2016 Master Plan: The Driveway Quadrant

The final quadrant of our planning for the upcoming growing season is the one nearest to the driveway:

Along the top is a long trellis of peas, which is on the northern end of the bed so as not to shade the zucchini and annual herbs grown in the rest of the area (basil, fennel, parsley, and celery). To the right is another 27-foot trellis of peas. We don't usually orient them this way, but since it's to the east, we are confident that the Roma tomatoes behind it will get enough afternoon sun. The peas will also be gone by July, well before we expect to harvest any tomatoes anyway.

Along the bottom are crops that can handle a bit of shade from the house as fall comes. Here we have another zucchini plant, summer carrots, beets, mesclun lettuce for the summer, and a short trellis of snap peas. We also have a block marked out for something new: cauliflower. I have never been a big fan, though my distaste has probably always had more to do with the whiteness of the whale than cauliflower's actual flavor. I've recently had some really delicious (fried, sauced) cauliflower, so we shall see.

To the left are our other Roma-style tomatoes: heirloom Amish paste, which really do make the best sauce and sun-dried tomatoes. 

In the center C are some other heirloom tomatoes that will be staked — these are the ones we use for salsa and salads. This section gets good sun even in the winter, so it will be filled with crops that are stored in place under a greenhouse tunnel: kale, parsnips, winter carrots, and Swiss chard. We have given up planting carrots and parsnips in long rows for good, since the blocks are much easier to manage (once they're thinned) and cover for winter. We're also trying to get some earlier carrots going for summer and fall eating in addition to another block of carrots to winter over. We've not yet managed early carrots due to cutworm and winter moth issues, but we'll make a more concerted effort this year.