I've already drawn mine out on paper. It's a smallish garden, so I like to think ahead about placement. I haven't grown corn in several years and might try that again. Of course, there's always got to be tomatoes! I'll order seeds during the duller months of Jan. and Feb.

It's itching me, but I try to wait until the end of January. The current season isn't really finished, still some roses are flowering despite the night frosts, and the last vegetables need to be harvested.

I'm in the midst of planning. Catalogs are coming thick and fast and I like to get my orders in by mid Jan.

I have my plan drawn out on excel for my 2016 gardens including the fall garden but I will probably still tweak it some. I haven't ordered any seeds yet but I have a list put together of what I want. I did order a 250' x 83" roll of Agribon 19 frost blanket from Drip Works and received a 25% discount on their Cyber Monday deal plus they threw in a free 20 gallon Smart Pot. They also sent a post card that I can send in to receive a free Baker's Creek catalog (or should I say book - 360 pages!) I plan to order 25 Purple Passion and 25 Pacific Purple Asparagus crowns from Nourse Farms pretty soon. Still need to build a couple new raised beds for those. That will give me a total of 90 Gus plants (50 purple, 20 Jersey Knight, 20 Mary Washington).

I'm participating in a round robin swap at the moment and so I'm waiting on a big package of seeds to come before making any real decisions. I do have a very basic plan mapped out but it'll change at least a couple times. With the seeds I've saved and acquired I won't need to buy any this year.

Rodney

SandySlopes - where do you order your seeds from? And what is your favorite tomato?

Gardenpictures - What zone are you in, that roses are flowering? My roses are still green but not blooming and that is kind of crazy in December in New England.

Laceyvail - What’s your favorite catalog?

LoneJack - Sounds like you’re just about set for the season. What are your favorite varieties?

TheForgottenOne - That’s pretty amazing not to need to purchase any seed. I have a ton of Scarlet Runner Beans but that’s about all I did this year.

We built raised beds in the summer of 2014 and last year was our first full year using them. Unfortunately, in the spring, I found that one of the beds was full of tree roots from a line of Maples that are about 25 feet away from the bed. I am pretty surprised that happened so fast. And by the time I noticed it, I couldn’t do anything about it, so nothing in that bed did well last year. I don’t think there’s any way to keep the roots out, so I’ll have to dig them out every spring. Oh well.

Trees are causing shade during late afternoon and the house during early morning doing the same, but I think I get at least 5 hours of sun a day. I think the trees are as mature as they are going to get so I should be able to maintain that.

But last year, we tried growing three tomato plants in the front perennial bed, where there is full sun for comparison, and it amazed me how much bigger and productive the plants are. So, my new plan is to grow the sun lovers out front in place of some of the perennials and keep the other crops in the back.

Started my first round of seeds last week--first one up was a Tiren tomato from Johnny's. My raised bed they're going into is almost done, just need to locktite the top rows of blocks & fill it. Yay! Maybe I'll have a productive spring. Fall weather was so bad that my tomatoes and chiles are still trying to ripen.

I have the 2016 garden all planned out...all in my head. that's the way I do it. I even have 2017 partly planned out....about 8,000 sq. ft. I am now ready to order seeds.

8000 sq. ft all planned in your head Wayne? I can't even plan my 800 sq. ft. garden in my head! LOL

LoneJack - Sounds like you’re just about set for the season. What are your favorite varieties?

I regularly grow Broccoli, Lettuce, Garlic, Onions, Shallots, Leeks, Summer squash, Tomatoes, Peppers, Brussels Sprouts, Cucumbers, Horseradish, Carrots, Green Beans, Radish, herbs, Potatoes, Mellons.

I usually trial some new stuff every year.

I usually order seeds from Johnny's and Territorial. I find them both to be reliable at sending good seeds, and some packs will last me two or three seasons.

I'll be limited on space for tomatoes if I plant corn, so I'll look for a few basics. My favorite tomato is the ever popular Sungold. That's the only must have. I'd like an early, a bigger kind, and a paste tomato to round things out. The last two years Amish paste has not done well for me.

prairiemoon2, zone is about USDA 7a.

I think it's mainly a matter of micro climate created in the garden - yesterday morning the surroundings were covered in hoarfrost again, but the garden (mostly) was not.

So even after Christmas, or if there are some milder days in January, it happens that there are suddenly rose flowers and snow .

Jack - I grow everything you grow, except the Leeks, Shallots, Horseradish and Carrots. I’m thinking of trying Shallots this year. We also have Strawberries. Do you have a favorite tomato? What do you use the Horseradish for?

I don't get too fancy with the tomatoes. I grow one cherry each year, either Sungold or Super Sweet 100. 3 or 4 Big Beef, a couple Rutgers, and 1 of either Black Krim or Cherokee Purple. This gives me a good mix for fresh eating and enough quantity for making Annie's Salsa.

