where we spend our days now

as i mentioned last post, we have never spent as much time in our backyard as we have so far this spring/summer season. ethan requests "backyawd" practically as soon as he's halfway through breakfast. after we set up the kiddie pool last week, he convinced us to take off his pjs during breakfast this morning and almost made a break for the pool in his diaper before i realized the back door wasn't latched shut. he's a sneaky one.

we've been working on not picking all the flowers or trampling the garden. he massacred one of my peony plants, picking every single bud before they'd had a chance to bloom. we're having a bit more luck with the other two, as well as some of the other flowers that are slowly beginning to bloom. he seems to be slowly getting the hang of being gentle with the plants and is now excited about watering them all, including all the weeds, walking around dutifully with his little pitcher repeating "agua pants! agua pants!"

i decided to go all out and plant almost exclusively tomatoes this year. i've got a healthy variety of yellow pear, matt's wild cherry, roma, ace bush, big rainbow, and my all-time favorite: cherokee purple. i started them from seed in mid-april (a few weeks late for our region) and didn't get them planted until a few weeks ago, so they're all still quite small. i'm hoping for a healthy harvest come august, though.

i'd still like to get over to a garden store or the farmer's market and get some more flowers to put in pots and my flower boxes on the front porch, but we'll see if that's going to happen or not. my garage wall garden is going strong and overflowing with nasturtiums that i cannot wait to bloom. especially knowing that these are safely out of reach of small toddler hands.

as much as i truly loved growing up in the middle of manhattan, i'm kind of excited that ethan will get a bit more of the outdoors in the everyday of his childhood than i did. eating tomatoes and strawberries straight off the plants, digging in the dirt, "swimming" everyday...if the past few weeks/months are any indication, it's going to be a really great summer around here. 

the days are just packed

31.5 weeks

oh boy. how has it been over two weeks already since i last checked in here? the days (weeks, months) are really flying by and it's a little bit frightening. it seems to have finally warmed up a little bit here, but still doesn't feel like june yet since it has been raining nonstop. which is probably part of why time continues to sneak up on me. i am living for the weekends when i can tackle my neverending to-do lists and then those two short days (or even three sometimes!) fly by and suddenly it's sunday evening already. [sigh]

i have finally gotten my garden in for the year. i know i am being way too ambitious, given how little time for gardening/harvesting/canning i know i will have come august, but i just couldn't stop myself and suddenly i had 25 tomato plants in! not to mention the cucumbers, chard, basil, hot peppers, and squash...i tried to plant more herbs and flowers this year too. i've been posting some updates over on tend, if you want to follow along there.

we are headed up to a cabin in the northwoods this weekend and i am very excited. we've never done this before and somehow this seemed like the right time. call it our babymoon, i guess (my mom asked if it was our "swan song", i had never heard that term but thought it was sweet). just a few short days to enjoy ourselves and each others' company. we'll bring some books, knitting, food to eat, a dog to cuddle, a few cameras and film, and our swimsuits with fingers crossed that the lake isn't too freezing :) in the midst of all the to-do lists, it's feeling hard to get away for these few days, but this is exactly why we have to force ourselves, right? and then we will be back in it next week. it's starting to feel like the home stretch now, which is exciting but also kind of terrifying and a little bit sad, too.

really and truly

as bummed as i have been over the past few months that winter was just not arriving (really, i was very bummed about this. each day waking up hoping for a blizzard. even that one horrible january week that we always have when it just can't seem to rise above zero degrees. i missed that this year!) i am very glad for the arrival of spring.  typically, this early in march, i wouldn't bat an eye at a fluke 70 degree afternoon. but this year? well, this year i have to believe that spring is actually here to stay. seeing as winter never bothered to show up at all.

i missed my tend post yesterday, so here's a wee peek at my bees. buzzing their little hearts out. there's nothing for them to eat out here, so i can only guess that they're enjoying the warm sun as much as we are, returning to their hives for meals of honey. last summer i was incredibly lucky to have a friend keep bees in my yard, teaching me bits and pieces as we went along, but truly doing all of the work herself. this summer, i'm excited to learn more from her. and hopefully feel confident enough to share more in some of that work. we shall see.

future pickles

i'm sorry cucumber lovers, but to me that's basically what these are.  not that i dislike cucumbers (i'd better not with the crop i've got coming my way soon!) but what i really love is a good sour pickle.  i cannot wait to make a couple of batches of these spicy polish dills.  this was my first cucumber harvest, and judging from how my 9(!) plants are taking over the garden, and the hundreds of blooms on them, i think it's safe to say that this year, i'll be growing all my own pickles!  this was one of my goals and i am so psyched it's gonna happen.  (fyi: these are the double yield cucumbers from seed savers.  i tried growing this same variety, from the same seed packet, last year with no luck.  just goes to show that you should never give up!)

in the meantime, do you folks out there have any other pickle or cucumber recipes?  i'd love to try something new this year!

and just like that...

