Planting Extravaganza 2013!

Around this time every year I tend to go a little crazy.
Seed crazy.  

I tend to go a lot overboard. I buy too many seeds and plant too many of those seeds. So I end up with too many starts and not enough room for them in my raised beds. But I feel bad about getting rid of all those young plants so inevitably I will put them all in the ground, much too close to each other. They all grow into one another and it gets way too complicated to prune like I should. None of my plants give as fruit as they should.
Last fall after I pulled out the spent tomato vines for the compost bin, I sketched the garden. I transferred the sketch onto graph paper and did some serious soul searching as to how many plants the garden can actually bear.
I decided to only plant 7 tomato plants. This leaves room to plant borage in between the tomatoes. It also leaves room to get in and prune for maximum fruit. Borage deters Tomato Hornworm, and it tends to flower the same time the tomatoes do so it attracts bees right when you want them. BONUS!
I’m only planting two types of tomatoes this year. Brandywine has been a great producer for me and is so delicious and versatile I probably don’t need another tomato.

But I do need another tomato so I’ll be planting Italian Oxheart tomatoes as well. These are the best sauce tomatoes I’ve ever grown. I’m going to plant 7 of each. This lets me toss the weaker plants and either give away whatever is left or just grow them in the greenhouse.

Speaking of the greenhouse, I’ll be starting peppers, cucumbers and basil to be grown in there. I’ve got seeds for English and Lemon cucumbers. As for peppers I’ll be growing Italian Bullhorn, Sweet Cherry and Jalapenos. I had great success with peppers last year with the greenhouse staying over 100 degrees most of July and August.
Even with Coco eating half of the peas and beans last year’s harvest was great. Snap peas, sugar peas and shelling peas will be planted right into the ground late April/early May. I’ll be planting two kinds of watermelon in May as well.

Whatever space is left over will be for various greens, cabbages, chard, bok choy etc.
OMG! I can’t wait to get started! It’s time to plant some tomatoes!

~Alex