What are your garden plans for 2021?

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pepperhead212

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I thought of this while replying to a question on the thread for last year! I had almost all of my seeds I needed, but we all know how that can go! Suffice it to say, I'll have a lot more new tomatoes this season, and a few more new peppers. Also a few more herbs, as always. I'll post the lists when I go up to my PC - easier there.
 
This seed list isn't complete, esp. the herbs, and no greens on it yet. I don't think I got any new greens. More tomatoes than ever, though a couple that were gifts, I'm not sure if I'm growing. As usual, a bunch more small tomatoes, since they come back much faster than large varieties, when they stop flowering, due to heat.

I was pretty well set on seeds in early January, but I found a single packet of hoja santa in my freezer, when taking all that stuff over to my friend's freezer, and realized that I should grow some more! That was 5 years ago that I grew that (I made up 2 sizes of packets, and vacuum sealed them, and they stayed good!), and it was time for me to grow more! After looking on ebay and Amazon (where I have occasionally bought single packets of seeds, for just a little more than normal, for the shipping), I decided to get it from Trade Winds Fruit, who had it for about 1/3 their price, and only $3 shipping...though I did buy 5 other items! :LOL: One of the other ones I found scrolling down the list of new items - The 42 Day Tomato! Another red cherry, that I just had to try.:rolleyes:

Like many places, they were out of many items, though not necessarily because of increased demand every time, but because the seeds aren't getting to them, from whoever is producing them - maybe less workers due to Covid19, at one or all of the stages of producing the seeds. Some of the places keep shutting down their online catalogs, since they can't keep up with orders. And some people say their orders are taking a long time to get to them, but then, I got an e-mail from Trade winds the same day I ordered it, telling me it had shipped!

TOMATOES

OLD Varieties

Amish Gold
Big Beef
Marian
Mountaineer Pride
Sprite?
Sunsugar

NEW Varieties

Cherries and Grapes
42 Day Tomato (red cherry)
Annie's Singapore Grape
Cherry Brownies
Chocolate Cherries
Honeycomb Gold Cherry
Kazachka Red Grape
Kustengold Grape
Pinky Blast Compact Cherry
Weetang Shebang Gold Cherry
WOW! Sungold F1

Larger Varieties
Esmerelda Golisina
Golden Buddha
June Pink - Early
Louisiana All Season - Medium Red
Marizol Red? Gift
Ruth's Perfect
Santiago

Tomatillos -Rio Grande Verde

PEPPERS

Old varieties
Aji Dulce
Chocolate Habanero
Hanoi Market
Jalafuego
Jyoti?
Red Savina?
Superchili
Superthai - New seed
Superthai - Old seed
Thai Vesuvius?

New varieties
Ancho Ranchere
Big Chili - Numex
Giuzeppi - Numex
Hong Gochu - Korean
Hot Paper Lantern Habanero
Portugal Fire
Thunder Mountain - Long decorative

EGGPLANTS

Hari
Ichiban
Neon

BITTER MELON

Okinawan Pure White
Thai Long Green

WINTER SQUASH

Butterbush
Polaris
Tetsukabuto

HERBS

NEW:

Basils
Holy Basil, purple and green
Red Rubin
Sweet Chen Basil

Perennial Herbs - nothing new this year

OLD:

Basils
Gecofure Basil
Serata basil
Thai basil, Siam Queen

Hoja Santa (not new, but been a while for me)
 
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Inspirational list

Pepperhead:

You're amazing! Such a source of inspiration!

I have carrot tops (chopped off from carrots for chickens)
Coriander which has just 2 seedlings poking out of soil
Dill as I have enjoyed making gravlax with it
Onions Red and white ones
Costoluto Fiorentinos are excitedly germinating and some have 2 inch stems
Various potatoes in bags: Arran, Desiree, King Edward, Charlotte (bought from British Garden centre which allows you to mix and fill a bag.

Today: Pak choi and salad leaves, cress are still germinating but we have had about 4 small tubs now.

Alfalfa waiting to be prepared.

I need to pinch some of Pepperhead's ideas!
 
Doing a lot of greens this year. I enjoy growing them.

I'll pull them out and make a list tonorrow. Just got my Baker Seed order the other day.
 
So far, this year I am the most organized and ahead of the game than any other year. I kept really accurate records last year, which helped me prepare for this year. Sure there will be a lot of last minute, on he spot decisions since each year is different when considering weather ( Temp, rain ...), But last year I missed out on a few tomato varieties cause I procrastinated, so this year I got an early jump. Over the years Ive been gradually relying more on plants and less on starting from seed . Not saying I dont start anything from seed, but only certain things. So, I basically have all my plants and seeds ordered. The only things I haven't gotten yet ( cause its too early) is Potatoes ( which I get at a local garden store lat March, early April), Sweet Potatoes ( which are usually available late May), and Zucchini and some of those sweet mini peppers that Ill pick up when available . Everything else is ordered and just waiting to bee delivered at the proper time.

There are some tomato varieties that I start from seed, primarily cause I saved the seeds from previous years do too unknown variety, or great size and success. One variety ive been grown from saved seeds for over 20 years.

In addition to keeping a spread sheet throughout the season on when planted, when flowered, when produced , when ripped up .... along with additional notes), I also made a list for each veggie of what I did right, wrong and what I would change for the following year. I did this immediately after the season so I wouldn't forget anything.

With all this info, it helped me get a good grip on what I am going to do and when I should do it. I bought a calendar and marked it up on the important dates of what to do when, to take a lot of the thinking out of it. Im sure Ill find a bunch of things tithing about anyway :) , but feel good that I have a plan.