...spring is over. we reached 103 degrees this afternoon. the hottest day in 20 years. phew. it'll be back down to 65 in a day or two, man this weather is crazy.  here are a few scenes from my garden. i took these photos about two weeks ago, when i first got home from new york (those photos coming later this week) and it's crazy to see how much things have already changed. these early peonies and lilacs are already done blooming, the peas have climbed almost to the tops of the trellises, and these pots have filled in so much more.  not to mention that i've planted a lot more too!  

i've mostly been writing about my gardening adventures this year over on tend, but i'll try to keep sharing some here as well. gosh knows, there's certainly enough to go around this year!  in addition to my home garden, which has expanded this year, i somewhat inadvertently acquired two additional plots at my community garden.  i feel like i'm managing a small farm!  i've got 19 tomato plants, almost 30 onions, 3 melons, 17 pepper plants (bell and jalapeno), countless beans, 3 zucchini/summer squash, 3 cucumbers, 17 garlic plants, herbs up the wazoo, radishes, arugula, lettuce, peas, 3 types of kale, more chard than i can count, loads of flowers, and more still to be planted.  {phew}  

for the past few weeks, almost every evening, after i get home from work, i spend a little bit of time (maybe even a few hours) watering and tending the gardens.  it's so nice to have this time in the evening after long days at work.  since it stays light so late, it makes it easy.  but we've also been finding ourselves at after 8pm and not having even thought about dinner.  we're going to have to get into a better routine with this thing, i think. 

are you planting a garden these days?  and what are your favorite quick summer dinners?

signs of spring

:: all those bulbs that i planted in a frenzy last fall finally making an appearance.

:: rain and thunderstorms and tornadoes and more rain.

:: bare arms and sandals and dresses and no jackets.

:: the soreness after a day's work in the garden.

:: light spring dinners eaten at 9pm when it's still light out. (our recent, easy favorite being salad greens with tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, carrots, avocado, crispy tofu cubes, a scoop of warm quinoa with balsamic vinaigrette.  and some chopped sharp cheddar for me.)

spring took a long time to show her face this year, but now that it's finally here, i hope she'll stick around for a while.  spring this year is bursting so full of life and good and crazy and collapsing on the couch and good and good and good.

herbal shampoo

hi friends!

i know, i know, it's been forever again. i've been to new york city and back and my garden is exploding, and my work is sucking me in, and i've got a zillion thank you notes to write to some very very lovely people.  i will be back soon, promise.

but first, i've posted a recipe for a lovely herbal shampoo over on [tend].  do check it out.

xo

bees. 'nuff said.

if you caught my post on [tend] this week, you got a sneak peek of my exciting news already, but in case you missed it...probably the most exciting backyard development of the year is the addition of two bee hives.  that's right.  two. bee. hives.  with approximately 20,000 bees or so (at least, that's what i think 6 lbs. of bees adds up to) buzzing around.  

it's pretty awesome.  it all started a little over a year ago, when i wrote this post.  chris, who i only barely knew through molly and the now-fizzled out homesteading blog (in fact, the only time we'd met was at our foray into cheesemaking) responded, offering some assistance.  in a nutshell, chris wanted to keep bees but had no space, and i had the space but not the time to learn how to keep bees.  a match made in heaven.  or something like that.  by the time we got it all together last year, it was too late in the season and it didn't work out.  but this year, it all came together and i'm a happy landlady to my bee tenants.  

chris came over a couple of weeks ago and we set up the hive boxes and about a week and a half ago the bees arrived and chris and her friend joe successfully transferred them into the hive while jared and i watched in awe.  to say we're excited about this would be an understatement.  our yard isn't that big, so these little ones are practically right out our backdoor and almost every morning we go out and just watch them crawl in and out of the little holes in the front of the hives.  we checked on them earlier this week to confirm that both queens were alive (they are!) and we found that they've already begun drawing out the comb (making wax) and collecting pollen.  if we look closely as they return to the hive, we can see the yellow/orange spots on their legs, which is the pollen they've collected.  

