2010 Garden Planning

Oooh the seed cataloges are rolling in! That means it is time to start planning this year's garden.

There are, of course, many different approaches to the vegetable garden plant selection.
Most people will plant what they eat the most frequently.  Which makes perfect sense.  Others plant not what they eat the most, but instead grow the foods that would cost the most to purchase - in this area things like artichokes, sweet peppers and herbs come to mind. This makes sense, too. Especially if you have a very limited space to work with.
Another aspect of selecting kitchen garden plants, one that I have never heard mentioned (maybe for good reason?!), is to plant things that weigh the most. For example, last year I grew potatoes, among other things.  Potatoes are generally inexpensive and readily available, but they weigh a lot! It requires more fuel to haul those suckers around than it does for, say, sprigs of sage or swiss chard.

This year's garden will be another combination of these three philosophies and will include tomatoes, which we probably eat the most. It will also include herbs like basil, that we eat occasionally, but that are relatively expensive to purchase.  And, it will include those heavy potatoes.  The purple potatoes we grew last year were a hit, but they did take up a lot of space in the garden.  This year I have my unused, full sun parking strip slated for potato production.