2023 Garden
It’s currently March in Minnesota (zone 4a) and we have had a boatload of snow this season, more on the way, but have no fear, it’s seed starting season already.. (read also, FINALLY). Last year was our first big garden (we always did container planting prior to last year) and we LOVED it 🙌🏻 loved it so much we’re expanding the garden in a massive way with a goal of preserving lots and lots for our family.
Read more about how we got started gardening.. the saga of the garden beds, moving houses, the tornado, here. Learn more about how to plan your garden and starting seeds here.
What are we planting? And what am I most definitely NOT PLANTING this year? 👇🏻
Buying seeds
First though, the seeds.. we bought most of our seeds from ufseeds.com and have had really great luck! In fact, some of you messaged me saying how great their customer service was too! We also got a few seeds from rareseeds.com (Baker Creek), and inevitably, you’ll probably forget something or grab a last minute add next time you’re at your local store picking up soil (I’m looking at you lemon thyme 👀).
One rule of thumb that I think goes without saying, but here goes, buy seeds/starts and plant what your family likes! I know there are lots of things online for what to plant for your family, but you don’t have to follow that to the T.. if you don’t like zucchini, don’t plant it! If you love peppers, plant more! Plant what you think your family will use.
What are we NOT PLANTING this year?
Corn. Not doing it again. For a few reasons.. I honestly thought it’d be easier, and we didn’t plant it the best - they should been planted in a tight cluster, like 4’x4’ square and we did one single row. For the 2 ears of corn we ended up with, we actually didn’t like how it tasted, go figure, sugar buns corn, tastes like plain corn in the bag from the store, nothing special.. So I’ll leave that up to the corn professionals, drive to our fave local farm stand and buy and freeze a few bushels of their corn. Find out how to freeze corn & the easiest shucking hack ever, here!
Now I am a little nervous for some of the “harder” things we’re trying to start from seeds and plant this year: celery, onion, strawberry (from seed), melon.. so we’ll see after the 2023 growing season how I feel about those
What are we planting this year?
Tomatoes! At least 8-10 plants, which is a lot, but using canned homegrown tomatoes so much better than the store. We’re using Roma & Italian Heirloom. Our Roma last year were heirloom, so I saved some seeds and will start those as well as ones from the seed company to see if we notice a difference in production or disease resistance.
Peppers! All the peppers, like around 42+ pepper plants, we love them. Alma paprika, serrano, jalapeno, anaheim, hungarian sweet wax, corno di toro, cayenne, poblano, sugar rush peach
Tomatillo: 4 plants, if these are on your list, you’ll need to plant at least 2 for cross pollination, I’ve heard they produce a ton of tomatillos and I’m super excited to can salsa verde this season
Beans & peas: garbanzo, french garden, great northern, slenderette, cascada, green arrow, sugar ann, rondo.. ok, so lots of peas 😳 slight ordering mishap but we’re rolling with it, they’re great plants to pop into small space (bush bean/pea varieties), grow easily, add nitrogen to the soil and are great for succession planting and I’m super excited to try shelling peas!
Cucumber: sumpter, homemade pickles
Broccoli: my favorite food and great spring/fall cool weather crop, di cicco, gypsy
Spinach: great with the broccoli and another cool weather crop, seaside
Carrots: the boys loved munching on carrots in the garden last summer, they’re something I’m going to do more success planting with so we have lots of carrots all summer long, we liked nantes and are trying cosmic purple and napoli this year
Pumpkins: I liked how small our pumpkins were last year that I saved some seeds to plant this year - small sugar, I’m also planting white flat boer ford and cinderella pumpkins
New to us this year: tango celery and blacktail mountain watermelon.. I’ve read both can be challenging to grow! Also trying caliber onions from seed and alpine strawberries from seed!
Herbs: we actually transplanted some of last years herbs from the raised garden beds, into the ground to see if they’ll survive through the winter - fingers crossed! I’ll also plant lots of basil (we all love fresh pesto and it freezes so well), parsley, oregano, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, sage, cilantro, dill, chives
Flowers - wayyyy more flowers, I saved a ton of sunflower seeds from last year to plant a long row on the outskirts of our property line by the road, along with calendula, black eyed susan, yarrow, ageratum, aster, nasturtium, bee balm, wild bergamot, strawflower, zinnia
Garlic: we planted garlic last fall, I’m excited to see that grow this season and try garlic scapes
Potatoes: I tried a few seed potatoes in grow bags and I’m already contemplating more, along with sweet potatoes
Berries & fruit trees
Strawberries: we planted strawberry starts (from UF Seeds) in a garden bed and they grew and spread like crazy, this should be the first year they produce strawberries, but I read that they don’t overwinter well in raised garden beds (where ours currently are), so I’m a little nervous about that! We bought another set of 25 strawberry starts to plant in the field garden AND the white alpine strawberries we’re trying from seed.. we love berries!
Speaking of berries… we’re going to plant lots of blueberry bushes that we’ll pick up from a local nursery, along with a few raspberry bushes, and 4 blackberry bushes that will go in a couple of the raised garden bed because of how much they can spread
Last year we planted 2 apple trees (honeycrisp, haralson) and 2 pear trees (parker, summercrisp) and we’re already contemplating a few more!
We plan on planting 2 cherry trees this year and we’re going to try a peach tree, even though they’re not totally meant for our climate.. fingers crossed!
