...

dreaming and planning

Yes, we do still have patches of snow on the ground.

But the snowdrops are starting to push their way up, and my herbs are springing back to life, and my favourite seed catalogue arrived. What's a girl to do? Plan this year's garden, of course.
garden - june 2008
We have big plans this year - planting a small orchard and adding four new raised beds for vegetables.

Todd and I spent the weekend discussing fruit trees. How many? Where? Which types? We poured over info from Le Couteau Farms. So far, we are considering two cherry trees (either Rainier, Van, or Bing), two pear trees (Anjou and Bartlett), and a Yellow Egg plum tree. Todd received a MacIntosh apple tree from the girls for Father's Day last year. We thought we'd get another apple tree to help with pollination. Other early bloomers we like are: Empire, Fuji, Gala, Honey Crisp, and Spartans. Anyone have experience with these any of these apple trees?
garden - july 2008
As for the vegetable garden. Even with the new beds, I know that I'll want more room!
Here's my seed list:
  • blue lake pole beans
  • edemame beans
  • jade bush beans
  • bolero carrots
  • nelson carrots
  • sultan cucumbers
  • lemon cucumbers
  • red russian kale
  • letttuce
  • arugula
  • mache
  • conserver shallots
  • ching chiang pac choi
  • galena peas
  • alderman peas
  • super suger snap peas
  • jalapeno peppers
  • potatoes
  • gem zucchini
  • sunbrust zucchini
  • gold rush zucchini
  • bright lights swiss chard
  • stupice tomatoes
  • prudens purple tomatoes
  • sungold tomatoes
  • sweet basil
  • fern leaf dill
  • cilantro

Yup. I need a bigger garden. Come on spring - I'm waitin' on ya.

(These photos are of last year's garden).

5 comments:

  1. so jealous. i would love to grow stuff but i manage to kill everything i touch. and i'm too cheap to buy stuff that i will probably kill.

    i really want to grow grapefruit. i don't know if it's possible but we eat so much of it, i think it would save a small fortune!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Heidi. Growing grapefruit! I'm jealous that you will get to try in beautiful SoCal.

    ReplyDelete
  3. an orchard, that's great. my mother has a small one. as a child i always felt so proud of the beautiful fruit i could pick myself. well, i only picked and ate and cooked with it, i have no idea about what it takes to grow trees that bear delicious fruit and provide shade and beauty.

    we had plums, apricots and pears aplenty, but no luck with apples and cherries and i really love apples, in fact fuji and breaburn arem y favourite sorts.

    my mother has one plum tree and two pear trees. the pears are just enough to eat them as they ripen, bur the plums are too plentiful. i know the harvest is different for every sort of
    particular fruit, but sadly, i have no idea what sorts she has.

    there are three apricot trees but one bears more fruit than the other two together.

    i know this isn't helping much...i just went down the memory lane. thanks for waking up my fond memories!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's awesome! And I like how lemon cucumbers are on your list. I haven't had any luck with them here (I think the rodents go for them even earlier than beans) but whenever I mention the little round cuc's people think I'm crazy. Our neighbour grew them for his grand kids when we were little and he'd share with us every once in a while. They're so cool!

    happy planting and good luck with the trees. My mom found them a royal pain in the but for over a decade but that's in part because the trees were labelled incorrectly and she ended up with not enough pears or something. Can't wait to hear how things go!

    ReplyDelete