Garden Plan 2011

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I like to plan out my garden. As in on graph paper. With details, and codes, and number of plants. (yeah, I’m a little obsessive, but I blame the long winter) This year I’m expanding my gardening square footage with a community garden plot, woo! My 10x20 home bed is being partially used for bulbs and perennials while I re-do my flower beds this summer, so I needed a bit more room to stretch out. I’m also hoping that the woodchucks won’t frequent the community garden too much, or if they do that they have so much produce to choose from that they won’t totally decimate my crops like last year. But that’s another story…

I’ve reserved my 20’x20’ community plot, which handily is within walking distance of my house. We’ll even be having a community garden meeting in April. How fun! I may be splitting it with a friend, M, who doesn’t currently have gardening space, but if she is unable to I’ll just have to plant even more. Oh darn. <giggle>

These plans are just for my vegetables, the flowers will either be planted in pots or, in the case of the sunflowers, along the gardening shed. If M doesn’t use the other half of the community plot then I’ll just plant veggies there and reserve my home bed as a temporary home for flowers as I change the flower beds around.

In the first diagram I’ve listed out the veggies I’m growing this summer. I pretty much kept it to things we eat, things that produce well, and things that sell well. Since I’m starting all of my plants from seed, I needed to know how many to start. I’ll go with the maximum number (the one on the right), because I can always give away or compost extra plants. It may seem like I’m missing a classic: I’m not planting regular corn because when it’s in season I can get it for free from friends in exchange for tomatoes. I’m really good at growing tomatoes, which is good because the last few summers have been hard on tomatoes and I had a lot of people asking for them.

Which, in part, led to this year’s decision to expand my garden: I’m going to have a little produce stand to sell my extra veggies at. I’ll probably have a table outside my house and/or one at my parent’s house with honor-system payment. If I can figure out a schedule at work (working extra hours other days of the week) I’m going to see if I can get out early on Farmer’s Market days and set up a little booth. Hubby’s already approved of this plan, and is willing to pick up Max on those days. He’s happy for me to have an outlet that doesn’t require him eating massive amounts of chard. I’m sure the chance for a little extra spending money doesn’t hurt. If I can make back what I spent on the garden (a little less than $50 so far this year) then I’ll be happy.

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