The Greening

Here's what my garden looks like now:

It's currently 3 raised beds with trellises at the back of each one; I'm trying to convince hubs to build me a 4th.

In 4 months, it will be filled with:
basil
bush beans
cucumbers
lettuce
peas
peppers, hot
peppers, sweet
tomatoes (many types!)

It's a little late, so I anticipate reduced availability, but seed shopping begins! I'm trying to determine which varieties of everything to get. At this time last year I was just beginning to think that I could produce some of our food, and it was an exciting thought.

Last year I had unnecessary success with the Sun Gold grape tomatoes and whatever jalapeno I planted, and pretty good success with the Brandywine tomatoes. Ultimately, though, we just don't eat enough fresh tomatoes to warrant planting more than one Brandywine - I hope to find more of a paste tomato and I have my eye on one that's designed for salsa and is nice and meaty.

Moderate success with the lettuces, though I didn't plant enough seeds to make it really worth my while. My sweet peppers didn't do so well - gorgeous foliage, but small peppers that seemed to take forever to mature. I bought them as starts from a local store and don't know the cultivar, but hope I pick a better one this year.

I don't even want to think about the tragedies that befell my cucurbits. Even though I managed to get some summer squash out of the deal, on the whole the entire group was just a colossal waste of time and resources.  I can't decide if I want to bother trying again this year or not... Today I lean towards not, to give the evil larvae that I'm sure made it into my soil a chance to die. I'll have to find another source of organic summer squash... And I think I know just the neighbor (cough*Marissa*cough) to grow them!