General Discussion > Throw Down the Gauntlet

Planting / Growing your own 2018

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clarkai:
I'm too excited to wait for the new year, so I jumped the gun to start this thread!

Why am I so excited? We bought a house last year, and I have a big, blank canvas with lots of good soil and light to work with. This year, I tracked our grocery purchases over the course of a few months, and used that to inform my garden decisions instead of just guesstimating what would be worthwhile to grow based off of (price per meal)*(number of meals we eat with that plant)*ease of growing, with the addition of things I just can't go without. So now it's a score based on (amount spent over the course of 3 months of shopping)*(how well it grows here) + (how much I want to grow it)^2. Not actually. But that's how I'm choosing to represent it here. I did make an excel file to help decide.

So this year, I'm starting from seed:

Spinach
Kale
Broccoli
Various uncommon greens like: minzuna, tatsoi, miner’s lettuce, perilla, turnip greens and vietnamese coriander.
Red bell peppers
Carrots
Red onions
Garlic
Fingerling and fancy potatoes
Herbs
Lemon cucumbers
Cherry and yellow pear tomatoes
Brussels sprouts
Basil
Artichokes
Bok choi
Asparagus

I've also got a front year that I'm going to fill with fruiting trees, bushes, and vines, so I need to plan that out before I order anything.

Some questions to get the thread going:

What are you growing this year?
Trying anything new this year?
What did you learn from past years?
Best tips to pass along.
Having problems?

sparkytheop:
I cheat by just helping provide labor for my parent's garden.  They have about a 2/3 acre garden, dad's retired, my mom loves "playing in the dirt", and I don't like to garden, so it works well. 

New this year:
Artichokes (I bought seeds for my mom to plant)
Saffron Crocus (I kept five for myself, and they actually started to grow, so we'll see if they survive the winter and give me some saffron next fall.  I gave 15 or 20 to my mom, and she's got them planted, but her's are almost guaranteed to grow.)

Parents do (all from seed):

Zucchini (makes awesome relish if anyone wants the recipe)
Tomatoes (several varieties)
Peppers (several varieties, nothing intentionally hotter than an Anaheim)
Carrots
Lettuce
Potatoes
Corn (if they can get the soil healthier-- it's really sandy here, so takes several years to build up good soil, and they've only had this house a few years)
Herbs
Snap peas
Green beans
Watermelon
Pumpkins
Cantaloupe

I'm sure there is a ton of stuff I can't think of.  We can a ton of stuff over the summer.

CodingHare:

--- Quote from: clarkai on December 28, 2017, 08:49:41 PM ---This year, I tracked our grocery purchases over the course of a few months, and used that to inform my garden decisions instead of just guesstimating what would be worthwhile to grow based off of (price per meal)*(number of meals we eat with that plant)*ease of growing, with the addition of things I just can't go without. So now it's a score based on (amount spent over the course of 3 months of shopping)*(how well it grows here) + (how much I want to grow it)^2. Not actually. But that's how I'm choosing to represent it here. I did make an excel file to help decide.
--- End quote ---

Very Mustachian! I'm still more on the guesstimating side, but I'd like to try tracking my veggie usage better this year.  Then I'll be able to improve my SWAGs as well.  :)

What are you growing this year?
Trying anything new this year?

My landlord left a bunch of large containers empty in the yard when she rented our house to us, so I'm making use of them this year!  As such, everything is brand new.  As a side bonus to the containers, expensive plants like blueberries will be haul-able to the next house instead of stuck at the rental.  (Mwahaha!)

Area Info: Pacific Northwest, Washington State, Plant Hardiness 8b
Experience Level: Journeyman Grower (My parents have a huge blueberry/veggie garden I used to help plant and maintain.)

Growing from Seed:
- Lots and lots of Basil because I live on pesto
- Purple Carrots
- Becco Pumpkins for the novelty of hull-less pumpkin seeds.

Full Plants:
- Tomatoes (Cherry, Early Slicer, Canning).  The boyfriend loves cherry tomatoes and slicers, so those are mostly for him.  I like tomato sauces, so the canners are for me.
- Blueberry plant - You haven't lived until you've had homemade blueberry syrup on pancakes.
- Strawberries

Keeping it small because the rental only has a small, shady patch out back for a garden.  I'm more focused on container friendly plants that will do well on our deck, which has better lighting.

RetiredAt63:
Snap and sugar peas. Easy to grow, expensive at the store. Do you like rhubarb? And are your winters cold enough?

Jenny Wren:
I needed to see a gardening thread right now, the snow has be down and seed catalogs haven't shown up yet! This is probably my last summer gardening here before we move and either sell or rent the house, so I need to make it count. I know what we eat from careful tracking over the last 10 years. We try to follow the rule that we don't eat anything we didn't grow and preserve unless it is within season within 200 miles of us or it stores well. So fresh produce has to be local, a storage item (like apples), or from the summer garden. There's a couple of exceptions on the list, like avocados and pineapple. Each year we get closer to achieving this goal.

We have eight 12*4 ft raised beds, this year I'm planning:

- 12 Tomato plants. This seems to be the perfect number. Four Cherokee purples, four Rutgers, and four plum. (Who am I kidding. A few more will sneak in once I go to the garden sale in spring.)

-Onions.

-Peas

-Ancho and gypsy peppers

-Spinach

-Leaf lettuce

-Zucchini!

-Tricolor green beans

-cabbage

-Brussels sprouts

-Cucumbers

New stuff:

I'm going to try more spring crops. Our springs are so persnickety. Broccoli for sure. Not sure what else yet.

Right now:

Garlic is out there right now, per usual. I'm also trying my hand at some winter gardening. I have turnips and kale in the cold frame. (Cold frame is simply an old storm door laid over one of the big beds.) I probably should knock the snow off when the sun starts to shine again.

Herbs:

I have a few perennials -- sage, thyme, chives, rosemary (potted so we can move it indoors). I'll probably grow basil. May also try cilantro, chamomile, and anything else that grabs my fancy.

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