Garden Planning 2025, and My Favorite Axe

 

Princess Poppyseed Watson and her Magnificent Tail

It is never too early to start planning. This is the indoor part of it. You can do it with your cats.

In fact, I think that planning is half the fun. It is part of the process. It might be argued that too much planning removes one from the moment. As Allen Saunders put it in the January 1957 issue of Reader's Digest, and later John Lennon put it, "Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans." But the answer to this half-baked argument is that the making of plans is in fact part of the process of life, and it is worthwhile in itself, because it is more than just a mental exercise, it has practical repercussions on your future.

My future involves a summer of gardening. Here are some of the things that we're going to be growing:

Fresno peppers (Tasty! Just had one. We've tasted blood, and we want more!)
Snow peas
Pole beans
Bush beans
Hubbard squash
Pumpkins (They can share the trellis with the beans & peas.)
Kale
Lettuces
Tiny Tim cherry tomatoes
A large tomato that is determinate
Sweet peppers (Multiple varieties)
Beets (You can't beat them!)
Marigolds
Nasturtiums
Poppies
Cosmos
Black Eyed Susans
Sunflowers (multiple varieties)
Raspberries & strawberries (perennials) 

We will see what else. But I've got most of the heirloom seeds picked out. Last year we ended up using some "cheaters" that weren't started in the greenhouse. That's not Plan A this year. 

I purchased some materials this morning to turn one of the beds near the house into a cold frame. If all goes to plan, this should push some of the planting two weeks ahead, and it should help with the hardening off process. 

I also have a cunning plan to link some of the beds together with a trellis that the peas, beans, squash & pumpkins can climb, thus using the space above the breaks in the raised beds and using the beds more efficiently.

It is something to look forward to.

Meanwhile, my Goldilocks axe - the Adler Long Splitter (pictured middle) - arrived. It is the perfect axe. That 4.5 lb. head, 32" handle are just right. 



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