On Thu, 28 Dec 2006 16:25:06 -0800, William Rose
wrote:

Dear Colleagues in Dirt,


I'm beginning to think about my garden and what's going to be growing in
it in 2007.

I believe it would be instructive for all of us, especially for us
newbies, if we could share ideas on garden prep and maybe advocate for
some less well known plants who have ingratiated themselves to the
cultivators who cared for them.


Preface: We live in zone 7, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge
Mountains in North Carolina. The garden area is about 1/2 acre. We
are retired and moved here in 2004. This part of NC is known for its
red clay.

I have been going through my stock of seeds and deciding what to plant
this year. Last year I had way too many tomatoes. I stopped counting
in late August at over 700 pounds. We gave away lots and I spent the
month of August in the kitchen. We tried a large number of different
varieties, especially cherry types. This year I am down to 7
varieties and about 1/2 as many plants. I may add a couple of old
varieties to see if they do better than my present selection. This
year I am planting Viva Italia, Carmello, Better Boy, Brandy Boy,
Jelly Bean, San Marzano,and Hard Rock. The first 3 are my standbys, I
have been planting them for at least 10 years in two different
locations. Brandy Boy is a nice hybrid Brandywine, Jelly Bean is a
prolific grape tomato with a good flavor, San Marzano is good for
sauces and drying and Hard Rock is a very meaty tomato. Since I
preserve tomatoes in many forms I plant primarily cooking types. We
also like to eat fresh tomatoes and do share with others.

We will also plant beets, broccoli, rapini, cabbage, chard and a
couple of varieties of peas early in the season. Later will we will
be adding or replacing with peppers, summer squash, beans (green and
shell), watermelon and cantaloupe, winter squash and pumpkin, and
corn.

I am still working on the garden layout. I need to make and save the
dimensions of the garden so I do not have to go out and measure or
walk the plots each year.

This year I am going to get rid of seeds. I think I will take them to
the gym and see who wants them. I have had a bad habit of buying too
many at one time. Yes they are sometimes cheaper, but a couple of
years worth is probably sufficient.

I have found a nice way to keep the seed packets. I saw in one of the
gardening catalogs a notebook with plastic sleeves the right size for
the packets. If you are interested, here is the URL for the site.
http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page...713,40759&ap=1
I bought a binder and found plastic inserts that are made for 4" x 6"
photographs. The binder was about $5.00 and the inserts were $1.44
for a package of 10. The larger seeds do well in plastic shoe boxes
or a tool box. I was keeping the packets in a 3.5" disk holder.

I use a program named "Seed Planner." http://www.seedplanner.com/ It
has not been updated in a while, but still works for me. I need to
work on a process for plants from other than seeds. We have
asparagus, strawberries, muscadine grapes, blueberries and several
fruit trees. I really need to start tracking these much better. I
use a spread sheet for tracking the tomatoes. Maybe I will use the
same layout as I do for my preserving, a word processor document.

Will be interested in how others garden and keep track.

--
Susan N.

"Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral,
48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy."
Vittorio De Sica, Italian movie director (1901-1974