The Crafty Cultivator

Typically by this point in the year, I already have big aspirations on what I want to grow and preserve and challenge myself with in the coming year; I usually have seedlings that I’ve been growing for months and I am itching to get them outside as soon as weather-ly possible… But I have been slightly distracted this year.

Shifting perspectives and priorities mean that I need to plan ahead for the late summer and fall. I will be busy with other things that are much bigger and won’t have time to put up a bunch of food. However, I still believe that is important and I don’t want to be stuck buying things that are shipped from across the world when I can grow at least some of it myself. So I am trying to plan to grow both easy to harvest and preserve types of things. Think things that are easy to just throw in the freezer without a lot of time invested, or things that are ready in early summer.

Here is what my general idea in my head is.

• Zucchini and other squash. Lots of productivity (as long as I can keep the squirrels and slugs off of them), and I can easily dehydrate, or freeze if I get a glut. Plus Zucchini is one of my favorite foods.
• Cherry Tomatoes – I can’t NOT grow tomatoes, so I’m going to focus on cherry types that I can eat as they are ready, rather than trying 20 different varieties in my seed stash, and then trying to come up with ways to use them all when I have to mass-harvest when we get early snow. I can go back to all the fun varieties next year.
• Herbs – I want to restock my dried herb selection, so I will be trying to dot in lots of oregano and sage, as well as a few others that I know I will use throughout the winter. Also more Catnip to restock Hali’s hoard for the winter.
• Potatoes – I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not to do potatoes this year, since they tend to need digging all at once when I will likely not be able to. However, since they are pretty low effort to grow, and I will be doing them in containers, making them easier to harvest), I think I am going for it. Fresh, home-grown potatoes can’t be beat, and are so worth it, even if potatoes themselves are cheap and easy to get at the store any time of the year.
• Green Beans and Peas – I’m hoping to get a decent amount of these since they will be ready to go earlier in the year.
• Spinach – I want to grow a decent amount to freeze this year, and since I can get them going early and they are fast, I should be able to use the same space as the zucchini and squash.
• Root veggies – I have quite a few different carrots, beets, turnip and rutabaga seeds that I will probably dot in here and there if I have space or remember. Until I have a proper garden space, I won’t be growing the large number of these that I wish I could grow. I do still want to try carrots in containers this year, so hopefully I remember to get that going in the spring.
• Onions. I will try and get an onion patch going again this year. I dropped the ball on my onions last year, and I am way to late to start them from seed this year the way I like to do it, so I will probably buy sets. At least of shallots. I missed having my own homegrown shallots and onions to cook with over the winter. So I will probably prioritize them a little more this year.
  • And on the topic of alliums, we already know about my garlic that will be ready in august sometime

Over the last couple years, I have added many different flowers to our yard. This has taken away some growing space that I would have used for veggies, which seems counter-intuitive, but I have noticed that my harvests are better, and there is much more of a balance of beneficial bugs to help combat the enemies. Plus, the beauty helps draw me outside when much of the world may not be my favorite thing, and being outside helps. PLUS, a lot of fruiting trees and shrubs, are also beautifully ornamental. So early in the spring, you get a wonderful show of flowers, and then you still get a harvest of berries or fruit later in the year. The more established these plants get, the more flowers, and the more fruit you can harvest (taking weather into account of course).

At this point (April 11), I have zero tomatoes or peppers started. See how distracted I am? In the last 10-ish years, I haven’t NOT grown tomatoes from seed. I’m just barely in the window of being able to start them but at this point, I will likely just buy a couple plants in and re-group for next year.

I have seed potatoes and onion sets waiting in the house for warm enough weather (and soil) for them to go out into. I’ll likely seed beans and peas and the Zucchini one it is safe for them to go out too.

On the flower front, I have some dahlia tubers that I don’t think have fared well in my house, and 2 different Gladiolas that I am pretty excited to see flower this year.

Goal of this year is to keep it all simple, and early-harvestable. I’m going to post this without photos because I don’t have much to post. For more up to date regular photos of my garden, follow my Instagram @thecraftycultivator.

Next week if it is much warmer (its -10C this morning as I am finalizing this post), I’ll start cleaning out beds of the extra leaf mulch so that the soil can warm up. (I usually put it in a bin to use once again once everything is up and growing). I try and use my rhubarb as an indication of when it is safe to start opening up the soil for everything to get growing.