Garden plans

If you would have asked me last year at this time when I wrote this post, I would have said that I would plant almost exactly the same thing the following year.  Not much changes in my garden from year to year.  Well, so much for that.

Things have changed quite a bit since last February.  My husband’s chronic health problems and food allergies have pretty much shot a hole in my garden plan.  He is almost poisoned by potatoes, so I have to can grow less spuds.  Also on the solanum list for him is tomatoes, not quite the poison factor here, but let’s just say I won’t have to be  growing  so many tomatoes.   (I guess I didn’t need those greenhouses after all.)   This also shoots a hole in my growing most of our own food plan also – we ate a lot of potatoes, now he eats rice instead.  And no, I’m not planning on growing rice for him.

What will I change this year?  Looking at what we have been eating I can see some real lifesavers.  Namely my Sweet Meat squash, and the celery root.  I have been substituting the celery root for potatoes in my soups, the flavor is mild and I dunno, I just need to see white chunks in my soup!  As for the squash (I know Jenny, I do go on and on about the squash) I eat some every day, and it is a vegetable that my husband likes and will eat.  

The other thing I’m thinking of dropping may be brussels sprouts, or maybe just growing less, I’m finding that with the kale and cabbage and kohlrabi, we are not eating much of the broccoli I froze, and the brussels sprouts are just a pain to fix.  I grew enough to freeze but that never happened.  I cut them before the really cold weather, stored them in a straw bale root cellar and then I ended up feeding them to the chickens.  The jury is still out on the brussels sprouts though, since that is Ruth Less’ request, so I may not be able to wiggle out of growing them so easy.  She eats cabbage every day for lunch, so maybe a stint peeling and preparing brussels sprouts would cure her… .   She’s too old for me to tell her a cabbage is just a giant brussels sprout. 

I’m almost 99% sure the insurance in NOT going to cover any greenhouse repairs, and with the shape the economy is in, I’m not about to take money out of savings to build a greenhouse.  We will get by and manage without it.  The greenhouses were refinements to our system, not necessities – so wistful I am, but as I have mentioned before, I have gardened more years without a greenhouse at my disposal, than with one.  One thing that will be on hold is Ruth Less’ plant start business.  She always made a killing selling organic vegetable starts, but she was tiring of it, and this will give her a breather.  Maybe when she looks at her bank account she will be a little more enthusiastic come next year.  

I am planning on starting my tomatoes and peppers the first week in March and some greens then too.  If that seems late, I have learned not to waste my seeds and plants by starting too early.  The first week in March seems to give us the best results most years.

So I guess if you want a variety/source list, check that post mentioned above and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to pick my brain.

fibertia

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