I made the garden map on January 15th. It is drawn on a piece of graph paper where each square equals one foot, and it is taped to the fridge where I can look at it while I eat breakfast. My mom has been very patient about this.
Planning the garden on paper in January is one of my favorite parts of the whole year. Everything is still theoretical. Nothing has gone wrong yet. The squirrels have not found anything. No blight. No vine borers. In January, every variety I draw on that graph paper is going to produce perfectly.
January is the best month in the garden because everything still works perfectly and nothing has gone wrong yet.
South fence — Tomatoes. Six varieties in cages along the fence, which faces south and gets full sun all day. The fence also gives them something to lean against in wind. This spot worked really well last year and I am keeping it.
East trellis — Peas through spring, then switch to pole beans for summer. The east-facing trellis gets morning sun, which peas love, and pole beans will take over once peas are done in May. Good use of the same structure for two crops.
North raised bed — Dedicated to salad greens. Lettuce, arugula, spinach, radishes. This bed gets partial afternoon shade from the fence, which actually helps cool-season greens last a little longer into spring before they bolt. I want to do succession plantings every two weeks starting in late February.
West bed — Peppers and cucumbers on a trellis. Peppers go in the back (taller), cucumbers on the trellis up the middle. Zucchini at one end. One zucchini plant. I have learned my lesson.
My two muscadine vines — Carlos and Noble — are going into their fourth growing season this year. Year three was the first real harvest: we got several pounds from each vine in August and September. Year four should be even bigger. I have read that muscadines reach full production around year five or six, so we are getting close to what these vines are actually capable of. I am very curious to see what that looks like.
The Brandywine tomato. I have wanted to try it for two years and kept choosing more reliable varieties instead. This is the year. Brandywines are notoriously difficult — slow to ripen, prone to cracking, not as disease resistant as modern hybrids. But the flavor is supposed to be one of the best of any tomato. I want to find out for myself.
Also the fall carrot bed. I want to do a serious dedicated fall carrot planting in September and leave them in the ground through December to see how sweet they get. That is the experiment I am most curious about this year.