So glad that you've got this to look forward to, Rachel. I'm always excited to see what you get from nature's bounty. Planting season is a long way away for us (May 15th is the date they give us), but it's nice to plan things out ahead of time.

After the abysmal failure of my gardening efforts last year, I'm going to try to do something this year. Even if it is some tomatoes and peppers, I'll be happy. (I might due some herbs too. . . just because I love cooking with them!)

I highly recommend herb gardens, if only because the majority fall under the category of "tasty weeds" and are easy to grow. There are a few I replant each year (parsley and basil) but for the most part they're either perennials or they reseed vigorously. And I HATE going to the store and buying a big packet of some kind of herb only to use a sprig or two while the rest goes to waste.

For the most part, can you dry them and use them over a long period of thyme

Oooh, goody, this thread is back up again!!

I'm in the same boat as Digs - last year my gardening efforts were a bit awful because I waited until forever to dig and to make matters worse, I overplanted. Not this year! I'm thinking about doing the same as I did: tomatoes, peppers, herbs (mint, dill, basil, and whatever else I find that's interesting), and eggplant (which surprised me and gave me a lot of produce last year.) I'm also considering spinach in spring or in fall. I'm limiting the maximum amount of plants for any one variety to 5.
This year will be considerably easier, because the conditions of raising the plants are a bit better and I have some knowledge of what I'm doing.

I'm thinking about buying the smaller variety of eggplant, because that might grow faster and we eat that one considerably more than we do the larger varieties. I found some in Pinetree seed's catalog (I've been getting those catalogs, too, fantasia. ). It's a container type, which is great for me because that means I won't have to worry about putting it in the ground if I don't have enough room.
Additionally, I accidentally put my basil and dill seeds in my jeans pocket and put those jeans in the washing machine and forgot all about the seeds, so I'm going to have to buy those, too... My clumsy stage never wore off.

And...ugh, these catalogs keep writing to Mr. [Aslanisthebest]. I called about that last year and the lady very nicely said that she changed it to Miss but here they are, to Mr. Aslanisthebest.

I'm also considering spinach in spring or in fall. I'm limiting the maximum amount of plants for any one variety to 5.

Spinach is a sinch to grow! It's very hardy (to the point where it can even get snowed upon and still do fine), and it grows VERY quickly. You can go from seed to greens in less than a month in the proper conditions. I usually plant it in early - mid April, and by mid May, you can be munching on it all the time

I should really set aside a portion of our veggie garden for herbs. Been meaning to do this for awhile now. I always have parsley, and sporadically, other things, but never a full spread of lovely herbs. We had mint years ago and it grew 'like a weed'. We could hardly control it. I cut it way back, dug some out, and we still get sprigs here and there.

Glad to see you're still going to do some gardening, fantasia. It just wouldn't be the same if you didn't.

I'm hoping to get my wee tomato plants in earlier this year. We had such a great yield last year from Jet Star and grape tomatoes, but at the beginning of the season, my Brandywine and a cherry tomato plant died which was very disappointing. I am determined to make them survive this year! I will definitely plant a green pepper plant again, and possibly an orange and red too. I've never tried spinach, but I adore the stuff. Other seeds I'll be planting are beans, peas, carrots, cucumbers.

Mr. Aslanisthebest.

Wups.

Anyway, with deep winter upon us, I am so far away from planning my veggie garden, except for knowing I will probably be planting much of it the Canadian May long weekend (May 18) or possibly the weekend after, since the holiday is a tad early this year. We can have frost up until the 20th or so.

Eager to get out in that richly-scented earth again, but not eager for winter to end, so I'm rather torn.

EDIT: fk, those peanuts look so good. I'm curious if anyone did try them and how they actually tasted.

I always plants amaryllis bulbs the last week of November (indoors ). Most of them are given away as gifts, but I make sure to keep one for our home, amaryllis being a favourite flower of mine. The first stalk bloomed just after Christmas—so beautiful—and then a new stalk began poking its head up. This second one grew well over 2' high in the past few weeks, surpassing the first stalk by a foot, with a full bloom at the top, which is just beginning to open now.

Pics one is with the bud still tightly closed; pic two has the bud pushing its way open (taken yesterday). When it's all done—the flowers take a few days to fully open—there should be four glorious, large red and white blooms.

Thanks to the help of my sister Ara, I finally got some seeds planted today. All were pepper seeds leftover from last year.
~California Wonder
~Bananas
~Green Chiles
~Anaheim
~Red Thai
~Cayenne
~Habanero
~Jalapeno

I also ordered Flavorburst and Yummy peppers from my Totally Tomatoes catalog (ah, irony, peppers from a tomato company), as well as Honeybunch and Juliet tomatoes from Burpee. As soon as those seeds arrive I'll be starting my tomato seeds as well.

