This Year's Garden Plan, version 2017

The garden runs about 30 feet by 40 feet. Beds will be between 3-5 feet wide by 30 feet long. I'm being good this year and trying to rotate the plant locations with bed #1 being closest to the house.

Zucchini and summer squash plants might get big and ungainly but they'll keep the winter squash from encroaching on the bush bean bed. And once the bush beans have run their course, it'll become a melon bed.

Gardening in our neck of the woods depends on the spring rains, whether the soil ever dries out enough to allow tilling. And peppers have to be planted out early enough so they can set fruit before high nighttime temperatures sterilizes the pollen.

Last year was a disaster with the squirrel population playing havoc with the tomatoes, but it looks like hawks had moved in and cleaned them out. There hasn't been a single squirrel sighted all winter.

The 3 beds of tomatoes are probably overkill but it's insurance after last year. I'm hoping to put up lots of salsa, tomato soup, and tomatoes this year.

I actually just purchased some short tomato cages from a friend which will get used on the bushy determinate tomato plants and cucumbers. And later they can be used in the fall for short pea vines.

Bed 1:
Okra, cucumbers, pole beans

Bed 2:
Hot peppers and melons

Bed 3:
Tomatoes

Bed 4:
Tomatoes

Bed 5:
Tomatoes

Bed 6:
Bush beans, then melons

Bed 7:
Summer squash and zucchini

Bed 8:
Winter squash

2016 Vegetable Garden Plans

We are planning to rototill the whole yard so we can rake it flat and seed grass in non-garden areas. Then the back yard is going to get a privacy fence. We've been really lucky in terms of animals messing with the garden. We've seen 3 big dogs and numerous cats that hang out in the backyard. The cats were usually hanging out behind the pepper bed (probably hiding from dogs). There's been a few trodden beds and dug up holes but nothing major.

The garden at the old house wasn't fenced either and I caught a dog eating tomatoes, he looked old and hungry so I just left him alone. And there was a wild brown rabbit that was living under the bush bean bed, she was definitely eating well for awhile. That was a great gardening year where the weather was perfect and it was definitely "the year of the tomato". Peppers produced and produced, and some eggplant (aubergine) plants ended up taller than me by August.

We are completely out of salsa, so next year will be a salsa garden. The plan is 40 tomato plants, 20 jalapeno peppers, 5 serrano peppers, and 20 anaheims peppers. Last time I wasn't able to get anaheims nor serranos to germinate so substituted Hungarian Hot Wax and Santa Fe Grande (set your hair on fire hot). If I can get the peppers and tomatoes in the ground by the last week of April, I can plan on canning salsa by the end of July. That'll be early enough to let the peppers set fruit before the heat sets in the peppers start to drop blossoms.

Hot peppers can be tricky to germinate, so they'll needed to be started in February so I can figure out what's not germinating and move on. Once they germinate they get moved under 24 hour lights in my husband's workshop, it's very cold out there so they don't get spindly. And when it gets warm enough they'll spend daylight hours outside.

Asparagus and artichokes will get moved to their permanent bed, so that'll free up a bed for potatoes which will be followed by winter squash. A bed of broccoli will once again be trialled with turnips planted in their under-story like Daphne does and I'll be using BT. Once the bush beans are finished in July, Brussels sprout seedlings will be planted in that bed. Eggplant will share a bed with Borlotti bush beans  for shelly beans, and once the Borlotti beans are done they'll get replaced with a planting of carrots.