I have started seeds and early planting, so I also started a list. I have four times the available full-sun garden space this year, and I fully intend to use it.
Acorn squash
White acorn squash
Butternut squash
Spaghetti squash
Zucchini (Fordhook)
Zucchini (Black Magic)
Cucumber (Picklebush)
Cucumber (bush hybrid)
Okra
Beans (pole)
Beans (tigereye)
Beans (Hutterite)
Pepper (hot)
Pepper (sweet)
Eggplant
Marigold
Calendula
Zinnia
Dill
Chamomile
Thyme
Lemon Balm
Basil
Cilantro
Oregano
Spinach (round 1)
Leek
Potato
Yellow onion
Garlic
Chives
Sage
Lavender
Sorrel (Dock)
Peppermint
Spearmint
Bergamot
Echinacea
Mulberries
Raspberries
Grapes
Highbush cranberry
Serviceberries
Blueberry
Catnip
Yarrow
Anise hyssop
Rhubarb
Bergamot
Nasturtium
Borage
Wild Ginger
Wild Carrot
(Also: snowdrop, crocus, daffodil, hyacinth, tulips if the deer will stop eating them, irises, dwarf iris, scylla, spiderwort, Canadian anenome, Lenten rose, coral bells, astilbe, columbine, nepeta, bleeding heart, crown and hairy vetch, peonies, stonecrop, milkweed, mullein, garlic mustars, OH MY GOD SO MUCH CHENOPODIUM, rudbeckia, bachelor's buttons in multiple varieties, volunteer snapdragons again probably, lilacs, primroses, dames'-rocket, nightshade I should probably kill for good)
Corn (sweet)
Corn (pop)
Carrots
Amaranth
Spinach (round 2)
Collards
Swiss chard
Turnips
Beets
Sunflowers
Apple trees
Strawberry (planter)
Tomatoes
Rosemary
Sweet Potato
Anything that didn't start from seed even though I tried
I have also been thinking about the hill.
More than half of the total square footage of my backyard is hill. Said hill ranges from "gentle slope" (ten percent) to "wall of dirt and grass" (90 percent).
For years, I've talked about terracing it. The more I stomp around on it, though, the less convinced I am terracing is a good idea, for two reasons:
1. It's so steep, with so little room to maneuver at the top, that I'm not sure we can get realistic terrace beds out of it. Especially if the beds are limited to two feet in height, which they really should be.
2. Terracing it will require me to pull out everything already growing on it. A lot of that is stuff I don't want to lose, like the raspberries and the garlic mustard. (Yes, I know it's an invasive species. I am doing my part to combat it by eating it.) Pulling things is also going to cause erosion - which is why I don't want to fill it with annuals.
Instead I'm wondering if I can grow some kind of deep-rooted perennial food forest on it. Make the plants keep the soil in place. I know actual forests will grow on land this steep - I grew up at the bottom of a moraine. Seems like I should be able to recreate that with fruit/nut trees and a well-chosen understory, if I think it through enough.
Putting perennials on the slope frees up the garden beds for annuals. The garden beds are relatively flat. I'm not worried about erosion there.
In the meantime, I'm encouraging the raspberries. I have also designated the flatter sections "The Arena." It's where leftover seedlings - those I don't have room for in the garden itself - get sent to compete in the seedling Hunger Games. There are a half-dozen pole beans in the Arena currently. I gave them some chicken wire to protect them from deer and rabbits. Otherwise, they are on their own.
The chickens now love following me around the yard as I work. This is adorable. It also means they don't do their job (turning the garden beds) unless I'm also in the bed with them. I have started reading books in a lawn chair in the garden bed so they'll turn it. When they get tired, they hop up on my lap.
Penelopeep has decided she likes to be petted. So much that if I stop, she'll cluck at me and inch closer, bobbing her head, until I start petting her again. It's adorable. Also unexpected - of the three, she was the most "ugh, mom, go away" in their pullet months. (Though she was my darlingest little cuddlebug as a chick.)
To Do: weed the side garden (ALREADY), put up fences, mow the front lawn (AGAIN), turn the compost pile, sheet mulch the nightshade to oblivion, wait a few more weeks till our last average frost date passes. Whee.
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