Here's the 2010 garden plan so far. The space is a bit limited, so I tend to grow a variety of things instead of lots of the same thing. And I really like tomatoes in the summer, so there are several varieties. Other things are going to come later as we move more into a proper planting season. With the warm weather the last few days, though, spring fever is running thick.
Tomatoes and peppers need an early start, and really I should have got these started a couple of weeks ago, but it just never happened. Anyway, in the tomato category, I'm going to have two mortgage lifters and will guard them jealously, because that's the end of my seed stock for those. I'll also have three each of cherry, delicious, plum, and tomatillo. As for peppers, four each of pimento 2005, pimento 2007, and bell. Last but not least, four eggplants — which need to start around the same time as the tomatoes and peppers.
Once things really start rolling, I'll mix in some summer squash, bush beans, and corn — and a few basic herbs. A fairly typical West Virginia garden, I suppose... with the exception of the tomatillos and the eggplant. And around mid-summer I hope to try some winter squash. I have acorn squash and spaghetti squash somewhere so they're the most likely candidates. I grew spaghetti squash a few years ago and it was outstanding. That was the same year I tried growing pumpkins at the side of the house, and both they and the spaghetti squash grew very prolifically. I just let them grow like mad and trimmed them back with the lawnmower occasionally. They got ahead of me, though, and crept into our neighbor's yard. She was eying it all suspiciously one morning, asking me what I was going to do with all those gourds (I don't think she knew it was spaghetti squash). I told her I was going to eat them. She said, "Oh," then eyed me suspiciously, then went back in her house without saying another word.
In case you're wondering about the 2005 and 2007 varieties of pimento peppers, I bought the original seeds in 2005. They didn't do much, but I tried them in 2006 and 2007. On a lark, I saved the seeds from one of the few peppers which came from 2007's planting and replanted them. Those seeds did very well, and I still have some. Hence, pimento 2005 and pimento 2007. I'm giving the 2005 line one last shot before pitching it. Ideally, I'd like to get to a point where everything I'm growing is from seeds which were produced right here in the yard... but that takes time, and as always, there are a million things to do.
It's hard to do things like grow your own food, make bread, cook, and basically try to stay off the industrial food treadmill as much as possible. I think it boils down to being a time sink. Anymore I find myself needing to rush around to get things done, and you know, it'd be pretty easy to just pick up a loaf of bread, let's say, or grab pizza or fast food on the way home every night. I don't want to do that. I've seen Super Size Me, Fast Food Nation, and most recently, Food Inc. I've read The Omnivore's Dilemma. I know all those tricks. I know there's corn and soy hidden in everything, I — and my digestive system — strongly suspect there's something horribly wrong with commercially-grown leafy greens, and I'm pretty sure Monsanto is the devil.
So, I believe it's important enough to spend the time on. The planting will begin, and the other things... in the words of John F. Kennedy, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.