What’s New for Gibby’s Garden in Spring 2013
As I pondered what to write about here at Gibby’s Garden today, I was hit with a forecast calling for 12-14 inches of snow the day before the start of spring. Though I’d much rather have lots of sunshine and warmer days, there is still much to do before heading out and planting my garden in the upcoming months.
For starters, I ordered my seeds a few days ago to ensure the varieties of vegetables I wanted would still be in stock. I also decided which vegetables I’d grow from seed and which transplants I’d buy from my local nursery. I plan on canning my own tomato sauce this year so I decided to forgo starting my own tomatoes indoors and instead will buy transplants.
While patiently waiting for spring to settle in, I also thought a lot about companion planting as a way to save space in my ever expanding garden. This year my peas will be planted with my corn so they can use the cornstalks as a natural trellis and my lettuce will be planted with my tomatoes as an edible groundcover and another way to keep the weeds down.
I’m not exactly sure where all the vegetables in my garden are going to go yet, but seeing as I still have some time, I’m going to take my time planning as I figure in crop rotation, companion planting and which vegetables might block the sun from others if planted in the wrong spot.
As I plan my garden this spring, I thought I’d pass a long a few tips to help you plant yours.
- Choose bush varieties for containers and small gardens
- Companion plant to save on space (grouping 2 or more vegetables together that don’t compete for nutrients/space etc.
- Rotate crops from last year
- Choose varieties to fit the growing season (days to maturity)
- Consider plant height and space needed to grow
- Consider succession planting (plant early and late varieties of the same vegetable to extend the growing season)
I use these tips to plan my garden every year. If you have any tips on saving time, space or money or garden planning tips in general, please feel free to share them below.
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