Photo by my daughter, Jordan 

The garden is tilled! Now time to start planting and planning some more. I love gardening and all it entails. I am working on making the homestead into a food producing machine. A lot easier said than done, but every year I make progress.

What am I going to do this year?

1. Plant asparagus and hope it comes back next year. These are second year plants as opposed to the first year plants from last year. I have hope they will. I added a lot of rotted chicken manure and bedding to the area they will be planted.

2. Put a fence around the garden. I love my chickens, but I will love them a lot less if they eat everything I plant. So a 3-4 foot fence will be going around the garden. At the end of the season, I will let them back in the garden to fertilize, eat leftover produce (if any!), and scratch around a bit.

3. Adding two more blueberry bushes. All four of my blueberries planted last year came back. I will add more soil acidifier to keep them happy and mulch heavily again. That worked really well last year too.

4. Adding more raspberry canes. I want to thicken up the area they are in and get more production out of them in the years to come.

5. Added peat moss to the garden. This is already done but was on my list for this year. The soil needed some added boost from last year.

6. Planting everything much closer together. For what I read and studied, plants do much better this way. Planting closer together keeps weeds choked out a bit more and I can plant more in the garden.

7. Planting peas and cucumbers by the fence going around the garden. I want the peas and cucumbers to grow up the fence and save room in the garden for other things.

8. Adding mulch to the garden. I want to use tacky straw mulch this year since I have read really good things about it. I have a lot of wind because I live in a really flat place so I need mulch that stays. The tacky straw mulch is supposed to do that. Fingers crossed!

9. Moving the five-gallon buckets and other planters out of the garden. I have done most of this, but I have a few buckets and planters left. I am moving all of them up to the house. I will be planting some flowers, some greens, and some herbs in them. I think they will do better being protected by the house with some shade during the day. We shall see. I need to add more soil to the first.

What am I planting this year in the actual garden?

Tomatoes
Bell Peppers
Poblano Peppers (if I can find plants)
Potatoes
Red Onions
Yellow Onions
Green Beans
Peas
Cucumbers
Pumpkins
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Beets
Carrots
Radishes
Spinach
Cabbage (Red and Green if I can find plants)

I do have some pipe dreams for my garden and gardening in general. If I get them done, great! If not, there is always next year.

1. Put in two 4′ x 4′ or 6′ x 6′ raised beds closer to the house. I always wanted a “kitchen garden” where I would plant lettuce, greens, peas, radishes, and herbs. I want to trellis the peas in the middle and work my way to the outside with other plants.

2. Plant elderberry bushes, currants, honeyberries, and a couple more apple trees.

3. Find a new home or place in the yard for the daylilies. I love them, but they do not need to be in the garden. Plus I want to keep what flowers I have so the bees have more places to collect pollen.

That is it! The 2015 Garden Plans! Every year, we work on being more self-sufficient and raising our own food. This year will be the best yet!

Thanks for reading,
Erica

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