i'm so excited to learn more about this, and feel so lucky to have such a capable teacher/beekeeper to take this on (and i know how grateful chris is for our yard, so i feel like this is such a perfect exchange).  i hope you all are ready for a summer full of bee-talk!

and yes, in case any of you are wondering, this is legal in minneapolis.  at the moment, it's legal to keep chickens and bees in the city, and i know there are folks working on getting permits available for hoofed animals (particularly goats), which are allowed in st. paul.  i recently read that there are currently only 6 permits for beekeeping, which we're one of! (though i have a feeling most city beekeepers don't have permits...)

on gardening in a community [tend]

 

my weekly post is up at tend.  this week, i'm writing about why i love my community garden.  i wanted to say thank you one more time for the positive response we've gotten around this project.  it's so gratifying to have others share in the excitement.  and it's given me an even greater excuse to focus on and document my gardening adventures this year, which have already proven to be greater than any other year (and it's barely spring yet).  

anyways, if you want to read a bit about community gardening, check it out!

a sign of spring

those pesky dandelions that everyone wishes would leave their pristine yards alone.  i'll take them!  last year i ventured further into urban foraging and made dandelion sorbet, which was absolutely delicious.  

spring has been very slow coming in minneapolis  this year- it actually snowed during the annual may day parade this past weekend.  so when i started to see dandelions popping up around town last week, i knew some spring-like weather would surely follow soon.  so this afternoon, when i was headed out for my walk with freddie, i decided to grab a little mesh bag to bring along and collect dandelion blossoms in the park.  as with last year, i got a few odd looks, and was happy to explain what i was doing to a passing schoolgirl.  

of course, if you're going to forage dandelions (or anything else) you'll want to make sure that the area is not treated with pesticides.  last spring, i called the minneapolis parks department and they assured me that the only treatment the parks get is an occasional (and, i mean occasional) mowing.  definitely no pesticides.  of course, there are all manner of other things going on in the park (especially dogs and other critters) so you'll want to make sure to thoroughly rinse the flowers when you get home. 

instead of sorbet (which i do hope to make again this spring), i decided to go for some dandelion lemonade today.  i followed this recipe, using about 1 Tbl honey and it's steeping right now.  can't wait to drink it up later this evening.  perhaps while sitting on the back porch?  why, don't mind if i do.

tend

hello friends!

it's been a while, hasn't it?  i didn't mean to disappear for almost two weeks, but that's just life, then sometimes isn't it?  it is for me lately anyways.  spring is finally here (i'm ignoring the forecast of 2" of sleet for tomorrow!) and i'm feeling a weight lifting every day.  i do promise to be here more often!

today, i wanted to share a new project with you all.  it's called tend.  tend is a new collaborative blog initiated by amy johnson.  amy, shari, natalie, heather and myself will be posting weekly (i'm on wednesdays!) about our adventures in tending our gardens.  i'm so honored and excited about this project and about documenting this year's garden in a new way.  i think each year i say this, but i am more excited about my garden this year than ever before- from my seed starting adventures, to all the new things i'd like to try to grow, and new techniques i'm experimenting with...it's going to be a beautiful garden this year.  

i'm so grateful to amy, for coming up with this project, and to shari for inviting me to participate.  please join us over at tend!   


{ps: a new spring banner is up...only a month late!}

in which i jump up and down and scream {or just plant some seeds}

i started seeds! okay, so maybe this isn't nearly as exciting to anyone else as it is to me.  but OH MY GOD I PLANTED SOMETHING! this fact is exciting to me for a few reasons.  number one, as much as i loved it until a month ago, this feels like it has been the longest winter ever.  number two, thus far i have never been very successful with indoor seed starting yet i am incredibly hopeful for this year's attempts.  and number three, it feels so freaking incredible to get an idea for a project, plan it out, and just do it.  really. such a good feeling, i highly recommend it.  

a bit of background: the first spring after we moved to mn was the first year i gardened.  it was 2007.  i got a copy of you grow girl and went for it.  although, i didn't exactly follow the instructions closely and just figured that our sunny kitchen would suffice for my little indoor tomato seedlings.  wrong.  they were very leggy and barely survived and didn't turn out to be very productive.  jump ahead to 2008 and repeat.  the following two years, i gave up on the seed starting and just direct sowed seeds outdoors and supplemented with plants purchased at the farmer's market.  this was my plan for this year too (you know, making an effort to acknowledge that i probably have too much on my plate to start another project).  but there i was, reviewing my already-placed seed order, when i realized that kale (which was a total flop last year) is actually supposed to be started indoors early.  what?! who knew?  so of course the fact that i needed to start my kale seeds early turned into setting up a full blown operation in my basement.  not to mention, an excuse to start a whole slew of other plants early too.  

