ahhh, its time to get started planning the new garden. The goal this year is mostly just to keep the deer out. After that is accomplished, well, I don't know what to expect, because I managed to grow some peppers last year despite the deer and that is about it.
My main goal after the deer is to get some squash going, Im not such a huge fan of summer squash, you know, yellow squash and zucchini. The reason is, my wife managed to name off two whole things that off of the top of her head could be made with zucchini. Seriously, that's it? Yup. Bread and they can be added to spaghetti. Ok, maybe our imaginations need more exercise, or we aren't overly experienced cooks, actually both are pretty much true.
On a side note, I have been told that Maglite flashlights are the only ones on the market that you can beat a man to death with, and they will still work.
Back to the squash. Most underdeveloped countries survive off of pumpkins and squashes. I don't feel that my family needs to survive because of them, but it would be nice to have more of them in our diet. Just simply eating more from our garden will have huge health benefits to our family, no matter what. We will simply be eating healthier. So, my squash garden will mostly consist of spaghetti, hubbard, acorn, butternut and whatever other cool varieties I can come across in the Gurney's catalog. After that I will plant some pumpkins of various types and sizes for the matter of simply growing pumpkins. I like the idea, so what if they go to waste. I can give them to my neighbors or whatever. I just like the idea. And for cry'n out loud, I'm tired of not having a hobby. I want something fun to do, so pumpkins and squash it is.
After I get down from my squash high, my actual favorite garden plant is the tomato. I don't care how big or what shade, I just love tomatoes. They make me happy. Last year I thought it would be a nice touch to let the deer eat all of them, so they did. Fun. I managed to harvest roughly a whole dozen tomatoes, of which, most of them were Roma. Roma is a stewing tomato, not a sandwich tomato, so let me retract my earlier statement about it not mattering which tomato. I need something with some flavor and zest and life to it. For whatever reason, Romas just don't do it for me.
The next item on the list, cucumbers. My wife loves cucumbers and frankly they go really good in the cucumber and tomato salad. I have had cucumber and tomato salad without the cucumbers and don't think it is quite as nice of a mix of flavors as with the cucumbers in it.
Peppers are on the list, but are not something I can't live without. Last year I had a fantastic crop of jalapeno peppers, of which nearly 10 got eaten, and that was because of a cream cheese experiment that didn't go too badly, but wasn't what I would chalk up to an actual success. The bells will probably be the thing that holds the most sway in my pepper section this year. I can see that they are actually useful in recipes without killing my families sensitive tongues. If you let them rippen enough, they are good enough to eat by themselves. Very nice. I will have to have a jalapeno plant anyway, I want to do some pickling and canning this year and have enjoyed pickled jalapeno's in the past. I want to try some banana peppers pickled as well. Last year they were grown without too much of a failure rate, but the bells were sweeter and better as a plain snack than the bananas were.
I want to try just for a fancy to try and grow some watermelons and cantaloupe. Last year my only surviving watermelon was fermenting, so when I cut into it to see what was going on, it exploded. My daughter lizzie then said in response to what I swore that, "Jesus Christ doesn't live in watermelons."
Sweet corn. I actually had a few ears come through of 4 different varieties. The only one that I didn't think was just so-so was the peaches and cream that my dad absolutely loves. It wasn't that it was sweeter or bigger or faster to mature, it wasn't as tough. I can only describe it as, it was more pleasant to bite into. I will be planting more of that this year.
Onions, can't say that I had any success with them. Oh well. I'll give it another shot this year, the thing that got me last year was that I took a hoe and dug into untilled earth with that - which didn't do much for the onion to be able to grow and mature, the ground was just too hard, and then they got choked out by weeds.
One of the most certain things that I am going to change this year, is that the minimum distance between the rows will be at a minimum equal to the width of my lawn mower. If I had been able to mow last year, the weeds wouldn't have been able to take over as easily - I think...
I don't plan on planting my potatoes in the ground very much - instead I am going to lay them on the ground and cover them up with a liberal layer of straw, and then do it again and again as they grow. This will allow for the most room for the tubers to grow and more importantly the easiest may to harvest them, ever.
I will certainly have some sunflowers, this is Kansas after all. And I hear that you can dry and sell the sunflower heads for $5 each to people that want to feed them to their birds. Fun Fun.
Lettuce was a success last year as well, for the most part. I will be doing that as well this year, however I will do a better job of spacing the growing season. Last year I did half at first and the second half 3 weeks later. I needed to stagger it by 1/8 the first week, 1/8 the second 1/8 the third to the eighth week, that way it isn't all going all at once and there is a steady supply instead of an all at once you better be ready to eat some salad.
The kids are about to be beaten, better get off my duff and go help brush some teeth. Please God, let them sleep tonight. More importantly let them not wake me up.
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