Spring Vegetable Garden Planning

Spring officially started on March 20th! Oddly enough, this is not the date that we change our clocks and “spring forward”, which was March 14th in the US; and I was surprised to learn that it will not be until this Sunday, the 28th in the UK. I grew up in Arizona, and we never changed our clocks there. So the entire changing of time really just doesn’t make sense to me to begin with. It is the same number of hours of daylight no matter what time the clock says. (And your car clock is probably still set back anyway giving you a mild heart attack every Monday morning.)

Alright, back to spring and gardens. I believe it was the timeless Audrey Hepburn who said, “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” Never does this feel more true than in spring. And when the world changed last year, gardening and growing even some of your own food came to the forefront of many people’s minds. These days things are moving again and people are less panicked about toilet paper and groceries, thank goodness!

As the wild onions and Crocus start to pop up, gardeners’ minds turn to planning our gardens and ordering seeds if you haven’t done so already. And by the time that the hyacinths, daffodils, and tulips are popping up, I like to have some seedlings started inside.

Every year is a new experiment depending on the timing of the last winter storms and is tweaked by what I learned from the year before. Last year peppers and tomatoes did really well in the garden, so I’m hoping for good results this year as well.

I like to mix things up and try a “fun new” variety or two each year. This year my big experiment is KIWANO – AFRICAN HORNED CUCUMBER and the description is, “Very unusual fruit with spiny “horns.” The green-yellow skin turns a bright deep orange when ready to harvest, and the pulp inside the fruit resembles lime green Jell-O. The fruit has a sweet-sour, banana-lime tropical fruit taste, good juiced and sweetened and delicious with yogurt.” Now, it honestly probably won’t grow for me. Despite the fact that I’ve been gardening for years now, I’m still not at all an expert. But IF it does, I will be so excited. It will definitely be my photogenic Instagram darling.

My tried and true, hands down best producers are cherry tomatoes. I highly recommend planting some. They come in so many fun varieties. Cherry, grape, yellow pear, chocolate cherry, zebra. Cherry tomatoes do not take as long to ripen as full sized tomatoes, so the odds are in your favor. Meaning with a plant or two, you can literally harvest a handful or two of the sweetest gems every day. Whereas those big, beautiful baseball sized heirloom tomatoes need particular temperature swings, burst if they get a lot of rain, take a while to grow and ripen, and tease you with thinking they are almost ripe. My cherry tomatoes burst occasionally, but the dog sits near me drooling as I pick tomatoes, waiting for me to toss him the imperfects, so none ever really go to waste. And kids love them! Plant some, you won’t regret it. Smaller peppers like jalapenos and fresnos, which have a slightly spicier and fruitier flavor, are also are prolific producers. This year I’ve started some Shishito pepper seeds and I’m looking forward to blistered shishito appetizers all summer! And I’ve started some Pippen’s Golden Honey peppers, which are supposed to be very sweet. I’m really hoping both varieties do well.

As always though, my backup plan is store bought plants. Your local garden center likely carries enough variety to fill your garden and your pantry and has plants that will grow well in your zone, taking the guess work out of what seeds to buy, when to plant them, direct sow vs start inside, worrying about hardening off- a lot of guess work.

I am no gardening expert, but I will tell you that with a decent sized garden, you can always have fresh vegetables and cut your trips to the grocery store and the bill that you get down by a lot. Even a potted tomato plant on your porch is a great way to get started. My garden plans this weekend are to top off one half of my garden with some fresh soil and direct sow spinach, beans, peas, and radishes. I’m giving my seedlings some outdoor time today, and plan to every day in the next week, hoping to plant them into the ground next weekend. In the meantime, I am looking forward to enjoying the views of all of the trees that are in bloom. Are you planning on planting a garden this year? Do you have tried and true varieties?

-Amanda