so here is my setup.  it is based largely on this post.   i have no plants that i overwintered and i didn't start that many seedlings, so i'm just using a crappy thrifted table that was serving as a laundry folding station.  i think next year, i'll need to upgrade to a full on shelf.  aside from the table, here is what my setup required:
2 fluorescent shop lights ($10.99 each at the hardware store).
2 fluorescent bulbs- i already had 2 on hand ($3.99 each at the hardware store)
1 timer for the lights
a length of chain and some S-hooks
2 boot trays- i already had one ($7.99/each at the hardware store)
2 heating pads ($55)
a cut-up garbage bag to cover the seedlings
seed starting soil mixture ($10 for 2 bags)
re-used plastic pots from all those plants i've bought over the years
seeds

 so...what did i plant?
cherokee purple tomatoes
ace bush tomatoes
yellow pear tomatoes
basil
stevia
bull nose bell peppers
jalapeno peppers
lacinato kale
scotch blue curly kale
red russian kale
five color silverbeet chard


it took me about three hours to plant all these seedlings and get the operation set up, which i think is pretty good.  i started this a little over a week ago, and almost everything is sprouting now except for a couple of peppers.  this past weekend, i added another tray consisting of: mn midget melon (like muskmelon, i think), sugarbaby watermelon, zinnia, calendula, and marigolds.  i was contemplating starting squash and cucumbers too, but i'm not positive yet.  i've never started squash early (always just direct seeded) but i figure i might as well get a jump on it, which may give me the opportunity to plant something else after it's finished producing later in the summer.  or at least give it a longer time period for producing.  (i've recently read that cukes don't like to be transplanted, so maybe i'll just direct seed those afterall- any tips out there?)


so there you have it.  the beginnings of possibly my craziest gardening year yet.  i've got so many new ideas for this year, i feel like i'm going to burst.  all i can hope for now is that this excitement (and the energy to carry it out) lasts throughout the summer.  

also, i've got a very exciting garden-related collaborative project in the works that will hopefully be revealed in the next week or two.  i can't wait to share it with you all.  


what are you all growing these days?

fall garden update

Hi friends!  Sorry to disappear on you for a week, but I had a quick jaunt to New York City for some quality family and friend time.  I've returned to find that it is indeed early fall here in Minnesota and my garden is slowly beginning to close down for the season.  I had really hoped to get myself in gear to plant some fall crops but, once again, I didn't make it.  I think that late summer heat wave and then our big road trip really took that motivation right out of me.  That's okay.  I'm still really happy with what I've ended up with.  

This year I had some exciting successes and disappointing failures (isn't that the story every sesason?).  But I'm happy to report that I think I had more successes this year than ever before, so I'm taking that feeling with me into fall and winter.  

Successes: 
:: Potatoes were a moderate success.  I planted six burlap sacks with four or five seed potato pieces each.  I ended up with just over 3 pounds of potatoes.  I think I'll modify my method next year, but I definitely want to try again.  I had hoped for more, but realistically knew I'd be happy if I grew enough for one meal.
:: Squash of all sorts were abundant this year.  Zucchini (black beauty and cocozelle) as well as yellow summer squash were just gangbusters.  I froze a lot, including three quarts of Stephanie's curried zucchini soup (which I highly recommend). I also have harvested two butternut squashes and have two more that are just about ripe.
:: Cherry tomatoes were quite prolific, and early this year.  The best being Matt's Wild Cherry and also Sungolds.  I tried Peacevines, but I don't think any of those survived the great squirrel and/or raccoon massacre.  
:: Dry beans were probably the most exciting thing I grew this year.  I'm not sure why it had never occurred to me, but one of my community garden-mates mentioned it to me early on in the spring and I got so excited that I added them to my Seed Savers order at the last minute (one of the many reasons I love community gardening).  I planted 50 seeds each of October Beans and Hutterite Soup Beans and harvested about 2 cups of each variety.  I'm saving 50 seeds of each for next year and hope to grow additional varieties as well.


