Garden Plots, Plans and Addendums
Bjorn and I spent yesterday doing a bit of garden shopping/pricing. I've big plans this year to expand the garden into the back yard, with my beloved Shiloh no longer needing the space. I plan to make more room for space needy plants, such as corn and potatoes. Up to this point I've only had the front yard and have had to pull back my reins. It is my goal to become a locavore. I'd like to grow enough in the garden this year to sustain us through the winter. Bjorn has also promised to make me a greenhouse that will attach to the front of the house and enclose the front porch. This will give us a heat barrier for winter as well as housing tomatoes, greens, herbs and other fresh veggies for the winter and starters for the spring. I'm not sure we will get to the greenhouse this year. We've also been looking into the options of adding solar panels to reduce our costs as well as adding another room onto the house. We will have to see just how much we can get done and how long the money holds out. In today's economy that might get us the panels for sure and the expanded gardens, not sure about the rest. It looks as if the panels are only going to cost us about 5k and will reduce our cost 1/4 per double panel. We're talking about getting a home loan and putting in more insulation, radiant heat on the floors and the panels. Maybe we could work the greenhouse into that equation.
I'm putting in the normal root plants, beets, onions, carrots again this year. As well as expanding the peas and bean. I'm putting in a bean arch near where I put the tomatoes this year, I was thinking of an arbor but I hate to waste the ground space with shade and so have decided to make it just an arch with the beans growing up and over. In this way I can double the peas with them not having to share the fence with the beans any longer. I'm adding rainbow carrots this year for fun and diversity in salads and stews. I'm looking forward to them just because I've never grown them before. I've also changed the beets to a more space conscious variety in the hopes of getting more bang for my buck, so to speak. I'm planning to expand the raspberry and blackberry patch as well as finally getting around to a strawberry garden this year.
I'm going to add a Mountain Ash and a couple of hydrangeas and some Lewis' Mock Orange this year and am going to severally cut back on the sunflowers. Last year I was too tenderhearted about them and they took over the garden, along with a lack of planning and some neglect, I really didn't get much from the garden at all last year. I plan to amend all of this for 2009 and make it a bumper crop.
Bjorn has also promised me a water feature in the backyard. I'd like to make an sacred space and small waterfall, of which I've not made any definite plans yet, but will start to work on that soon, as the garden takes precedence.
I'm putting in the normal root plants, beets, onions, carrots again this year. As well as expanding the peas and bean. I'm putting in a bean arch near where I put the tomatoes this year, I was thinking of an arbor but I hate to waste the ground space with shade and so have decided to make it just an arch with the beans growing up and over. In this way I can double the peas with them not having to share the fence with the beans any longer. I'm adding rainbow carrots this year for fun and diversity in salads and stews. I'm looking forward to them just because I've never grown them before. I've also changed the beets to a more space conscious variety in the hopes of getting more bang for my buck, so to speak. I'm planning to expand the raspberry and blackberry patch as well as finally getting around to a strawberry garden this year.
I'm going to add a Mountain Ash and a couple of hydrangeas and some Lewis' Mock Orange this year and am going to severally cut back on the sunflowers. Last year I was too tenderhearted about them and they took over the garden, along with a lack of planning and some neglect, I really didn't get much from the garden at all last year. I plan to amend all of this for 2009 and make it a bumper crop.
Bjorn has also promised me a water feature in the backyard. I'd like to make an sacred space and small waterfall, of which I've not made any definite plans yet, but will start to work on that soon, as the garden takes precedence.