Join the Garden Party!

I’ve been working on planning on the spring garden. Have you? I tend to overextend myself and want to plant everything and plant it now in the spring. Then August rolls around and it is so hot and I am so tired and the weeds are so tall that I really just can’t wait until it is spring again and the planning can begin anew.

How do you plan what to plant in your garden? The first year I had a garden, I just planted what everyone else did (besides my beloved herbs). I had crookneck squash, some zucchini, perhaps a few beefsteak tomatoes. I have since expanded into some more exotic offerings (loofah gourds! baby corn! a rainbow of carrots, oh my!).

Slowly, I’ve started to develop an idea of what I will actually eat and use. First, I take into account how many garden beds will be available. (Many of mine are already occupied with fall-planted garlic and onions. There are also beds of asparagus and strawberries, all of which we can’t grow enough of.) Then I plan to fill the space that remains. I love companion planting for many reasons, but I find it much harder to keep track of what is going on in the garden that way, so sometimes things just end up in their own beds.

This week I’ve ordered roughly 15 pounds of fingerling potatoes to plant. Is that crazy? Have you ever tasted fingerlings? They have lower yields, are generally more finicky, but it is worth it all once you have your first bite!

I want to know what’s going on in your Kentucky garden! I plan on hosting a weekly garden link up—the Kentucky Garden Party—for the 2012 garden season. If you have a blog and write about your garden, I’d love for you to share with us what’s going on in your garden each week. (You don’t have to participate every week, but you can.)

To add your link, first read the details on our Garden Party page. Then link to your specific garden-related post from this week using the Linky Tools at the end of this post (where it says “Click Here to Enter”). Then be sure to stop by and visit some of the other gardeners who have shared links as well. (I expect it will be slow this early in the season, but I wanted folks to get familiar with the idea before we get in the full summer planting swing!)