2009 Veggie Garden Planning

For many of us that have home gardens, this time of year we're all receiving all sorts of seed catalogs encouraging us to begin thinking about our 2009 vegetable gardens. I took some time today to sit down and browse through the catalogs I've received (9 of them all from different companies!) and do some quick sketches of some possible garden plans. I'll be putting in my orders here soon - hopefully over the weekend - since I've been hearing and reading a lot of rumors of a potential seed shortage for home gardeners this year... with the tough economy, more people are turning to growing their own food. Just a small heads-up to those of you faithful gardeners out there... don't wait too long to order your seeds, just in case.

I'd still consider myself a novice veggie gardener - 2008 was my first real veggie garden and it was a small one (about 12'x12'). I've had many different container gardens on the patios of my different apartments in college, but I don't really count those. We're fortunate to have quite a bit of space for gardens (and lots of other different things, too). We have about five and a half acres, three of which we maintain. For those familiar with our property, we'll be putting the garden out behind the fenced part of the yard, kind of out by the home orchard. We have lots of open space back there, so the garden will get pretty much full sun all day long. Having so much space is very tempting to go all out (which after reading through my post, to some our plans may seem all-out, but we really have scaled them back a lot), but I'm trying to keep it limited to something that I think I can (hopefully) maintain. I think that my Grandpa is letting us keep his small rototiller over here again this year, so we'll just be planning for wider row spacing so the tiller can do a good majority of the weeding work for me this year. :)

As you may know, we're not totally sure how long we'll actually be living in the area - Kevin still hasn't heard anything definite on a job transfer, but is supposed to hear something in January possibly. So this past fall, I wasn't even sure I'd have a garden in 2009. Even though everything is still up in the air, I'm pretty sure we won't be selling our house before the end of the harvest next fall. The market just isn't right for it right now. We had originally planned to invest in a few blueberry bushes and a strawberry patch this spring, but with all of the uncertainty over where we'll be living in the years to come, I'm going to hold off on that till we hear something more on Kevin's job situation.

This year I'll be trying lots of new veggies - at least new to me anyway. Last year, I just had the basics - tomatoes, green beans, green zucchini, butternut squash, green peppers, jalapenos, romaine/buttercrunch/mesclun lettuces, cucumbers, scallions, onions, and herbs (chives, oregano, parsley, basil, sage, rosemary, thyme, cilantro). So I'll be expanding my horizons as far as veggies go this year. Here's what I'll be planting in 2009:

Potatoes - We'll have one 25'x4' garden just for the potatoes. It'll be my first time growing any potatoes. I'm going to do Yukon Golds and Red Pontiacs. I decided against doing sweet potatoes this year. Just seems like potato overload to me, especially when only Carson and I like them.

Sweet Corn - We'll have one 25'x4' garden just for the sweet corn. This will be my first time growing any corn.

We'll have another large garden (haven't figured out the total dimensions, but most likely it'll be somewhere between 24'x24' and 30'x30') with the following:
Cabbage - three different mini-head types (red, green, savoy)
Carrots - two different types (nantes and a rainbow hybrid trio)
Parsnips
Lettuce - just doing Buttercrunch this year since it was our favorite last year.
Spinach
Onions - some sweet white ones
Leeks
Peppers - green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, and banana peppers
Tomatoes - I've decided to just do Roma tomatoes (San Marzanos) since I had such good luck with them last year and we don't really eat many fresh tomatoes, just use them for sauces, so Romas are the way to go for that.
Dill
Cucumbers - some slicing cukes and some pickling cukes
Beans - yellow wax and green snap beans, as well as some beans to dry (black turtles for sure, probably some sort of pinto, and possibly cannelini)... the beans to dry will possibly go in their own separate garden, probably another 25'x4' space.
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Okra
Zucchini - both yellow and green ones
Squash - either butternut or delicata, haven't decided yet
Melons - cantaloupes and watermelons
Herbs - basil, parsley, thyme, sage, rosemary, chives, oregano

I am also exploring the idea of growing some of my own grains this year - millet is a strong possibility, not sure on the others yet since I haven't had a lot of time to look into it.

So there's my list. It might seem like a ton of stuff to some, but everything in the large garden will be limited in the space we are allocating for that particular veggie. Some veggies we don't need a ton of plants - like cabbage... we can only eat so much cabbage, so a 4'x4' area for the cabbage will be sufficient for us.

Anyway, I'd love to hear what your garden plans are - if you've begun thinking of them. Also whether you've grown some of the veggies I'll be growing for the first time this year and what you thought of them... and especially if you've grown your own grains!