In addition to my successes, I did have some failures this summer too...
:: Tomatoes.  I'm slightly comforted to learn that almost everyone I know (all across the country, I might add) has had a down tomato year.  But it still bugs me.  Many of my plants barely produced fruits, and those that did mostly got eaten by critters.  I'll have to come up with a solution for next year.  I did get one large delicious brandywine tomato though...
:: Green and purple string beans.  I was all excited about these as well, but I think the slugs attacked and they got some kind of disease as well.  I'm not quite sure, but it was a big disappointment.
:: Cucumbers.  For some reason they just didn't really grow many fruits and, again, most of the fruits got eaten by critters of some kind.  


There were a lot of other things that I grew that I would put in the moderate success (or failure) category including: bell and jalapeno peppers, red russian kale, japanese eggplant, and carrots.  Spinach, blue kale, and swiss chard were also total failures for various reasons.  

I hope to have another late-season update before I put the garden to bed completely (I was also quite successful with many herbs this year, but I'll save that for another post soon).  I just got my garlic bulbs in the mail from Seed Savers, so there's still more planting to do!  How has your garden been growing this early fall season?

gardening with herbs

Most of you know that I've gotten super into gardening with herbs (and making things with said herbs) in the last couple years.  My friend Shari was sweet enough to ask me to write up a little post about my top five herbs for her column, The Stir, over at CafeMom...go check it out!


I have to say, that it was really hard to choose my top five herbs/medicinal plants so I think I might be doing more posts like that one as the summer progresses.  I've been trying new medicinal recipes left and right and have tons more up my sleeve, so there will be no shortage of things for me to blabber on about!

the garden plan for 2010

{Photos from my community garden. The top photos is my plot, all others belong to other gardeners}

I promised you all that I would share with you my garden layout for this year and here it is. The two beds on the left--the 3208 garden--represent the two raised beds at my house. The plot on the left--the Columbus garden--represents my plot at my community garden about 5 blocks away, where I've gardened for the last three years. Just to give you an idea of much space I have, my garden plots measure about 8'x4', 8'x3', and 12'x10', respectively (click on the photo for a larger view- it didn't scan at the actual size).

As of now, the only things that aren't yet planted are: carrots (which will be planted where the spinach is, once that bolts), chard, and eggplant. I had to move the eggplant from my home garden to the community plot since I ended up buying way more peppers than I planned for. I'm also deciding whether or not I want to plant anything in between the two beans at the Columbus garden or just leave that as a space for me to be in while I'm working in that plot. Maybe I'll stick in another kale?

Since I live a few blocks away from that garden, I intentionally planted low maintenance crops that don't need daily tending. I'm assuming that it won't be long until this plot is crazy covered with squash vines, and I need to decide soon if I'm going to try to trellis these plants to save some space, or just let them go wild. Any ideas on that? I do have trellises for my cucumbers at home, but I'm not sure about the rest of the squashes.

So there you have it. Most things have sprouted already and are starting to go nuts. I'm so excited! I'll have some progress photos to share with you in a few days. In the meantime, I'm actually thinking about buying some flowers to plant this weekend. I know, I never plant flowers, but I'm on a serious planting kick, I just can't stop!

A little more for the rhubarb

I'm starting to realize that, over the past few years, I've posted a whole slew of rhubarb recipes. It's even gotten to the point where I'd forgotten about the first recipe I posted (I made a gallette, what?!). So I'm going to link to them all here, since it is most definitely rhubarb season now, and I know a few of you out there are most likely looking for a new recipe. Maybe you'll find one here.

:: Oatmeal Rhubarb Crumble
:: Rhubarb Gallette
:: Rhubarb Soda
:: Raspberry Rhubarb Jam
:: Rhubarb Sorbet
:: Apple Rhubarb Crisp
:: Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins

{Holy crap, that's a lot of rhubarb recipes!}

And in the meantime, I'll throw another one on the pile. Elena sent me this recipe last spring and I only just got around to making it recently (she might have gotten it from Martha Stewart, but I'm really not sure). Can I tell you, it's delicious. The rhubarb-orange combination just works. We first had some atop our morning oatmeal, and yesterday afternoon, after a hot bike ride home from the grocery store, I discovered that it is the perfect topping for some ice cream. I'm a huge fan of the tempt vanilla bean hempmilk ice cream lately. Seriously, this is the best non-dairy ice cream I've had yet..it's actually creamy. But, um, back to the rhubarb.

One tip I will give you is that this compote has a very strong flavor. For a whole bowl of oatmeal, one heaping teaspoon will probably suffice. But I'll let you all be the judge of that. And now I'm contemplating preserving a few jars of this...

