Today is very cold and wet in the part of the country I live in so I am opting for an indoor day today. The ground is too wet to dig, the paths are too muddy and it’s too cold and miserable to be outside for too long. I’ve been out and fed the chooks making sure I have given them plenty to eat as its miserable for them too. The cat has had her breakfast and we have as well. Today I have the guilt free luxury of getting time to think and write.

A wet winters day is a good time to plan your new season vegetable garden. For me, the winter solstice and the short winter days it brings is the start of a new gardening year. Garlic is symbolic of that first planting to make for the summer harvest. For those of you following my Crop Rotation Poster, it’s the one where I rotate to the next bed. Garlic comes under Group 4, and they now move to the bed where I previously had Group 3 Heat Loving Vegetables. The frost has made sure the previous inhabitants have long gone; the pumpkins stored,tomatoes relished, excess courgettes and corn in the freezer and the bed dug over and made ready for the root crops to follow.

So now I take a look at my own copy of the Crop Rotation Poster and remind myself what goes where. It is a jolly useful tool and if you have’t got one yet then see the link below.

To start you off with your planning here are some of my suggestions.

1. Plant what you like to eat

2. Plants you can preserve and store for winter.

3. Plants that will supplement and extend the family budget.

4. Match your specific needs.

5. Plants that bring joy

6. Make sure the size of the garden matches the size of the time you have available.

Plant What You Like To Eat.
Come up with a list of vegetables you and the family like to eat. There’s no sense in planting vegetables that no one is going to eat. When the lockdowns were first announced and we were given 2 days to go into hiding, you may remember that all of the garden centres were ransacked for vegetable seedlings – with the notable exception of brussels sprouts. Oh dear. I know lots of people do love them but they are not high on my list of favourites. So think about what you and your family like and plan to plant those. Don’t forget herbs - there are plenty of easy grow herbs that you will thank yourself for planting when you want to flavour your dinner and need a bit of parsely, sage, rosemary or thyme.

Planning your new season vegetable Garden - plant what you like to eat!

2. Plants You Can Store or Preserve.

A common trap for new gardeners is to sow or plant everything at once and you therefore end up with a summer glut. That means you have 6 cabbages mature all at the same time for example. However, there are some vegetables that you can grow, eat when they are ready but also store or preserve in some way. Pumpkin is a great one for this. They taste better after storing and are very delicious to use for roasts and soups over winter. Beans, courgettes and corn can all be blanched and frozen. Tomatoes can be made into sauces and bottled or frozen. Most can be made into pickles or relishes for the larder. So you can never have too many tomatoes in my opinion. Root crops can be stored in a cool place or left in the ground.

3. Plants That Extend the Family Budget

Never think that you have to either be self-sufficient in your backyard vegetable garden or you might as well not bother. If you are short on time or have minimal space, then think of things that are easy to grow and available when you need it. Silverbeet, courgette, celery, parsley for example. You are going to go a long way to helping extend the family budget if you have even a small vegetable patch and can pop down and pick some leaves to go with dinner. Lettuce is a great example. They will grow most of the year around and you could easily harvest enough leaves each day for a healthy homegrown salad. Think about how you can supplement the family budget by adding what you have grown. You have the added advantage of the extra health benefits that come from spray free food as well.

4. Match Your Specific Needs.

Have you heard of the Celery Juice craze? If you follow Tony Robbins or other motivational gurus you’ve probably heard of the Medical Medium who advocates for the health benefits of celery juice. Now I personally don’t think we need and off-world entity telling us to eat more vegetables – its nothing that our mothers and grandmothers haven’t already told us - but if you do enjoy vegetable juices then plan to plant them in your garden. Celery can be very expensive out of season – plus it is traditionally one of most highly sprayed of commercial crops. If you are juicing for health, then you are going to want a good source of organic celery. So grow your own. Same for beetroot, kale or the other plants you like to juice.

5. Plant things that bring joy

Don’t just make your vegetable place a prosaic practical business end of the section. Add a few flowers for your own joy, and for all the beneficial insects. Butterflies and bees will love you for it. So will your children. If you have children (or grandchildren, or great grandchildren!), then one of the best things you can do for them is make the vegetable garden a happy place to be. I have always grown peas for that very reason. They are not the best crop really for the home garden because you probably need a few acres to have enough to warrant growing, but if you have toddlers or young ones, nothing beats eating peas straight from the pods. Let them have their own patches if you can and grow what they want. I remember having my own childish imagination inspired by the petals of the Iceland poppy – so pop a few of those in for fairy frocks.

6. Match Size of Garden to Time Available.

Finally, you want to make sure you have the time to care for the garden you want to grow. Nothing beats the enthusiasm of the bright new gardener and if you love it you will make the time. But watch out for making a rod for your own back. There’s nothing worse than seeing the weeds taking over, the jobs piling up but you are tied up working long hours on your day job. It can be heartbreaking. So start with what you can manage and grow from there. There are ways to plan for and manage your time in the garden and I will be writing about that later, so I don’t want to discourage you from starting your garden but just be a little mindful. Your garden should be a place of nourishment for the soul just as much as for the body so make sure you don’t overload yourself.