Your 2024 Garden

[Nomadicus]

We grew broccoli for the first time and the plants grew HUGE with little tiny broccoli heads on them. Must be something the horses eat as our neighbor hauls horse poop over here every spring for our garden.

Any time the ratio of N-P-K are not in a certain range it can effect crop production. What will make great crops of sweet corn will not make sweet potatoes. Pure compost fertilizing is a one size fits all and sometimes it just does not produce a crop. I watched a video of a couple trying to grow sweet potatoes in tubs of compost and the result was less than a bushel produced after spending a fortune on the organic potting mix that was just a general mix. The had a ton of vines but no potatoes. They still don't know what went wrong. They have tried more than once to grow them their way instead of the way sweet potatoes want to grow. I know there are many varieties of broccoli. Some are geared for just one big head in the middle of the stalk and a few sucker buds. Some mostly small heads on side shoots. I used to grow one call Green Comet Hybrid that was a good variety for freezing. And some others but don't remember their names. Some keep their color better when cooked and that was another thing I wanted. I've seen some people with raised beds have 2-3 plants take over the whole bed with a huge spread. Basically good for the chickens.

 

[Nomadicus]

Those Guinea beans can be found here. These are the ones we grew nearly 50 years ago.
https://www.southernexposure.com/products/cucuzzi-culinary-gourd/

There are recipes out there now. No internet of information back then like there is now.

 

[Iluveggers]

I requested some free catalogs yesterday. I usually order seeds (& chicks!) in February. Gives me something to look forward to!
I am also fortunate to have a few winter CSAs near me, so I’ve been getting local fresh veggies every week. In upstate NY, that’s almost unheard of! lol.

 

[saysfaa]

We discovered broccoli won't form a head if it is crowded. I read about and the same variety the next year formed beautiful heads, and big secondary heads. The third and fourth heads were respectable. We kept cutting it into winter although by the end we were getting dozens of tiny heads per plant.

The third year, we tried two varieties. One formed big, tight heads (dh likes the flavor/texture better). The other formed small, loose heads (I like the flavor/texture better).

We also learned to cut the heads at an angle down toward the outside of the plant.

 

[saysfaa]

I've never heard of anyone growing celery up here but I should look it up as that would be a Godsend to have on hand. I did have some dried celery once I bought many years ago but it's very expensive. Fresh celery is pretty reasonable, but around here it gets used for one thing and most of it goes to waste.

We tried celery this past summer.

I read, too late, that it is very temperature sensitive as it germinates and begins to grow. It lives but is bitter (as in stays bitter, I think) if it doesn't like the temperature or maybe it was temperature swings more than actual temperature. I will look it up again before starting the seeds.

It is also water sensitive in the growing season. Again, swings matter not just whether there is enough.

It did make a very beautiful plant.

 

[saysfaa]

Plans will likely change over the next few weeks.

So far, I'm looking at expanding salad greens the most. Specifically corn salad, purslane, more/different lettuce varieties, maybe Japanese mountain spinach. And paying more attention to radishes - smaller numbers planted more often and maybe more varieties.

Eggplant was new for us last year and an outstanding success. I want to plant the same variety again and another variety or two.

Brussel sprouts were also new to us last year and failed. I'm thinking we will try again but only a plant or two.

After I planted the potatoes last year, I learned potatoes come in determinant and indeterminate like tomatoes do. I want to look into that before choosing varieties for next year.

I want to start more kinds of flowers next year. I like single blossom types to help the bees and garden centers tend to favor double blossomed varieties. Besides, it is fun and satisfying to start my own.

Yellow disco marigolds are my favorites. Cosmos did well and I want enough to let the chickens eat as much as they like of them.

Four o'clocks volunteered very successfully so I plan to start only a few seedlings for earlier blossoms.

 

[Nomadicus]

Expecting rain all day long today so I can work on my list of varieties. I want to get seed early as I'm expecting some things to sell out early this year like they did a couple of years ago. I will need go go through my seed box and see what I have left that is still viable and if in doubt do a germination test on some. One thing I want to do here for the first time is plant cucumbers on a trellis. That increases productivity without very much bending. One trellis for slicers and one for pickling.

 

[NanaK]

Planning the garden is fun!
Just starting the planning phase of our 2024 garden. I have a few things I save seed from so those will be planted. I always enjoy browsing the catalogs looking for something new. I plant lots of flowers annuals and perennials as well as the veggies from seed. Last few years I have backed off some of the flowers as it's getting harder to get them all planted out.

As for broccoli, I have found one that seems to do well for us. It's called Gypsy. It gives nice big tight heads and lots of good size side shoots. They need room!
To get nice heads, @saysfaa gives great info above!

One thing I'll add to it is "timing". Like most things, it has a season. I find it does much better for me in fall rather than spring. This will vary by your location. I get much bigger, cleaner (no worms) heads in fall. Hardest part is I have to plant them in July. Too hot here in July so indoors, under lights. Same time I start other fall brassicas. When a couple inches tall, outside in the shade they go and very slowly moved to more sun. I try to have them in the ground by early Sept.

 

[Debbie292d]

We tried celery this past summer.

I read, too late, that it is very temperature sensitive as it germinates and begins to grow. It lives but is bitter (as in stays bitter, I think) if it doesn't like the temperature or maybe it was temperature swings more than actual temperature. I will look it up again before starting the seeds.

It is also water sensitive in the growing season. Again, swings matter not just whether there is enough.

It did make a very beautiful plant.

I've decided to skip planting it and just do what @tripletfeb suggested. I'll buy a nice healthy bunch of celery and freeze a couple of quart freezer bags of it. I could do like I do for the peppers and just take a few out of the bag as I need. A trick I found is drying the pepper strips off with a paper towel keeps them from sticking together so much in the freezer bag. If that happens, I just bang the bag on the counter and enough breaks off I can use.

 

[tripletfeb]

I've decided to skip planting it and just do what @tripletfeb suggested. I'll buy a nice healthy bunch of celery and freeze a couple of quart freezer bags of it. I could do like I do for the peppers and just take a few out of the bag as I need. A trick I found is drying the pepper strips off with a paper towel keeps them from sticking together so much in the freezer bag. If that happens, I just bang the bag on the counter and enough breaks off I can use.

I don't go through celery often enough to make planting it worthwhile. So, like you are planning, washed and into quart sized bags they go. For my peppers, I flash freeze them first. Never have done that with celery