garden planning

January is the perfect time to plan your garden. Catalogs come by the "bushel". Once the fall holidays are over, and it's cold and dreary outside, I look forward to Spring. I spend months planning Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, so it makes perfect sense to spend months planning Spring!

My veggie garden always includes: tomatoes, peas, zucchini, cucumbers, raspberries{perennial bush}, yellow squash, pumpkins and carrots. I try a few different plantings each year. Some work, some don't. Last year I had trouble with corn and potatoes. Neither grew very big.

This year I plan to add: sweet banana peppers, broccoli and asparagus.

In my herb garden I grow: lavender, cilantro, peppermint, basil, chives, and lemon balm. This year I plan to add: spearmint, rosemary and dill.

I have a spiral notebook for gardening. Each Spring, I draw my garden plans. You have to rotate most plants. By keeping a garden journal, I can be sure that I have done the rotation. I can also keep track of what grows and what doesn't.