Let's Talk Gardening

The seed and plant catalogs are coming in this month and we've been enjoying leafing through them and planning our 2009 garden. The Thompson and Morgan catalog has lots of gorgeous sweet peas, including my favorite - the lovely Rosemary Verey. This seed is an exception to the rule that mixes are generally awful - all the colors are gorgeous and you always get a few of each.

Jung Seeds is offering semi-dwarf Honeycrisp apple trees. I am outspoken in my love for the Honeycrisp apple. It is extremely seasonal - October is its month. Apple trees need a pollinator, so we'll put this close to our pink-flowering crabapple. That will be quite a sight in the spring!

We are having a baby in May, so the tomatoes and peppers will go in as plants - I can't grow as many varieties this way, but it does make our lives easier. Generally I plant Brandywine, a nice old-timey heirloom variety that is usually available as plants at the nursery.
I had a mad passion for zucchini, mostly made into zucchini pancakes, last summer, and as I didn't grow any myself, I traded my millions of cucumbers for them. This year, I am planting zukes.

My husband is planning a garden expansion, so we'll have more room for:
basil
lemon basil
dill
tomatoes
zucchini
cucumbers
nasturtiums
marigolds
peas
cranberry beans
swiss chard

In the lower beds for herbs and fruit we have 5 blackberry (or perhaps raspberry, we'll see this summer) bushes, 9 strawberry plants (which need bird netting), tarragon, rosemary, sage, lavender, lemon thyme, thyme, parsley and oregano. The parsley was a volunteer that came in the same pot as the strawberries and grows very happily in their bed, too.