Normally our garden contains Goliath tomatoes, Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, zucchini, corn, okra (the deer have eaten it every year we've lived in TN >:( ), peas, beans, peppers (orange, red, and yellow bells; ancho; jalapeño; etc), eggplant, pole beans, basil, cabbage, kale, and more. I begin starting seeds in late January and add to the seed starting racks until it's time to transplant around Mother's Day. I've been pregnant twice during the seed starting and transplanting season and my garden suffered those years due to late plantings. This year, I'm pregnant with twins so I've decided to learn from the past and cut WAY back on our garden. We're not planting anything that can't be direct sown or needs baby-ing. Bug turns 5 this spring and loves to garden so I'm handing over the planting to her and The Hubster. I'm sure the boys will want to drop a few pea seeds in the ground too, but this year I'm happy to direct and supervise instead of hand-tilling each bed and doing most of the planting like I normally do. I ordered all of my seeds from Seeds-N-Such (my new favorite, non-GMO seed company), except the Pacific Blend calendula; 1 packet of seeds from Botanical Interests turned into a full pint jar of seeds from just 1 planting! Hopefully this summer is reliably rainy like the one two years ago!
Here's our plant list this year:
Shelling Peas - Maestro (I planted 8 varieties last year and this one was hands down the best!)
Borage
Dill - Mammoth Long Island
Nasturtium - Alaska Mix (My favorite variety! Variegated foliage and many different flower colors)
Sunflower - Big Smile (A mini sunflower that only grows about a foot tall. Bug picked this one out)
Honeydew - Dulce Nectar Hybrid Honeydew Melon
Cantaloupe - Ambrosia Hybrid
Cantaloupe - Hale’s Best Jumbo
Pumpkin - Pepitas Hybrid (Hull-less seeds for easy snacking)
Watermelon - Sugar Baby
Watermelon - Sweet Favorite Hybrid
Watermelon - Crimson Sweet
Here's our plant list this year:
Shelling Peas - Maestro (I planted 8 varieties last year and this one was hands down the best!)
Borage
Dill - Mammoth Long Island
Nasturtium - Alaska Mix (My favorite variety! Variegated foliage and many different flower colors)
Sunflower - Big Smile (A mini sunflower that only grows about a foot tall. Bug picked this one out)
Honeydew - Dulce Nectar Hybrid Honeydew Melon
Cantaloupe - Ambrosia Hybrid
Cantaloupe - Hale’s Best Jumbo
Pumpkin - Pepitas Hybrid (Hull-less seeds for easy snacking)
Watermelon - Sugar Baby
Watermelon - Sweet Favorite Hybrid
Watermelon - Crimson Sweet
The end of April is the projected last frost for our area, but there always seems to be a late frost. In order to avoid any danger of frost damage from a late frost, we transplant everything on Mother's Day and use that day to plan our seed starting and direct plantings. I plan to plant on Saturdays since The Hubster has weekends off and we like to save Sundays to rest.
I'm planting 1 bed of peas a week so that we can have a steady crop rather than a bumper all at once. Maestro gave us several steady weeks of peas last year but once the plants were done, they were DONE. I'm hoping staggering will extend our harvest, but if it gets really hot early on, they'll all probably be toast anyway.
I have found Botanical Interests to have the most accurate planting calendar. I always cross-check with their website to see when I should be planting everything.
Here's my planting calendar for the plants listed above for my area:
March 18th - Peas
March 25th - Peas
April 1st - Peas
April 8th - Peas
April 15th - Calendula & Borage
April 22nd - Dill
May 6th - Nasturtium (I soak mine overnight-24 hours in black tea before planting. It really helps!)
May 13th - Sunflowers, Melons, & Pumpkin
I'm planting 1 bed of peas a week so that we can have a steady crop rather than a bumper all at once. Maestro gave us several steady weeks of peas last year but once the plants were done, they were DONE. I'm hoping staggering will extend our harvest, but if it gets really hot early on, they'll all probably be toast anyway.
I have found Botanical Interests to have the most accurate planting calendar. I always cross-check with their website to see when I should be planting everything.
Here's my planting calendar for the plants listed above for my area:
March 18th - Peas
March 25th - Peas
April 1st - Peas
April 8th - Peas
April 15th - Calendula & Borage
April 22nd - Dill
May 6th - Nasturtium (I soak mine overnight-24 hours in black tea before planting. It really helps!)
May 13th - Sunflowers, Melons, & Pumpkin