For this year, I think I'm going to try something new if I am able to. I think I'd like to build a raised bed, since that seems to be the most profitable. The soil around here is like clay (at the most sunny spots, it's studded with rocks) and frankly, hacking at it with only manual tools isn't working very well. I did not put the cow manure in correctly last time, which explains why in one area, the plants had foliage but no fruit. And because it's so hard to dig the soil and I don't want to go wrong in trying to correct it, I'm opting for a raised bed. If I can get the boards, I might actually do this. The ground was just painful last year, and I'm so impressed with how well raised beds work and how many plants they can take in a relatively small space, so if I can do this, I'll give it a go. Instead of doing one big one or making a worse mess of the backyard , I'm thinking of turning the soil where I've already dug and making two small ones over that.

I was kind of going to play by ear as far as planting mix went, but then I saw that I could actually buy the stuff for much, much cheaper in bulk! That possibility takes a huge burden off my shoulders, because the soil was a big obstacle in considering this. I'm going to have to be painfully meticulous in my calculations for how much soil so I don't end up with copious amounts of extra soil sitting around.

I can't believe I almost have to start my plants yet. I'll keep it to Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant, Zucchini, Spinach, beans, and some herbs and only a few plants of those, because I've taken up the raised bed project.

Someone referred me to this website on how to build a raised bed and I found it extremely helpful. I will probably leave out the PVC pipes because a) I'm planning to do tomatoes, so the pipe would only get in the way and b) extra work and drilling and eh, it's fine.
The instructions say to use hardware mesh to keep out gophers and moles, but I've never seen a mole around here, and I've never seen a gopher in my life. So I'm considering the risk of leaving that step out.

I'm opting for a raised bed

Cool! Best of luck to you getting it built. We've talked about doing a raised bed, but I'm too lazy and too cheap so my poor husband gets to till up the garden himself.

Speaking of which, it was so gorgeous here yesterday, he did precisely that... at least the vast majority of it. There's still a small section that needs to be tilled but it's almost all done.

My pepper and tomato seeds that I ordered have now arrived so I need to finish planting my peppers and then look into starting my tomatoes here in about two weeks time.

Totally Tomatoes sent me some bonus seeds again this year, some Purple Cayennes and an assortment of Heirloom Cherry tomatoes.

My first two Jalapeno Peppers sprouted overnight. Yay!!

So I'm having pepper woes this year. First of all, one of my cats (Abi I"m sure) got into the ones that sprouted early and at the tops off of a good 10 of them. So those were toast.
Over the past few days it's been SUPER nice outside so I've started to acclimate my little plants to the great outdoors, but apparently the Habaneros couldn't handle it cause those three (and just those three) shriveled up and died.
*grumble grumble*

Anyways, this weekend I MUST start my tomatoes and the rest of my peppers. I'm very behind due to motherhood and the inability to locate my seed starting trays.

Oh, I did get my onions ordered finally.
http://www.territorialseed.com/product/1338
They should ship very soon and I'll get them in the ground and hopefully get some awesome onions. Last year I didn't buy a single onion from the store from about June to November.

My Monkshood plant has started to resurface from its winter nap! A sure harbinger of spring, and the start of planting season! YAY!!!

With school letting out on April 30th this year, I might actually get to do some stuff on time this year!

Best of luck to you getting it built. We've talked about doing a raised bed, but I'm too lazy and too cheap so my poor husband gets to till up the garden himself.

Hahaha!

Well, the raised bed is not up yet. I'm having a hard time finding the lumber, and I have crossed off buying the soil from a nursery because they sell it in too much of bulk, and transportation for it is more fun However, I think I'll be able to accumulate the soil in bags over time, so I have not completely given up the idea. *le sigh*

Sorry about your pepper troubles, fantasia! I hope you can straighten that out.

Yay, Digs!

We were out in the garage today, and it's around planting time, so I was thinking about gardening. I'll have time to get around to starting my plants in two weeks. It is a bit late, but the weather has been unpredictable, so I guess it's okay.

So Aravanna came over last week and we FINALLY got my tomatoes and the rest of my peppers planted. Just waiting on them to come up.

I believe I discovered what was causing the mysterious death of so many of my peppers. Last year we put a new window in the bedroom they're in with Low-E glass. I think it was blocking out just enough sun that the peppers weren't getting enough. I've moved them to a different window and the ones that are still alive are looking MUCH better. Just waiting for it to warm up so I can get them into my green house.

My onions have also arrived but due to the snow on the ground I haven't planted them yet. It's going to warm up later this week but then it's going to storm and I doubt I'll be able to get them planted fast enough.