there was a fantastic tip in the article that I plan to use:

• Vegetables that belong to the same plant family (such as cabbage, mustard, and kale) share pests and diseases. It's wise to keep in mind what family a vegetable belongs to and avoid planting one member, say tomatoes, in the same spot where a cousin—peppers, eggplants, potatoes, or tomatillos—grew in the previous 3 years.

This is a great tip for me because potatoes and tomatoes are among the crops I have grown in the past and my tomatoes were wiped out by blight. Now I know that no matter where I have my new kitchen garden dug, I want to plant the tomatoes in a different place than I grew them last year. I would love to be able to eat my crop this year!

Starting Seeds This Season?

I keep going back and forth on whether I am going to start seeds inside this year or not. I would rather not but we have such a short growing season, the list of what I can't grow is huge. I am still undecided but that can't last much longer - spring is coming!

If you are planning on starting seeds, there is a good article that contains a simple seed starting plan at Organic Gardening. It also has how to instructions for making your own seed starting mix and newspaper seedling pots.

Kitchen Garden

Ever since we decided to move fencing this year, I have been planning my kitchen garden. Yesterday, I found all my seeds and pulled out the companion planting book so I could come up with a planting plan. So far, I have decided to plant the carrots, radish and onion together and the garlic with the roses. The roses are more important to me than the garlic but I will likely plant more garlic inside the fence for eating. January isn't over and they say February is going to get cold but I am feeling the excitement of spring!