Seed selection and garden plans for 2023

[Coldd]

With winter going on, I’ve been leafing through seed catalogs and websites looking for interesting things to grow this year.

Our tomato’s did well this year, and the beefsteak variety we had made preserving fairly easy. (Meaty, skin came off easily after blanching, etc) We do a lot of Roma’s as well. Romas will stay but I am thinking of trying another large fresh eating variety. What are peoples thoughts on white/yellow varieties?

Super hot peppers! I’m going to give this another shot this year. 2018-2019 I grew a lot but stopped as I don’t eat them much, just enjoy the plants. I’ll be starting those seeds soon.

I’m going to try and install cattle panels vertically so we can train our vining vegetables and squash up. This way we can have more real estate on the ground to grow other things. I am also going to try and out 1/4” hardware cloth around the garden perimeter to keep mice out. Not sure if it’ll work but we lost most of our beets and sweet potatoes to mice or some other burrowing rodent. . Small baseball sized beets chewed to bits…

I’d like to add an area to compost coop bedding, do something with the run to keep it dry and sheltered.

What are your goals or plans for 2023 gardening?

 

[Sally PB]

Well, since you asked...

I'm going to try again with sweet potatoes. I grew them 2 years ago, and got nada. This time, I'm going to pre-warm the soil for a week or so before the slips arrive.

I'm trying some new-to-me tomatoes. I can't remember what they are, and all the seeds are put away. They're from TomatoFest, and if it's a breed of tomato, I bet they have it. Online ordering, fast delivery, reasonable prices for heirloom varieties.

I think I'll grow some spaghetti squash. I know I'll have to battle squash bugs and vine borers though.

I'm also going to try onions from seed. I've always bought sets before.

I did 9 worm hotels, and I'll see what I get from that, as far as soil building. I also swapped some sand for chicken run compost with my neighbor. Yup. She got sand, I got compost. We both got what we needed.

We moved most of the pile of woodchips to the heavy soil garden. I really hope that helps. I'm going to be planting some grapes up there too.

How long till spring???

 

[Solanacae]

I’ve been thinking about what I want to do this year. I’d like to try the cattle panel idea too - maybe it will help with controlling squash bugs. I moved last spring and never had to deal with them at the last house so it was a new (and unpleasant) experience. Completely lost my Hubbard squash, and my Delicata squashes we’re going great until they showed up and I lost half of them. I’ve got space for corn which is fun. I’m trying to decide between some popcorn types or a sweet corn.

I really enjoyed a variety of yellow/orange tomato I got off Seed Savers Exchange called Moonglow, if you’re looking for a suggestion on a variety.

I planted garlic and shallot bulbs this fall (really late in the fall, I was having to dig through a frozen layer because I’d put it off because of other things) and am looking forward to them. I’m trying a couple new garlic varieties to see how they compare to my favorite, Musik.

This year I want to compare some varieties of Roma/paste tomatoes. I was growing an heirloom type called Federle but it seemed not to like the new soil here much. I don’t know if it’s a first year garden or much heavier soil (or both) but I’ll probably try it compared to a traditional Roma and Amish Paste and see what’s better suited here.

I really like the Wautoma cucumbers I got from Territorial Seed, but I had problems with powdery mildew once things finally germinated. I’ve never had so much trouble with germination as I did this last year, again not sure if it’s new garden/heavy soil or maybe lawn treatments from the previous owners? We did pull up sod to put the garden in. I’m curious to see how things go this year.

I might try some shorter carrots - I didn’t even try this past year because of how heavy the soil was. We heavily amended the soil with a coarser compost to improve it and will add more again this year.

I want to add some blackberries to the garden, I’m looking at Triple Crown or some if the ones bred by the University of Arkansas (Arapaho/Natchez/etc.) My uncle who lives nearby swears by Triple Crown, so I’m leaning that direction. But I may try a second variety just because I like having variety.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I think this'll be one of the first years where I'm not planning on trying anything new. I still need to buy new seed to replace seed I used up/seed that's too old, but overall I was very satisfied with my garden's output last year - everything ate well and we didn't end up with too much or too little food.

 

[EEforMe]

I want to work on my chicken compost pile more because in the past I haven’t managed it well.

We are definitely going to have peas, kale, pumpkins/squash, and garlic in the family garden.

In my garden section I hope my raspberries actually make raspberries and I want my favorite kale plant to go to seed so I can get more little kalies. I want to plant some tomato seeds that I saved from some tomatoes in the school garden because they are truly beautiful and I really want to grow lemon cucumbers. I have been working on a multi year project to have a garden bed full of violas and pansies that will hybridize into all sorts of different colors and sizes. I have have had my lineage of peas since 2020 and I hope to keep the line going. That’s all

 

[nuthatched]

I'm looking at heirloom and cherry type tomatoes-sungolds, Cherokee purple.
Potatoes-German butterball, reds, maybe o'henrys.
Considering carrots but they don't do well here, we're not big carrot fans.
Some cucumbers, summer squash, acorn squash, sketti squash.
green beans aren't worth it to me but we'll see.
peas, maybe spinach. Romaine and butter head lettuce, Brussel sprouts or Chinese cabbage.
All in my 16x16 garden. I'm thinking vertical with the help of cattle panels or box Springs, and cutting some old water barrels in half and putting them on frames to be about 3ft off the ground, stuff that needs more shade under neath.
I'd like to run passion fruit up our porch but they'd be difficult to keep the elk out of.

Long term, peach, persimmon and apricot, grapes, raspberries, blackberries.

 

[Sally PB]

Oh, looking forward to getting our very first cherries.... please....

Last year we had gobs of blossoms, but no fruit. I've read that they can take 3-5 years to bear fruit. This past summer was their third here. They were bought as 6 foot trees, so maybe next year...?

 

[saysfaa]

Oh, looking forward to getting our very first cherries.... please....

Last year we had gobs of blossoms, but no fruit. I've read that they can take 3-5 years to bear fruit. This past summer was their third here. They were bought as 6 foot trees, so maybe next year...?

Something else is going on besides their age. I remember my Grandpas' orchards, including helping plant new orchards several different years and picking the young trees until they were big enough to shake. It does take years for them to have blossoms and more years for them to have very many blossoms. But any blossoms they do have should set fruit. It may be small fruit at first but some.

What varieties do you have? Where did you get them? If you want input in what might be going on.

 

[Sally PB]

Something else is going on besides their age. I remember my Grandpas' orchards, including helping plant new orchards several different years and picking the young trees until they were big enough to shake. It does take years for them to have blossoms and more years for them to have very many blossoms. But any blossoms they do have should set fruit. It may be small fruit at first but some.

What varieties do you have? Where did you get them? If you want input in what might be going on.

We have two Montmorency sour cherries. I was worried it was a lack of pollinators, but the nearby wild apple trees set plenty of fruit.

One tree had quite a few blossoms. The other one, which is a year older, had hundreds. The older one is about 8 feet tall now.

I had read that it was common for them to have blossoms, but no fruit when they're just starting out, so I wasn't worried. I did give them Tree Tone in the spring and fall. It's an organic tree fertilizer from Espoma.

I'd love any input! Thanks!

 

[saysfaa]

Hm, maybe I don't remember the timing very well.

Those are self fertile. If the apples get bees... It is mostly likely my bad.