2013 Garden Plan

Like I mentioned the other day, I’m ordering my seeds for this year’s garden from William Dam Seeds, because that’s where my grandfather ordered from. It is a Canadian company started by Dutch immigrants, which is what both sets of my grandparents were, too. The Dam family still runs the company — four generations of them work there — and I think that’s really neat. Also, their seeds are untreated, which is an added (essential) bonus.

Grandpa had a fantastic garden; both my grandfathers did. In addition to ordering from where Grandpa ordered from, I’m also making sure to grow kale, because he did. I remember getting bags of frozen kale from him and Grandma that my mom would make borecole boerenkool with. I’m determined to get my family to like borecole boerenkool & sausage (mashed potatoes mixed with kale, eaten with sausage), because I miss eating it. (Even though, because it was Nick’s favourite meal, we ate SO MUCH OF IT that I almost didn’t want to see it ever again.) Although, we’ll have to have our borecole boerenkool with farmer sausage instead of from-the-school sausage, because the place we got sausage from growing up is about 2,000 kilometres away, and since moving to Saskatoon, I’ve fallen in love with farmer sausage and OH MY WORD IT IS SO DELICIOUS. In related news, I need a deep freeze so that I can mass-order it.

I’ll be using the square-foot and Eden gardening methods again this year, as I mentioned a bit ago. Square-foot gardening is PERFECT for my OCD, and the Eden gardening is perfect for Saskatchewan weather, especially if we have a wet spring like last year (which I’m sure we will have). While others were facebooking about their flooded gardens, mine was just fine, and I totally credit the mulch/grass covering.

Another reason I love writing about gardening is all the people who have said to me, I totally love that Back to Eden method! I passed it on to a friend of mine and they used it as well, with great results! I don’t claim to be a gardening guru (HA!), but I so appreciate when others write about it because of all I learn from them, and I love passing on the favour.

I used a spreadsheet to plan what I would plant, how much, and where. I did the same last year, and went a bit off of my plan when I actually planted, but not much. A plan is exactly that: a plan. I’ll update it after I plant. In three years, when the snow finally melts.

It should be pretty self-explanatory. The blue-grey is the pathways, and the brown-grey is 18 sixteen-square-foot “boxes”. The green is where the rest of my back yard starts. My garden is 480 square feet. Of that 480, 190 square feet is paths and four feet is drain allowance for the run-off from the garage, which leaves 286 square feet of growing space. The number under each vegetable indicates how many plants fit in that square foot. Some plants need more than one square foot, though, like pumpkins and zucchinis and tomatoes. Oh! And the empty space is still up for grabs, depending on what kinds of seeds I have excess of.

click image to enlarge

It’s not news to you that I’m a beginner gardener, this being my second year, but when I clicked on the “Lettuce” heading on the WD website and was led to multiple lettuce categories, each of which led to more categories, I was very confused. Is there not just plain “carrots” or “zucchini”? No? Rookie mistake. But, I went by the photos and this year will be another experiment year, building on what I learned last year. Trial and error seems to be my go-to method. Which is why I blog about it, because my memory sucks.

I know I said I wasn’t going to plant any leafy-greens this year, but I changed my mind. I picked some seeds because of their claimed short growing season (I have a feeling we’ll have an extra-short growing season this year), some because their photo was the closest to what I imagined I wanted, and some for odd reasons of which I put in brackets below.

Below is what I plan to plant/order. I ordered one of each of the lowest quantity of seeds, and if that is too much for me, I will just give the excess away. The italicized sentences are direct quotes from the William Dam Seeds website.

Beets:
Detroit Dark Red Organic
TIP: Mid-season planting for harvest in late summer or early fall will result in a sweeter and more tender beet. 60 days.

Cabbage:
Main Season White
CULTURE: Sow early varieties in succession from early spring (indoors) to mid-summer for continual harvest of fresh cabbage. For fall produce sow outdoors in early summer. 78-82 days.

Carrots:
Ibiza Hybrid
Dig up carrots after the first hard frost before the ground freezes. TIP: Cover with burlap or a wooden plank for 7 days after seeding to retain moisture and improve germination. 75 days.

Cucumbers:
Sweet Success Hybrid
TIP: We prefer starting cucumbers indoors in 4” pots (3-4 seeds/pot) for even germinating temperatures. When transplanting, plant as a clump – do not break apart. 48 days.

Garlic:
Spring Garlic Bulb
Plant early spring.

Kale:
Darkibor Hybrid (I’ll admit I picked this one specifically because it said it was Dutch-bred.)
For early crops start indoors 4-6 weeks before planting out. For late crops, seed direct in June-July.

Lettuce:
Kaiser MI
Salad Bowl
Stagger planting. 50 days.

Onions:
Green: Guardsman Organic
Stagger planting. 55 days.
Red: Red of Florence (I picked this variety because my mom’s name is Florence)(objective, I am not)
These store well. 110 days.
Yellow: Copra Hybrid
One of the leading long term storage onions. Stores into late spring. 110 days.

Peas:
Super Sugar Snap
66 days.

Peppers:
Start indoors 8-10 weeks before last frost date. Transplant outdoors after danger of frost is gone and night time temperatures are above 50F/10C.
Red/Green Bell: North Star Hybrid
65 days.
Jalapeno: Tajin Hybrid
70 days.

Pumpkins:
I’m using seeds from last year’s pumpkin. (Singular. Since one got stolen, remember? Yes, I cried, too.) I processed them last fall according to some instructions somewhere on the Internet and they’re the only seeds from last year’s produce that I am using. I can’t remember which type of pumpkin they are, but I’m sure I’ll find out in the fall. Edited to add: They might be Dill’s Atlantic Giants, according to this photo I found, but I also bought another type last year. So, it’s a 50/50 chance. Both grew great, so really, I just hope they grow this year!

Spinach:
Bloomsdale Dark Green
Stagger planting. 50 days.

Zucchini:
Raven Hybrid
INDOORS: Start in peat pots or 4” plastic pots 3-4 weeks before the last frost. Sow 3-4 seeds per pot. For Zucchini bread harvest when 3” thick. 43 days.

Potatoes, tomatoes, and sunflowers I think I’m just going to get locally, the tomatoes in particular I will buy as seedlings. Potatoes I can usually get from friends, and the sunflowers I plan to get at the same place we got them last year: the children’s festival. They’re more for the girls’ enjoyment than for consuming.

As always, if you have any advice or constructive criticism about anything I plan to plant, feel free to tell me. The best thing about writing about gardening is all the amazing comments I receive from people who have been gardening much longer than I. If I was going at this all on my own, I know my yield wouldn’t be near what it was last year.

For reference:
My Square-Foot Garden’s Vegetable Reference Information
Online Garden Planner
Back to Eden film