I stopped at one of the discount stores in St. Cloud on the way to work this morning and saw three or four racks of seeds on display. The last remaining discounted Christmas merchandise was being moved, indicating that stores were making room for gardening supplies. In addition, my stack of mail-order seed and nursery catalogs is growing every day. This all reminds me that it is time to begin planning for the 2004 gardening year. I can think of no better way to spend a winter evening than to get out some catalogs, a pad of paper and a pencil to do some garden planning. First, flip through the catalogs to learn what is new on the market as well as to check if your old favorites are still available, and then do some actual planning. Begin by putting a drawing of your vegetable garden, to scale, on paper. Using the same scale, draw in any perennial vegetable or fruit plants, like rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries or horseradish that may be growing there. Then select the crops and varieties you plan to plant and draw in the length of row for each crop. Show the spacing of each transplant in the row and any succession planting that can be done. Cultural information can be found in many of the seed catalogs, or an excellent source of this information is a publication entitled Vegetable Gardening in the Midwest available at the Stearns County Extension Office for a cost of $10. This publication will give you all the information you need to plan, plant and care for a vegetable garden. The size of your garden will depend on such variables as the size of your family, the number and space requirements of the crops you wish to grow, whether you want a table garden or a garden grown for enough produce to can and freeze, and the time and effort you are willing to expend. Remember that the garden you plan now will have to be weeded in the heat of July. When space is a limiting factor to garden size, it may be dollar-wise to plant those vegetables that are high in cost at the store or market. When selecting varieties of vegetables for the garden, consider the likes and dislikes of your family. Obviously, it doesn’t pay to plant vegetables that are not going to be eaten. Select disease-resistant varieties whenever they are available, as they will make your gardening easier by reducing the amount of time and money that must be spent in purchasing and applying chemicals. Try something new each year, or at least try a new variety of some of your favorite vegetables. New varieties with improved qualities are being developed every year. Order or purchase your seeds early while the new and productive varieties are still available. Vegetable gardening is rewarding in terms of accomplishments, produce and recreation. However, a poorly planned garden can be a source of frustration. Have you ever purchased some tomato or pepper plants on impulse and found that you really had no room for them? You may have crowded them in somewhere only to find that they grew and produced poorly, and were a waste of time and money. Make a garden plan and stick to it.
