Ahh, Christmas is over and the mailbox has gone from being packed with Christmas cards to being packed with seed catalogs.
Yes. Seed catalogs.
“Wow” you may be thinking “Those seed folks like to start a bit early don’t they. I mean isn’t there like a 1/2 foot of snow on the ground in Upstate NY? And isn’t the last spring frost something like mid MAY???”
Well all that is true, but for those who start their own seeds indoors, or who do winter sowing, it’s just about time to order seeds! I’ll have a pleasant few evenings coming up where I will sit on the sofa, after the kids have gone to bed, and read through plant descriptions and decide what veggies I will try for the coming year.
It’s fun in the same strange way that reading through a new cookbook is. Full of possibilities.
Of course, being the enthusiastic person I am, my biggest problem is trying to reign myself in from having too many plans. Especially since I wind up doing 90% of it myself (Yankee Bill does a fabulous job with the tilling &/or heavy lifting, and really enjoys eating the produce. But he’s not so into the actual gardening. Plus, you know, he works all day at the office while I’m home)
I’m sure some of you are interested in starting a veggie garden for the first time this year, or growing some edible plants out on your patio. I am sure that there will be an increase in the number of vegetable gardens this year as people look for ways to save money. The Dirt at Plan Garden had an article about just that-why he felt that 2009 will be the year of the vegetable garden.
So what do you think? Will you be trying a garden for the first time this year? Do you have plans to expand? What types of things are you going to do different, or better, or not at all?
And what kind of information would you like to see here on Frugal Upstate? I have gotten to know quite a few fantastic gardeners & garden bloggers over on Twitter-I’m sure I could round up some fabulous guest posts by experts really in the know.
And, I think I smell an episode or two of my new “Frugal Coast2Coast” radio show coming up in a month or so on gardening. . .
Even though I’ve gardened for a few years, i still consider myself a newbie gardener as i don’t always get my timing right with things. (i grow from seed for frugality’s sake.) I would love to see info/recipes/detailed processes on canning and other preservation topics. I didn’t grow up around this and am on a severe learning curve. I need things simple and photos would be great!
thanks for bringing the topic up!
I want to start a small garden this year. 🙂
I’d love to expand my herb garden. I’d love tips and suggestions and of course -yummy recipes!!!!!
I have a local seed shop which is just around the corner from my house. I’ve already been in for a look twice, but I haven’t settled and bought anything yet.
I think this year, I’ll wait and plant later in the season. It’s looking to be another cold start to the year.
I'm slowly weaned myself off of subscription gardening to our own city garden. This year I think that I'm going to cut our garden by 50% but only plant the things that I did well with and that we were eager to consume. It's a great payback when our family of 6 eats what would be $3 of melons a day, makes our own fresh basil pesto and bruschetta, and creatively uses zukes, cukes, & yellow squash. So I'm stick with those plus we'll try pumpkins here in Western PA. I'm still a beginner but the success of these makes me eager to work a garden again.
I am planning to expand my garden this year. I am going to try the square foot garden idea. I am also going to plant some blueberry and raspberry plants since my kids eat them like candy.
I would love to get some ideas on herbs. Which ones freeze well? How to dry? I know nothing about fresh herbs.
I have a seed order form in my hand for the original Ramapo tomato. I never get seed catalogs in the mail I was looking online last week, any suggestions? Normally I just get local seeds but this year I am going for some heirloom varieties. Post a list a twitterers who garden for us.
yes, we are going back to gardening this year after a long time of not gardening,(now that one of us is unemployed)
i usually just wander into Agway and pick up seeds from there, they’re not there yet! really looking forward to growing potatoes, i guess we have to order those.
We will have a huge a garden at “work.” My husband and I take care of the farm in Rolling Prairie, Indiana that Oprah used to own. We have 160 acres, 5 acres of flower beds, and plan on expanding the herb and vegetable gardens this year. Can’t wait!
I garden and love it ,I can,freeze or dry alot of our foods. I’d like to plant more fruit trees and grape vines etc. and expand my herb garden.
Have a great wk.end!
Blessins’,LIb
I love to garden and live up North too. I would love to have info. on planning how many plants to plant, as in, I want to can x ammount of greenbeans or tomato sauce so how many plants do I plant? This has been perplexing me for many years and would help in my frugal budget. Thanks, denisebc
Definitely tomatoes … hopefully more. Those red things they call tomatoes in the stores, just don’t make the same kind of ‘mater sandwich as the juicy, plump homegrown.
I would love to start a veggie garden this year. I would love some info. on what veggie plants are easiest to grow and produce the most. I do not have a green thumb and want to start with some plants that even I can get growing.
I had a small veg. & herb garden last year but, in order to expand, I first have to solve the problem of the mule deer who like to bed down in my unfenced sideyard – the only place I have to which to expand my endeavors. Working on that one!
Well, as a former resident of the Upstate (now I am in the South), I lived for my January seed catalogs! They were tattered and marked in and very sad by the time Spring rolled around…about May, it seemed! Now, I don’t quite have that kind of relationship with the seed catalogs!
Last year I did a deck garden and had fabulous results. We have a mostly wooded back yard and our front yard is claimed by the boys as football/baseball land so that was my best option. I am looking forward to expanding it this year.
BTW, this is my 1st visit (found you via Frugal Dad) and I have enjoyed my read very much; great job!
You’ve been nominated for the Lemonade Award. Thanks for all the hard work that you do on your blog!!!
Go to my site to claim your award!!!
Maria
Abigail’s Mommy
We LOVE to get our seed catalogs in the mail! We are expanding our berry garden to include a hardy kiwi, gooseberries and honeyberries. In the veggie dept, I’m definitely growing 8 ball squash again as well as yellowstone carrots. There are some very early(~45-50day) tomato varieties out there that I want to try to get in the ground in the end of April. How fun would that be to have honest to goodness vine ripened tomatoes in June!!! That’s pretty unheard of in WI.
I think it would be great to have gardening posts on you blog! I think a post where readers could post their favorite varities would be fun.
Yes and the organic food is always better. If anyone has any gently used clothes they need to get rid of they should sell them on ebay. People are also buying coupons you do not want or will not use. Best of luck in the garden. Annette
This will be our fourth gardening season. This will be our third time adding on extra space to our garden.
My mouth is already watering for fried green tomatoes!
I am going to try a few new things this year — spaghetti squash, celery and swiss chard. I can’t wait! If I had the space I would grow everything!
I just blogged about this at http:whatacoolidea.blogspot.com – but from the flipside. I wish I could garden but I’m horrible at it. I’ll grow some tomatoes and edamame in a container this year but we have a great CSA that we’re part of. Just love it.
I always garden, and will try a few things different based on my experiences last year. (tomatoes in pots, didn’t do well. jalapenos in pots, did amazing, but they were terrible in the garden.)
I love to browse the catalogs, but I always buy from the local nursery which happens to be visible from my front door. They carry the varieties that grow best for our area, and always do better than my catalog purchases.
I started a small veg garden in large pots 2 years ago and it’s been the best thing ever. I only wish I had more sunny space, but it’s amazing what you can grow in pots.
Wow! Glad to see so many of you excited by gardening. It will be fun this year to share our plans and triumphs.
And I’ll try to touch on herbs, preservation etc over the coming months.