HAPPY NEW YEAR!
The holiday decorations have been put away and an entire new year stretches before us. While my husband spends the day watching football, I will be busy reading through my new seed catalogs trying to decide what I want to plant this year.
Even though it is cold outside and I am wearing a sweater and warm slippers – in my mind’s eye, I am walking through my garden enjoying all the beautiful vegetables growing. It’s almost enough to make me feel warm 
So what do I want to plant this year?
I love picking green beans in summer. My kids actually eat these vegetables, so I must plant more this year. I do need to keep an eye on their leaves though since spider mites seem to like to eat them.
I love growing tomatoes and have grown sauce tomatoes the past few years.
This year, I think I will try cherry tomatoes because they are great in salads and my kids love to eat them straight off the vine. Of course, I do want some sauce tomatoes so I’ll plant some Romas.
What type of tomatoes do you like to grow?
My bell pepper plants did very well this past year. But, I think that I would like to branch in 2013. I will plant some jalapeños, which my daughter will eat off the plant. She loves ‘spicy’.
In addition to vegetables, I will be ordering sunflower seeds for my garden. I want to try a variety that produces nice-size seeds for both my kids and also for the birds.
The birds just loved eating the seeds from the sunflower seed heads last summer.
Did you know that sunflowers also provide shade for the garden? Plant them so that they can provide afternoon shade to sun-sensitive plants such as tomatoes or cucumbers.
Every year, I like to try something new in the garden. So I will be trying out the following new vegetables…
Corn that can be grown in a container - On Deck Hybrid
Carrots that grow well in a container - Chantenay
I also purchased bush beans, regular sweet corn ‘Sun & Stars Bicolor’, Summer Squash (Zucchini), white pumpkin seeds (Lumina), cucumber ‘Sweet Success’ and Sunflower seed ‘Mammoth’. I selected cherry tomatoes ‘Gardener’s Delight’ and ‘Roma’ tomatoes.
Lastly, I chose a blend of leaf lettuce ‘Heatwave’ that will handle the heat, which is important when you garden in the desert like I do.
**So, what will you plant this year in your garden? Do you need some help deciding? Here are links to some seed catalog companies to get you started!
So as you look at your garden from the comfort of your warm home….just imagine the possibilities that await you and start planning!
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi, I have heard that sunflowers can be somewhat detrimental (allelopathic) to other plants, seedlings in particular. The hulls are the worst purpetrators to releasing toxins into the ground. Most people don’t seem to see any effect, but I would personally make sure my sunflowers are a little removed from other plants. Also, Landreth Seeds and Native Seed/SEARCH are two of my favorite seed houses, to add to yours. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for this post! I get stuck planting the same things. Time to try something new–maybe “heatwave” lettuce.
I have a rare site in my yard, a parital albino cardinal..I was wondering where I might
post pictures of it. I have had the opportunity to take several pictures since it got
used to me sitting outside waiting on it. Although I haven’t seen it in a few days
but if it returns, will be sure to get plenty more pictures of it. Also got video of
it. So thrilled at such a site in my own yard..
I like all of the Plant Lists you publish, eg, Top 10 Berries for Birds, Top 10 shade trees, etc. For each plant you then give all of the information about each plant, eg, Scientific Name, Hardiness Zone, etc. It may be very helpful for some of your readers, if you would list whether or not the plant is native to the US or not. Many of us are interested in planting more species native to our area. Thank you for considering – Nina Hedrick, hedrick@chartertn.net
I LOVE sun sugar tomatoes! These little beauties are so sweet it’s like eating candy. The only tomatoe my kids will eat- orange in color and slightly smaller than regular cherry tomatoes- amazing!!
Thanks, gals. I need all the help and tips I can get for this summer…I intend to design a fairy garden with coi pond. I will let you all know how it turns out. I let my lil green wagon go in the last yard sale (in a wheel-barrow style…with handles to push it, a wheel on the front and resting stands on the back, so that when you push it to where you want it, you can set it down on it’s resting-stands so that it’s evenly balanced, horizontally. It looked so beautiful full of flowers under the big tree. So…I needed to pick a new theme for the yard. I would like to separate the coi pond from the garden by a hedge…I’ve never had a coi pond nor a hedge…anyone got any good ideas on what kind of hedge would do well in Anchorage, Alaska? Any hints would help.
I love gardening every year. I draw a picture where my rows will be and what vegetables will be planted in each row. Then I mark where I want a path to go among the rows. The path is never straight. It curves and twist in and out around my rows. I line the path with flowers. I plant flowers at each end of the rows. This tells me where my rows are until the veggies seeds come up. Last year I took plastic water/juice bottles turned them upside down and buried them half way in the ground forming a barrier to keep grass out of my garden at the entrance and planted purple african daisy’s on the other side. I always plant marigolds, petunia’s, zinna’s, nasturium’s and line the back side of my garden with sunflowers. I buy all different varieties of sunflowers. The birds and bees love my garden. Last year I tried the “Cherokee tomato”. They were large, slightly purple on the outside and the seeds are around the edge of the tomato not in the center. Very tasty and freeze well.