Rhubarb-Orange Compote, adapted from Elena's recipe

Ingredients:
5-6 good sized stalks of rhubarb
3/4 cup sugar
4 cloves or 1/8 tsp ground clove, cardamom, or cinnamon (I used whole cloves, but I think any of these would be delicious)
zest of 1 orange
juice of 1 orange

Cut rhubarb into 1/2" pieces. In a medium pot, combine rhubarb with sugar and begin to heat. Add in spice, orange zest and juice, cook over medium-low until rhubarb is soft, but still holding it's shape. This can take 20-30 minutes (but I honestly don't remember the timing, sorry!).

and the garden begins...

Folks, spring is here. Even though it was nearing 80 degrees last month (I believe it was officially the warmest April on record) and lightly snowed last weekend, this is a Minnesota spring. Indeed, we've been harvesting rhubarb for a few weeks now (from our massive plant!), and earlier this week we had a dinner of sautéed morels on toast with roasted asparagus, all local!

I started to get in the gardening spirit a few weeks ago when I dug up my raised garden beds in our new backyard--I thought I was double digging them, but apparently didn't do it quite right, oh well-- something is better than nothing, right?! I added compost and topsoil and turned that in, and then walked a few blocks over to our old apartment to dig up my six lavender plants I'd planted there and a bunch of raspberry canes to transplant into our garden. As I was toting my rusty old wagon full of plants back across a fairly busy intersection to my house, I'm pretty sure I interrupted a minor drug deal on the corner (don't worry mom!). Oh the joys of urban gardening! I got a lot of funny looks.

This year, in my annual effort to have the best garden ever, I signed up for an urban farming class through a local nonprofit organization. Though much of the class seemed to be geared towards those who were setting up urban farms for profit (which I am not planning to do, at least not anytime soon), I did glean quite a few new ideas that I plan to try this year. Most of the interesting techniques I learned about were from a method called Biointensive Gardening, and Small Plot Intensive Farming (SPIN Farming)- and had a lot ways to have very productive gardens in a small space, including using techniques like companion planting and succession planting. (The Biointensive Gardening method is described really well in a book called How to Grow More Vegetables- even if you don't follow the method exactly, or at all, it's a really great resource for gardening in small spaces!)

Of course, my gardening space is so small, that pretty much everything is companion planted! After learning all of these new ideas, I began to feel a bit paralyzed about how to plan out my garden. Last week, I sat down with some books, my fresh 2010 gardening journal, and just began to sketch it all out. I'm not going to get so overambitious as to try to fully implement all of these methods right away-- in fact, that's not even always recommended (in How to Grow More Vegetables, he suggests just trying Biointensive Gardening on a 3'x3' area of your garden for the first year).

I did get my start a bit late this year, or maybe it just felt that way since April was so dang warm. In mid-April, I ordered a whole slew of seeds from Seed Savers Exchange, an organization I am really excited to learn more about and get more involved with. I also ordered potatoes, which are currently sprouting in my windowsill and will be planted in burlap sacks this weekend (more on that in a different post). It was too late to start seeds indoors, which I accepted I would just not have the wherewithal to deal with this year, given everything else I've got going on in my life, but I ordered everything I'd be able to direct sow into the ground, and some things (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, herbs) will just be purchased as seedlings from local farmers at the market.

So...here's what I'm planting this year (vegetables):
Kale (Red Russian and Blue Curled Scotch)
Spinach
Carrots
Lettuce (various leaf lettuce varieties)
Silverbeet Chard
Beans (Green, Purple, and two kinds of dry beans for soup- super excited to try this!)
Squash (2 varieties of zucchini, summer squash, butternut squash)
Watermelon
Cucumber
Eggplant
Tomatoes (all different kinds of cherry and full-size)
Peppers (bell and jalapeño)
Potatoes (yellow and red)
...and Garlic bulbs will be planted in the fall.

I also have a whole list of herbs and medicinal plants that I'm doing as well, but in the interest of space, I think I'll save that for a different post! Like I said, I'm really excited to try some new vegetables this year (dry beans! winter squash! melon! potatoes and garlic!) and also to try some new planting techniques. I have more room this year as our new house has two raised beds (in addition to other space too) and I'll be keeping my plot at the community garden just a few blocks away (that will primarily be the squash patch!).

Tell me, what new things are you trying in your garden this year? I'd love to hear some of your ideas out there too!