Future garden plans!

I cannot wait until March. March (well... mid-late March) means I can start tearing into my backyard, building beds, and having a joyous time at it! I'm immediately working with an 80x100 plot, plus our deck, plus I may put my sprawling squash vines in the far back shared section. It's not used much at all, so I suspect overflow (if any) can go back there too.

I just can't decide what to put in though!

Oniony-type things
Onions-- I really want to grow sweet onions.
Garlic-- already in. LARGE German Red Garlic.
Green onions (just a few, and they don't take up much space)
Shallots-- a BUNCH. So creamy and SO expensive in the store.
Chives-- we already have these going in the yard.

TOMATOES (emphasis on varieties that produce a LOT)
Purple mini tomatoes (because that's just cool)
Red mini tomatoes (maybe)
Yellow pear tomatoes (have you ever tried these? They are SOO good! Bite-sized)
Large red regular tomatoes for sauce-- LOTS.
Orange regular tomatoes-- maybe
Rainbow (new heirloom) tomatoes-- maybe

PEPPERS/CUCUMBERS
Cucumbers-- poona kheera, lemon and russian
Paprika peppers (I have a dehydrator. You dehydrate or smoke them and that makes fresh paprika. So cool).
Bell peppers-- purple and orange, yellow if there is space.

SMALL ITEMS
Radishes-- small amount
Carrots-- purple with yellow centers, red, and orange.
Kale-- already growing, see how that turns out.
Leeks-- already growing, see how that turns out.
Eggplant-- small amount; need hardy variety for where we're at.
Okra-- small amount
Chard
Rhubarb-- maybe not, since I read rhubarb may need to be a 2+ year old plant to be ready?

FLUFFY GREENS
Arugula-- already growing
Spinach
Lettuce (only lambs leaf; I hate having to hunt for worms amongst condense leaves)
Cabbage-- big ones for cabbage rolls

UNDERGROUND ITEMS
Potatoes-- fingerling (definitely) blue (definitely) + one more variety
Sweet potatoes -- experiment. Supposedly you can grow these from an organic spud.

HERBS
Bee balm (maybe not, since we have a bee tree already)
Lavender (for satchels)
Mint
Chamomile (may grow elsewhere because it's a flower)
Oregano
Dill (maybe; can be very gangly)
Lemon balm
Rosemary (may put hanging rosemary on deck)

SQUASH-- SUMMER (I'm a sucker for squash)
Peter pan patty squash (yummmmmm!!!!)
Zucchini
Yellow squash (maybe)

SQUASH-- FALL/WINTER
Butternut
Pumpkin (for cooking/freezing)

BEANS/PEAS
Beans-- 2-3 varieties to eat whole, dry, and freeze. Probably a green variety and red variety.
Sugar peas-- to eat whole and freeze
Lima beans-- to dry for winter
Peas/beans -- 2 varieties to dry for winter. Love the new ying/yang bean variety.

BERRIES
3 Blueberry plants, 3-years old. Each will produce about 1 lb of fruit this year, more next year. One early blueberry, one mid-summer blueberry, one late-summer blueberry.
Strawberries: in deck boxes on the deck.

HOPS
For fun, hops as vines on back deck railings.

FUN/EXPERIMENTAL THINGS
Salsify: Rare root plant. Rich-tasting, kind of oyster-ish flavor. Good for soups.
Luffa vines (MAYBE) to combine with hops on deck.
Sweet ground cherries. These failed last year at my friend's garden, but I'm determined because they are SOOO incredibly good.

Oy, and I haven't even gotten to flowers....
So far, all I've decided on is:
* Love lies bleeding
* Sunflowers - small varietals
* Zinnias


Everything on this list has been analyzed for a) how much we like it and b) how we'll use it. With the dehydrator, we can store a LOT more veggies without giving up all the space in the freezer. I still plan to can, but I'd like to limit that some this year. The berries last year turned out fantastically well, so I'd like to do those again (free blackberries in Oregon!). My pressure canner is great, but we'll see. I think I'll prefer the dehydrator since it stores things more condensed.

The pressure canner will probably be used a lot for other things, like chicken broth. I'm doing that tonight.

So much to plan! I have to figure out when goes in the ground and when to get things started. Additionally, I have to map some things out so that, for example, my tomatoes don't overshadow the carrots and keep the carrots from getting sunlight.

Oh, but come summertime... vegetables. Sigh!