Thinking about the 2018 garden..........

[Birdie]

I am growing 9 varieties of tomatoes, 3 different colors of zucchini, Honeynut butternut squash, chinese long beans, yellow pole beans and a couple varieties of eggplant. This is in my home garden. I still have garlic and potatoes that will be harvested in May or June.

The Master gardener demonstration garden where I work will have about 8 different varieties of eggplant, 5 or 6 different peppers, multiple melon varieties, 7 or 8 different basils, asparagus, strawberries, lots of different squash and cucumbers. And probably more that I can't remember right now.

[Rogar]

I have a "square foot" raised bed garden after the book. This year I added sphagnum moss and vermiculite to top off the bed rather than the usual compost. They both seem to help conserve moisture and keep the soil loose and have probably been depleted from the original mix a few years ago. Greens are planted and just coming up and usually give a healthy harvest. There is a trellis at one end and will grow heirloom tomatoes there since there are tomato diseases in the soil of my regular garden. I'm always surpized at how well tomatoes do there as it's only about 10" deep. I plant the roots horizontally

I try to plant something different each year in my open garden. I've had radicchio, leeks, kohlrabi, , heirloom eggplants, chives (still going), and a few lame attempts at broccoli. This year I'm thinking delicata squash and going heavy on bell peppers.