Garden Planning Time!

It's a little sad to look out the window in late March and see snow.  I haven't exactly loved the rainy weather this week, but at least it wasn't snow!  What better thing to do on a dreary cold day than plan the garden?

Every year I sit down with my seed packets, my garden plot maps from past years and some graph paper to plan the garden.  This year I managed to put off my spring fever until now- The deadline for getting seeds started in the basement.  Most of the little plants need about 6 weeks to establish themselves before transplanting (I rarely transplant before mid-May in this climate).

So what's on the list this year?  I'm simplifying a bit- I've slowly narrowed down the plants to what we really use a lot of, what we can't buy cheaply from local organic farmers and/or what grows well in our yard.  

Seeds already purchased:

• Seeds of Change (SOC) Green Glaze Collards
  
• Seed Savers' Exchange (SSE) Lacinato Kale
  
• SSE Dwarf Blue Curled Scotch Kale
  
• SSE St. Valery Carrots
  
• High Mowing Seeds (HMS) De Cicco Broccoli
  
• SSE Early Snowball Cauliflower
  
• SSE Double Yield Cucumbers
  
• SSE Thai Hot Peppers
  
• SSE Quadrato Asti Gaiallo Bell Peppers
  
• SOC Genovese Sweet Basil
  
• HMS Early Jalapeno
  

Seeds/plants I still need to buy:

• Green beans
  
• Beets
  
• Lettuce
  
• Tomatoes
  
• Radishes
  
• Snap peas
  
• Lettuce leaf basil
  
• Cilantro
  

I'll probably also plant some potatoes and we have perrenial herbs, raspberries, blackberries, and mulberries we can count on.  And garlic.  And apples.

So the peppers, chiles, cauliflower, broccoli, and basil have been planted in my sweet basement set-up.  Now I just wait patiently for the sun.