Garden Planning

Spring is right around the corner my friends! It may not feel like it, however. It is that time of year when our family is eagerly awaiting it’s arrival so we can start our garden for the summer. The past few summers the garden has become a fun family project that we look forward to every year.

For school we have been trying to grow apple seeds. Seriously, my kids have been trying for some time now. We read all about how to get them to grow in the internet with no luck. This week we finally had success and  have seeds sprouting. Now they want to grow all the seeds we get from apples and grow trees. If they are successful, we may be giving away trees in the future. Hopefully some of you will be able to help us out.

So, with growing apple trees we are even more excited for starting our garden. However, we have yet to decide what to plant. The kids are looking through seed catalogs and making lists of all the exciting and unique plants they want to try and grow.

I, however, am thinking a little beyond the cool looking plants and more about what we will be using all of our homegrown produce for. I mean, we only have so much space and I do have a family of six to provide for.

A few of the items that are on my must grow list include:
Tomatoes – I like to can a lot of tomatoes for my family to use for the winter. We make everything from tomato sauce, salsa, and pasta sauce. We even use the green tomatoes for a delicious salsa verde at the end of the season.
Peppers – green peppers, red peppers, yellow peppers, orange peppers, jalapeno peppers, chili peppers, habanero peppers…. you get the idea.
Beets
Lettuce
Kale
Strawberries
Rhubarb
Herbs – I have never had success growing herbs. It is so strange to me. However, I can grow the best cilantro every year. Good think too as we love to eat a lot of salsa.
Squash – acorn and butternut are my kids’ favorite. I love zucchini. Last year we had a surprise pumpkin plant grow. That was fun. No matter which squash plants we choose to grow, they take over the garden every year. Someday I will learn how to control this.

I would love to hear from you! What do you grow in your garden every summer? If you don’t garden, what are your must haves from the Farmer’s Market? Or what do you wish you could grow?