Winter planning.

I've been a bit absent from the blogosphere this week. I'm going to blame it on having a cat with an abscess on its face (currently just a tube sticking out of its face), a dog with diarrhea and a boyfriend with an ear infection. It's been a wild ride for a few days with a lot of bodily fluids on my carpet. Ick.

Anyway...it's that time! That's right – it's time to plan the winter garden! Already! I haven't even gotten my first tomato and I'm already thinking about what food I'm going to eat in December. It's certainly a change of pace in thinking from trying to decide what I'm going to eat tomorrow from the grocery store.

In planning the winter garden I have realized that my garden isn't big enough. I need more space. I can squeeze in broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, carrots, lettuce (through Nov.), kale, garlic, onions and shallots for the winter, but I really wanted to grow some collard greens and I just don't have the room available in time.

I am trying to coordinate the departure of spring and summer veggies to line up with the addition of winter veggies. The only completely open space I have right now is where the kale and spinach were this spring. I'm trading those out for overwintering broccoli and cauliflower. The cauliflower and broccoli from spring should be cleared out in the next two weeks or so and those are getting replaced by kale and spinach. The chard will be replaced by the last round of fall lettuce, but that won't be for a while. The carrots are holding their own and I'm hoping to get a few more seeds in before this month is out, otherwise what we have out there now is all we get. The current lettuce bed is becoming storage onions; it will be free for use in the next few weeks as well. And, lastly, the cucumber/pepper/bean area will be dedicated to garlic and shallots, but those don't go in until late September.

My goal is to get a job and therefore have the expendable income and peace of mind to spend a little money and flatten out the side yard with a retaining wall, some fill dirt, some garden dirt and some compost and get that done before winter. Then the rain can pack it down and we can add some more dirt in spring and use the side yard for next year's awesomely-amazing-gigantic-summer garden. There will be space for melons, squash, corn and hopefully a dedicated asparagus bed.