Planning for Summer '26

The painstaking and surprisingly lengthy process of planning what to plant this summer has begun. 

This year we will once again be taking into account the lessons of previous years, mostly in an attempt to stop wasting space and growing future compost. Specifically, this will entail planting just one or two zucchini plants (not 6), a banana pepper plant or two (not half a bed), fewer purple pole beans, and no lousy kale. We never seem to eat it.

Crop rotation is going to take the form of "don't plant the same thing in the same place two years in a row." It might be a little bit lazy, but it should get the job done.

I'm going to try to get our salad greens out of the direct sun. We've had two years of mediocre harvests, and I think it was because they got scorched in the hot beds down the hill. This year, up by the house where they will get a little bit of shade.

We'll be revamping the patio area, which will entail moving a raised bed there and cleaning up the path to the gate on the north side of the house. There's a 4x4 bed full of wood chips & leaf debris and twigs that will be going "hugelkultur." Maybe a fountain?

It's a frosty end to February, but in a month we will be looking at much warmer temperatures and thinking seriously about firing up the greenhouse.

Oh - the vermin squatting in what is left of the White House decided to start a war with Iran today. Good times. That will be another disaster in the ongoing firehose of disasters and lies that these fools never seem to run out of. Nothing like a backdrop of oppression & military adventurism to bring that little extra spice of hatred to life.