I was going to skip the garden this year, due to my backyard orchard plans, but then I succumbed to my family’s pressure. They pledged I will get some help this year (not holding my breath though). I made some reductions in numbers of tomato varieties and overall number of plants I crammed in last year. Should be a busy (God help me), but fun year…
2023 GARDEN PLAN (Official).pdf (270.2 KB)
I used the following app for my plan: Garden Planner
With the supply chain uncertain, rising food prices, and poor quality produce at groceries, I think you might be happy that you decided to grow some of your own food.
I looked at your garden plan and it looks great! What are you most excited about planting? 
The Summer Breeze seedless watermelon and the Alpha Beit Organic Socrates (parthenocarpic) are new to me. Very excited to see how those pan out. Most of the other stuff I’ve grown for anywhere between 2 and 25 years.
I’m hoping to be more creative in using my garden produce than in previous years. I see growers on this forum making some amazing healthy dishes using their own veggies and I would love to do the same.
At the same time I want to stop growing things that my family doesn’t like and won’t eat. I’m going to fill some of those voids by interplanting annual flowers and try to get more fresh flowers in the house.
Last year my garden was inundated with constant heavy rains and destroyed plants. I’ve got to be more responsive or come up with some solutions I’ve also bought some virus resistant cucumber seeds as that tends to be a problem here.
I’ve ordered some seeds and am thinking about when I’m going to start them indoors. I often start too early and they get unwieldy long before time for planting out.
Looks like a lot of canning is in your future! Great layout. I have to have okra, cherry tomatoes, eggplants, Armenian cucumbers, and Chinese long beans every year. Love those Jimmy Nardellos and Shishitos sauteed! I didn’t get any peppers started this year so I guess I’ll have to buy some starts of those guys.
I did quite a bit of canning this past year:
I froze an insane amount of peppers, basil, parsley, beans, etc.
Sometimes I feel like I tend to add too many projects to my already too busy life. But everyone enjoys it and shows up to eat. Wish I had a bit more help at times.
That’s the approach I took throughout the years. Some things I have just not been able to successfully grow well, like brussel sprouts, broccoli of many different varieties and cauliflower.
I mostly stuck with what we consume and what my family likes. My wife for instance, stopped eating eggplant after her nutritionist advised her to do so. The rest of the family loves eggplant, so I reduced plants by 50% this year.
Last year I did a trial with around 15 new tomato varieties, in addition to the 15 that I had selected throughout the decades. I found 3-4 that my family enjoyed even more than some of the ones I was previously growing. So I selected the top 13 from last year and I’m trialing 3 new ones this year. Trying new varieties keeps it fun.
We’re in the same zone, so starts might be similar. I start my tomatoes indoors at the beginning of April. You’ll need grow lights to prevent them from getting leggy. I plant them outdoors around Memorial Day.
If I can just figure out a way to keep the chickens out of my vegetable garden - I’ll be happy!
They did an ‘egg-cellent’ job of weeding and aerating this winter, however! 
@PomGranny Gotta fence in that vegetable garden! I need to get a finer mesh for around the bottom perimeter of my 5 ft tall, 1x1" mesh fence, which I dug 1 ft into the soil… The darn chipmunks found their way in the garden and decimated my beets and carrots last year.
Just recently I’ve realized I actually have about 400 hours of chill, not 200 hours like I had thought, so in a few days I will dig out a big hole and plant my Golden Transparent Gage. It’s in container right now. I hope to eventually get some green gage plums, I had lots in the Bay Area.
“Plan” is to cut back on the veggie gardens this year. Finally did my seed order with Johnny’s: $375 … 
Another part of the plan is to just buy herb and veggie starts at the local nursery rather than start them myself (excluding tomato and pepper). And last, but not least, rehab some of the ornamental beds that have gotten overgrown. I got a head start on this last one in the fall and mulched a few beds with a thick layer of wood chips
Yesterday… transplanted a wild callery pear for grafting this spring.
Today i started on another… got the planting hole dug and then found out from my wife we were going across town to visit her mom…
I have had my eye on a wild elderberry at her place for a while now… and today i collected it… and got it transplanted to my place.
I am going to collect one more from my sisters place and will eventually have two clusters or crowns of elderberry growing in that bed.
Nice planting bed… if i say so myself 
It is going to be one of those busy, plant a lot springs for me.
TNHunter
gosh. a friend pitched in to help me get a planta (brand name?) greenhouse this year. it’s 6mil double poly. pretty excited and ready to figure out how to insulate. I’ll probably keep the hoophouse unheated as a storage? the shed is my painting studio.
planning to build a keyhole raised bed in the left end this year and maybe put hinged covers on the two oldest raised beds. pear trees going in, and of course my constant internal battle about quail/guinea hens. that is unlikely to happen but I put it on the map. new ideas are in green… of course the actual growing goes in there somewhere.
the circles on the square by the house (bottom) are rain barrels and the circles along the edges are trees or berry vines etc
this is the backyard high fenced. then we’ve got as much out front of the house as well
Guess what? After planting 5-7 more fruit trees and rooting for 20 more fig varieties, I think I have room for low chill cherries, haha. So that’s the plan for my garden. Does anyone know where I can get low chill cherries for cheap.
Those planta greenhouses look pretty awesome. Like your drawing too!
You have inspired me to show a bit more of my plans. My drawing is conceptual and not to scale. This year I want to
–put in frost sprinklers in the orchard–underway. I have the risers and sprayers put together. Excel high angle wobblers… I’ve done measurements and figured out the best layout based on a demo with one and my orchard tree layout. Deciding on the water connections. Leanng to Leonard reinforced lay flat hoses with hose connections. Not cheap but should last longer than I do.
–a patio/meditation area near our dog Katie’s grave. I’m going to start changing over part of my yard near the creek to a meadow. This is sort of phase one. The view is on a slope and I have dug out and leveled the area in a pie shaped slice looking towards the creek. I’ve gotten the pavers recently at a great rate from a landscaping group that had extras from a large job. I’m going to clear more land around it and have wildflower seeds, a low perennial grass base mix and some plugs ordered. Im also adding a paper birch trio of trees nearby as an anchor. Checking out appropriate field grasses to complement. Katie was buried near the left red chair in the picture. It’s where we did our apple tasting together every year and looking out towards the creek is my absolute favorite view.
–a would like to build a better trellis for my new blackberry bed. I have a pretty cursory one now using an old dog tie out coated wire. Temp plans for a future netting cover sketched out. My neighbor made one out of metal conduit.
–a house in my area was sold and under major renovations of the cottage. They were going to burn the arbor and I asked if I could have it if I dug it out. It was built out of heavy treated lumber and is a real beast heavy there is a base that holds the whole things together and benches on each side The vine roots were as big around as my thighs and that’s saying something. Got it out and rolled it onto a trailer today. It’s lounging in my yard as we speak.
I know crazy right? I’m not mentioning the grafting and tree maintenance. That’s a given. I’ll maybe post progress as time goes on.
Beautiful nature, landscapes
those drawings are great! I traced from Google satellite view onto graph paper from the computer screen to get the sizes right on mine. then doubled it to do separate front and back yard planning.
I actually did a Google printout but haven’t taken it the next step. Thanks for the encouragement.
This picture brings me peacefulness inside.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that. If I had to pick one word of description of how I feel when I’m there, it would be peacefulness.
