Garden update, 'Luzinsleep?'

Hi Julie!

I wanted to see what you're planning on growing this year, and whether you decided on a particular edamame variety, etc etc.
On a zero lot, I'm trying to dream up my own plan, wondering how many heriloom tomato plants I can crowd into narrow raised beds...
I'd love to hear a little inspiration!
Steph

Thanks for asking, Steph. :) Without my book in front of me, it's hard to remember exact kinds, but here's what I'm hoping for.

I want to plant two kinds of corn, the regular yellow corn that we're all used to, but also white corn - just because I think it will be a neat variety. I want to grow tomatoes, but have to make sure I get the best kind to make sauces out of. I want to make my own spaghetti sauce and jar it. Then of course, green beans, potatoes (at least two different kinds), okra, peas, leaf lettuce, radishes, maybe some spaghetti squash, and a plant or two of hot peppers. There may be more I have marked, but I can't remember exactly. We should have plenty of room for all that and more, so I've just got to make sure I've got the energy to weed it all! :)

BTW, heirloom tomatoes sound great- they are my favorite to eat by themselves!!!

Yum! Your garden sounds great already!
I don't know which tomatoes make the best sauce, but the ones we grew last year hardly made it to the table, they were so good. We chose them all at Home Depot, too! Stripey was beautiful, not striped, but really voluptuous, and had looked like a maze inside (to describe the "veining" or whatever they call the inside of a tomato!). Celebrity was probably the best producer, next to Early Girl, but Celebrity's skin cracked easier under the hot August sun (we may have either overwatered or underwaters then). Ford's favorite were the little cherry tomatoes, and I was forever getting tomato juice and seed stains out of his clothing (of course, if he wasn't wearning clothes, he'd start complaining that it was burning!). He would eat them as soon as they turned orange, but fortunately, there were tons growing behind the first ranks!

So you're not growing edamame? I was hoping you'd offer some insight. I guess I'll just experiment and see how it goes, all by my lonesome.

Thanks for sharing! I wish we lived closer together. I love visiting other people's gardens.:) That's one thing I miss about Lancaster; the neighbors stopping by to check out the tomatoes, and pass along jars of pickles and jams out of the back of their 4-wheelers....:D
Guess we'd better start hanging out there on weekends more often. It really is charming out there.
Steph

My mom and I are going on a joint venture on the endamames. I guess I forgot that part. She doesn't eat meat, so this is pretty important to her - and I'm here for support. :) I just don't have much information on them, but I did show her the beer variety (Did I remember that right?) and she seemed really intrigued.

We do have some potatoes we got yesterday and we have them in a black bag to sprout so they will be ready to plant. I'll do my best to take pictures so you can see our progress. I'd love to see yours too! :)

I've never grown potatoes. Do the plants get very large? I love buying tricolored fingerlings at the market, but don't know if I have enough space to grow my own.

I'd love to see pictures! I'll share, too, if I ever get it all planted and growing!
Steph

Potato plants don't get too big, Steph. They do grow the most beautiful green plant once they are growing well. We only had a row this fall of potatoes (more like 1/2 a row) and they didn't produce as well as I'd hoped. I'm hoping it was just the season and not my not so green thumb. ;) One of my catalogs has purple potatoes and I really want to try some of them!