Now its just the waiting game
While waiting, I have been growing Basil in the aquaponics in the basement, Growing Oyster mushrooms since November, and have a room full of my indoor/ outdoor more tropical plants which Ive been keeping alive, so far. Harvested a handful of Coffee Cherries ( Beans) and am planning to make homemade, homegrown coffee in the near future. ( Ive had this plant for close to 10 years and it finally produced).

Ill give a more detailed list of varieties of veggies I got later.
 
I'm so glad you all started this year's plans for gardens. We'll be winter sowing a lot of our transplants. The basement has lots of milk jugs prepared with soil, waiting for when we put in the water and seeds and tape up, then they go out to the deck. We're shoveling the deck so that they won't have to sit on top of the snow. Ah, January. Long blue shadows across the snow.

longshadowssnow-005crop2.jpg
 
I'm not sure if I go all out on a garden this year.
My third back surgery has me thinking more today than before.
I always say this and plant veggies and herbs anyway.
 
I'm so glad you all started this year's plans for gardens. We'll be winter sowing a lot of our transplants. The basement has lots of milk jugs prepared with soil, waiting for when we put in the water and seeds and tape up, then they go out to the deck. We're shoveling the deck so that they won't have to sit on top of the snow. Ah, January. Long blue shadows across the snow.

longshadowssnow-005crop2.jpg

Blissful, what will you plant and when? I'm intrigued!!!

I'm going to grow some tomatoes: 1 cherry and 1 slicer with a few San Marzanos. A couple of bell peppers and some jalapeños. I love sweet peppers, but do not know whether I will have room for them. Beans, as always. An eggplant and about 10 okra plants.

I would love a recommendation for a great cucumber. I've not had great luck with them. I like them raw, in refrigerator pickles, and salads.

I would also love to have someone tell me the trick to growing scallions and radishes. For some reason, these easy to grow items never produce for me. Come to think of it, beets and carrots are hit and miss.
 
Kathleen, winter sown (a facebook group and website), means putting your soil water and seeds into containers, allowing for drainage and moisture, air, setting them out in the spring (as early as now), and letting nature do its stuff.
Not root crops, carrots, beets, and not beans.



I'll probably start tomatoes in March, but flowers and asparagus and herbs in Jan/Feb. We'll grow tomatoes inside and outside, selling off the extras. (we had good selling last year to pay for the soil purchase and new seed, but we also save seed) They all sit in the snow, until mother nature tells them to grow. They have little upkeep, they are little terrariums, just check for moisture towards the end. Then the transplants are ready to go in the garden at planting season.


This all saves me a lot of square footage of space in the house, and it keeps us actively working on things, Jan Feb March April.


I've had spectacular results with asparagus, herbs, flowers. This seems to work in all climates no matter your planting season. I'm talking about 1000's of plants, many times planted heavily in jugs, then planted in chunks. Greens are great this way, starting them so early.



It's a nearly free way (empty milk and de-icer cartons) to save hundreds on transplants for the year.



We're nervous on tomatoes, so I'll start them in the house, AND wintersown. Peppers require heat to germinate so those get started in the house. Everything else outside.


Cucumbers, gerkins. That's the kind that make good pickles.


We ran inside sown onions last year, to winter sown onions, the winter sown were bigger and healthier.
onionsprouts-002.jpg





garden_004.jpg
snowmarch3-002.jpg
 
Yeah, this is my first year trying the Winter Sowing method. Being my first year, Im using it more as an experiment than relying on it. Not that I don't trust it, or the science behind it, I just don't want to rely on it or put all my eggs in one basket. So, what that basically means is Im going to have tons of extra stuff to try and find room for :)
 
My plan for 2021 to kill all the garden plants my father planted and make an extra parking space. [emoji6][emoji3]
 
This is the first year I did the winter sow method of starting seeds. Its an experimental year, as I've never done it before and I dont want to put all my eggs in one basket , in fear of things not working out and therefore either getting a late start, or missing my window of opportunity.

Anyway, although it hasn't been a terribly cold winter here in NY, February has been quite snowy. Over the past weeks we've had 4 storms which , all together , dumped close to 3 feet of snow. My winter sow containers were covered completely by snow for the past 3 + weeks and only now can I see the tops of them again. I decided to use this opportunity to take a quick peek to see what was going on inside the containers ( as there are not caps, leaving a vent hole for moisture to get in, and heat to get out ( as the temps get warmer).

To my surprise, I noticed the Spinach, Brussel Sprouts and Cabbages have started too sprout. These are three crops that I either dont typically grow, or just dont have the greatest success with them. They are also relatively cold hardy, which is why I decided to use them as my guinea pigs since they would be most likely to succeed and I'd be the least disappointed if they didnt work.

Now that things seem too be working out , Im faced with the dilemma of finding room for them in the garden :)
 
Wow, Larry! That is really exciting. I wanted to give it a try, but have no gallon milk jugs...and cannot justify buying gallons of milk that I won't use. Might something else work?
 
I only used 2 types of containers. A 1 gallon water jug , and the kitty litter we buy comes in a large transparent container. By no means am I an expert in this, but from the little research I've done, Ive seen everything from small containers you would get when taking out food ( as long as the top is clear) , 2 liter soda bottles .... I think the criteria is that it has to allow light through, have drainage holes and a vent on the top to allow water in and excess heat out ( in most cases you get the vent just by unscrewing the cap and leaving it off).

This is an experiment in progress so Im learning as I go. Its nice that I actually have something growing outside the I planted from seed in mid February, but I still have my doubts. It its the type of thing that ' Ill believe it when I see it'. But that being said, 3 ou of 8 germinated already so things appear too be going as planned.
 
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