It begins!

It's only January 20th, and I've already got my new seeds in, and have begun the planning phase of the garden for this year!  I thought this photo was quite appropriate - with the snow on the ground in the background.

That photo has all the seeds I plan on planting this year.  Last year was a year of experimentation.  I have never had a garden of my own.  I did have one when I was growing up, but as a kid, I didn't really pay attention to what was going on.  I just knew we got food from the garden after lots and lots of work (and weeding - I hate weeding - lol).

This is what's on "tap" to be planted this year - broccolli, carrots, lettuce, cauliflower, peppers (four varieties - green bell, habanero, jalapeno, and thai chili), pumpkins, tomatoes (four varieties - ace 55, homestead, cherry, and brandywine), cucumbers (two varieties - marketmore 76 and wisconsin smr58 pickling), zucchini, summer squash, oregano, basil, parsley, and my absolute favorite - CORN!!  About half of this is stuff I've never grown before, so this year will also be full of experimentation!  The corn was what started this whole thing last year.  That, and I was tired of getting bruised and beat up veggies for top price at the grocery store.

All of my seeds are from two companies - mypatriotsupply.com and rareseeds.com - both of which are part of the Safe Seed Pledge and sell only non-GMO seeds.

A few friends asked me to blog about my experiences this year, so I plan to try and do just that.  For now, the planning stages continue.  Last year, the garden was 14' x 13' and I do think it'll have to almost triple that size for this year.

This was one of the last photos from last year's garden, taken on 7/18/2013. The goal was to get at least one veggie from every species/variety in the garden, and I did that, and then some (we froze some peppers, corn, and canned some tomatoes and cucumbers).  It was a HUGE learning experience though, which will definitely continue this year.

I intend to share my trials and tribulations (lol) as this year's garden grows.  I also intend to share what I learned from last year, what I plan to do this year about it (stupid cucumber beetles and powdery mildew), and let you know if it works or not.