Gardening: Planning for a New Season

Spring has sprung!

Every time the buds hit the trees, my first thought is: what am I going to plant in my garden this year? There’s truly nothing more satisfying to me than putting seeds in the ground and turning soil.

Our Gardening Journey

We’ve had a garden for the last 16 years, and every year, it looks a little different.
This year will be no exception! Here's the plan:

Containers for some plants
Flower beds for others
No-raised-bed flower boxes for a few more

We’re mixing it up to fit our lifestyle and maximize our harvest.

Companion Planting

One of my favorite techniques is companion planting — growing different crops together so they help each other thrive. A classic example:

Lettuce and carrots:
Lettuce grows quickly and gets harvested first. Carrots take longer but eventually take over the space left behind.

Companion planting is a smart way to maximize small spaces.

Our Garden Plan This Year

We’ll be doing a little bit of everything:

Fruit trees (some new, some established)
Succession planting:
This is where you plant multiple crops in the same spot at different times — like starting with lettuce, then moving to green beans, and later, planting more beans or lettuce. It keeps the harvest coming all season long.
Trellises for:

Butternut squash
Spaghetti squash

Pots for:

Celery
Spaghetti squash

Beds for:

Broccoli
Cabbage
Cauliflower

(And no eggplant this year — last year, deer ate everything except the eggplant, and we ended up with about 1,000 eggplants! Also, there really is not much you can do with eggplant!)

Preserving the Harvest

We don’t just garden for the summer; we use our produce all year long by:

Canning and freezing vegetables
Freezing herbs in trays for year-round use
Shredding squash and zucchini for cakes or noodles
Making "starter kits" with frozen veggies for easy meals during busy back-to-school months
Freezing diced onions for cooking all winter

I don’t even buy tomatoes from the store until April!

Tips for New Gardeners

If you’re just starting out, have fun and be willing to fail! Gardening is a learning process, and every season teaches you something new.

Best Crops for Beginners (mostly summer):

Tomatoes
Herbs
Lettuce (for spring and fall)
Bush green beans (avoid pole beans at first)
Squash and zucchini

Getting Started

Here's what you’ll need:

Containers (with holes for drainage) and potting soil
Ground planting:

Tools to break up the soil (like a hoe or rake)
No-dig method: lay untreated cardboard and cover with bags of dirt. More info HERE

Seeds or plants
Willingness to work and enjoy the process

Gardening is such a rewarding way to spend your seasons — from the first seed in the ground to the last jar of tomatoes opened in winter. Can't wait to see what grows this year!