Today I made a diagram of what needs to be planted and where it all goes. This is just a small section with peppers, herbs, carrots, and onions – you can click here for a PDF version of the whole plot. I’ll include a low resolution version of the whole thing at the end of this post, too.

I think we’ll be growing most every vegetable that we can think of… but maybe we missed something. We are hoping to bring in some money at Farmers Markets this summer (and we have some really unique ideas for drawing interest), so we’re trying to focus on crops that bring in money: tomatoes, peppers, greens, and squash. In this plan I’ve included 285 tomato plants – honestly we don’t know how ridiculous this number of plants is, but it takes up less than 1/8 of the land, and we can always make tomato sauce and sundried tomatoes out of what doesn’t sell. (If we have time?).

We’re also going to be planting about 3750 square feet with The Three Sisters: corn, beans, and squash. I looked at many different plans for this type of garden, and liked Renee’s system the best. So most all of our summer sqush, winter squash, pumpkins, and melons will go here; we’re also throwing in some luffas and birdhouse gourds just for fun.

Surprisingly, people in Morris are starting to ask questions about our summer plans… we’ve only told a couple of people but word spreads fast in our town. People are excited: there are no fancy/heirloom varieties at the current Morris Farmer’s Market, and the market needs some younger blood to survive. Not that the current gardeners can’t keep up a market, just that they won’t be there in ten years.

So… here’s the whole plan. We divided it into quarters, so we can put a nice wide path down the center and a sitting area with some native plants and a birdbath in the middle. Click here or on the picture to open a PDF Version

We have been hinting at what’s going on with VEGarden this summer… here’s the plan:

This summer, our garden is moving to a 2/3 acre plot 15 minutes out of town. We will be gardening on the land of one of the Food Co-op Board Members. The purpose it to see if we can, and if we enjoy, large-scale gardening. Also to see if we can make a profit selling vegetables.

The previous post shows the site we’ll be gardening on. Our garden will be directly north of the driveway, between the barn and the road. I did bring a camera out there to take pictures, but the batteries were dead! I’m sure many, many pictures will come in the next few months.

Jessi had this cool idea to plant a bunch of Sunflowers where our garden was last year. Then I was all, “Ok then where are we going to grow our vegetables?” Then she was all, “I emailed you a picture from Google Earth.”

Google Earth is really cool. I would sit on there and travel around the globe all day if I could.

That is an illustration of the kind of delicious organic produce Easy Bean Farm can provide to you every week. We’ll do an official post about our upcoming business venture soon. In the meantime please visit Easy Bean Farm’s new website and consider signing up for a share while there is still time! Tell them we sent you.

Seedlings planted March 5th: Tomato, Jahrdale blue pumpkin, and Brussels Sprouts

It’s that time again! I’m excited about this year’s garden. We saved a lot of seeds from last year – various chili peppers, amana orange tomatoes, and jahrdale blue pumpkin seeds (from my uncle’s pumpkins). We also ordered some seeds from Amish Land Seeds, which arrived last week. We planted them yesterday: Great White Tomato, Pineapple Bi-Color Tomato, and Heirloom Eggplant Mix.

… Tomorrow afternoon Chris and I have a meeting which may lead to an incredible change in our gardening this summer. I am both excited and nervous, but will have to wait to post more details later.