2013 Master Plan: The Workshop Quadrant

Here’s yet another section of the garden all planned out for spring planting:

The workshop quadrant was pretty easy as well (I think it all went down more smoothly this year). All along the top are more perennial herbs and our grapes, which have been locked in place since last year, and down the right side is a shady section that we had long been planning to use for early salad greens (known on the plan as our "cool season rows"). Last year we had Brussels sprouts fail here because a nearby maple tree creates too much shade once it leafs out. Our cunning plan for this year is to get cool season stuff like beets, carrots, radishes, lettuces, and other greens started in a cold frame in that section long before the tree leafs out in May. If those plants are mature by then, the shade of the tree can actually help keep them from bolting in the summer heat, making good use of a difficult little planting spot. We'll see if it works — we have several succession plantings of these things down this side, starting at the shadiest part and moving into the sun. These get a very early start on March 2, but theater plantings will probably not need the cold frame.

Across the bottom is our row of potatoes — we are planning for 20. These will be in a sunnier spot and so will hopefully do a little better (they were so-so last season). We are also brainstorming for better hilling methods to try to get more production out of each plant as well ... but we have some time until that needs to be finalized.

To the left are watermelons (only about half as many as this year, since we couldn't eat all of our delicious watermelon last summer, and many went to the chickens). We're also optimistic that other perennial fruits will be available at the same time, also lessening our need for these. Also on the right is a small section that Tiegan wanted: two cherry tomatoes that she will pick out from the nursery, a midsummer sowing of basil, and a small stand of popcorn. Tiegan has been working on pouncing practice with Fletch, so he is ready to take on the marauding squirrels that attacked her popcorn last year. She also (wisely) agreed to cut the amount of cherry tomatoes down this year, since we just could not keep up with all that we had last summer — although the chickens may disagree with this decision!

In the center C are Brussels sprouts (sown outdoors nice and early this year, to give it as much time as possible), cabbage, and broccoli. We are planning to keep chicken wire around this whole bed from the get-go, and are really hoping for some broccoli this year, after almost a year without!