GARDEN PLANS

We finalized our seed order the first week of January and some of it should be arriving in the next week. I really thought it would be easy. Flip a few pages, pick some neat things and be done....man it was tough. Finding plants that will thrive or even survive in our zone, choosing from early, mid to late harvest, hybrid versus heirloom, etc. I am sooooo excited to be planting our test garden this year at the cabin. It still amazes me to put a tiny seed in the ground and have plants and food come from it! I am in awe of the process!

We ordered the following from Vesey's:
Asparagus - Guelph Millenium - 72 roots It takes at least 2 years to get a crop, so we're getting a jumpstart.
Yellow beans - Gold Rush, Gold Mine, Indy Gold
Beets - Detroit Dark Red Supreme. I made pickled beets this past year for the first time and will definitely do up a whopper of a batch this fall.
Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Cauliflower, Celery - I originally had them on the list, but we decided to put more energy and money into berry plants.
Carrots - Napoli, Resistafly
Corn - Spring Treat, Applause, Honey Select. This package had different qualities and harvest times.
Cucumbers - Calypso Pickling. We'll try our own pickles this year too.
Garlic - Spring Garlic Sets and Fall Garlic Sets
Leeks - Giant Musselburgh Heirloom
Lettuce - Baby Leaf, Sangria, Paris Island
Onions (green) - Parade
Onions - Red Beauty
Peas - Lincoln Heirloom
Peas - Dakota, Dual, Wando. Lots and lots of peas...
Potatoes - Norland (red) and Yukon Gold. Our soil is soooo set up for growing potatoes.
Radishes - French Breakfast Heirloom. These were a funny shape.
Spinach - Tortoiseshell

For the tomatoes and peppers, I opted for starter plants that will be shipped here in the spring:
Tomatoes - Applause - 6 plants
Tomatoes - Red Alert (cherry size) - 3 plants
Tomatoes - Window Box Roma (dwarf plants) - 3 plants
Peppers - Carmen, Fat n Sassy - total of 6 plants

Since berries take a long time to fruit, we ordered up a bunch to get a headstart:
Strawberries - Veestar - 50 plants
Strawberries - Cabot - 50 plants
Strawberries - Seascape - 50 plants
Strawberries - Kent - 75 plants

Raspberries - Boyne - 9 plants

Blueberries - Blueray, Bluecrop - total of 6 plants
Blueberries - Chippewa - 1 plant

Rhubarb - Crimson Cherry - 1 plant Must have a strawberry/rhubarb pie.

I don't know enough about herbs. I can see us studying them in detail...but just not yet. So I ordered what I do know and use a lot of:
Chives
Basil
Parsley

We also ordered flowers for the garden. I don't know if it's really true, but Marigolds - the French type - are supposed to repel bad critters. Order 1000, I said:
Yellow Boy French Marigold
Early Russian Heirloom Sunflowers - just because they're so beautiful

We already have 6 ancient apple trees on the farm but we thought we'd get a few more fruit trees to round them out. We found a guy near Sudbury (Ron Lewis) who specializes in really hardy fruit trees. They come in from Manitoba and Saskatchewan - yup should be hardy! lol Since he doesn't know what will be available until the spring, I can't give you the names of the trees just yet. But, we will order:
Apple trees - 6
Pear trees - 4
Cherry - 2
Cherry Plum - 2

I think it will be a good start...a real learning curve for sure!