I only grow a small 3x3 raised bed of horseradish. I have the bed in a spot away from anything else because it can be very invasive. I need to be able to mow around it to keep it contained. I dig the roots up in the fall after a few decent freezes. This year I got about 6 lbs. of root from that small bed. I then wash, peel, chop into 1" pieces, and process it with vinegar, salt, and sugar in a small food processor about 1 cup at a time. I got about 9 half pint jars this year. It freezes well so it will last all year. We use it on roast beef, in cocktail sauce for shrimp or fish, sandwiches, and on tenderloins.

Marianne - Wow ripening tomatoes and chiles, you have a lot longer growing season then we do here in NE. Ours have been done for more than a month.

Wayne, that’s a big garden! Mine is only about 300 sq ft. [g] I also can't imagine planning an 8,000sqft garden in my head!

Sandy - I ordered Sunflowers and Scarlet Runner Beans from Johnny’s last year and had 50 seeds in each packet, which I thought justified the price. I will probably have enough for the next two years. I also collected what looks like about 200 Scarlet Runner Beans this fall. So I’m happy with that. I order from FEDCO every year, for organic, non GMO seeds.

Sungold is our favorite as well. It is early, it is delicious, it’s very productive and it’s healthy. We had more than we could eat last year, from one plant. We were giving them away. I’m looking for the same thing - a large tomato and a paste. We tried BelgiumGiant last year which was pretty good, but I think I’ll try something else this year. Looking for ideas. BrandyBoy is one I’m considering.

GardenPictures - I am in 6a, so you’re one zone warmer. It has been unusually warm. Rose flowers and snow?! lol That sounds like fun.

Prairie--I'm a low desert gardener so summer is basically my winter and this year it went until mid-October. Picked my first Aleppo pepper today! The first of my tomato seedlings popped this week, so I'll have something to put out for the Feb plant out date.

Fun to see what everyone plans & plants. Right now I'm deciding if & what squash to start soon.

Oh, I had it backwards. :-) So you had a long winter, and are going into spring. I've never lived in that kind of a climate and hearing that tomatoes and peppers are ripening confused me a little. I imagine you grow different crops in your climate than I do here in NE. How long is your growing season?

LoneJack, Since you asked, I like for broccoli: Imperial, Emerald Green, and a varible 3rd variety. For lettuce: Skyphos red butterhead. For tomatoes: Sungold, Supersweet 100, Brandywine pink Suddeth, Pink Girl, Rose de Berne, a certain strain of Mortgage Lifter, and more. For potatoes: Kenebec, Yukon Gold, another varible one. For cantaloupes: Burpee's early Hybrid Crenshaw, Willhite's Sugar Queen, and Goddess. For watermelons: Raspa, Sangria, Yellow Crimson, Yellow Doll, Willhite's Sweet Slice [seedless], and more.

prairiemoon2, funny that I also ordered Scarlett Runner Beans from Johnnys, but it was two years ago. I grow them up the posts in the veggie garden for the hummingbirds. I have enough left for this season and then I'll be out.

Marianne - So you have 6 months of growing time for tomatoes and peppers, and what happens June - Aug - do the plants just stay in the ground and start up again in September or do you have to start over with new plants?

Well, it sounds great. Must be amazing to be able to grow citrus. Can you also grow figs and avocados? Do you feel like you ever get a break from gardening?

SandySlopes - Last year was the first year I tried Scarlet Runner Beans and I did so to attract Hummingbirds, but I didn't get any. Do you keep yours picked and eat the beans? We did eat some of them, but I had other green beans, so I left a lot on my vine all season and harvested the beans at the end of the season. You could try to just leave some pods to ripen and collect your own seed this season. Very easy to do. You just have to wait long enough to harvest them when the pods are brown and dry.

Marianne - my ears perked up when you mentioned Aleppo pepper. Do you dry it? I discovered I like Aleppo pepper seasoning but it's hard to find unless I do mailorder from a place like Penzey's.

The Fedco catalog has arrived. I loved the Long island Cheese pumpkins I bought at the 2014 farmers winter market but I'm not thrilled with the ones I grew. Definitely a pumpkin and I prefer a kabocha type squash. Good thing I grew both. I was very pleased with the different varieties of paste tomatoes I grew and bought a dehydrator. My favorite new way to make a tomato paste is to semi dry paste tomatoes and then put through the food processor. Did not water the potatoes enough and although we got a decent crop of Classic Keepers, not many were large enough for baking. Lesson learned.

Considering growing cantaloupe and had a fun time buy a few at a farmers market so I could see what grew and tasted good. Market was Norwich VT and I'm in NH.

Garlic has been planted but I don't think I planted enough. This time I need to write down how many in my garden journal. Used a lot doing canning. Winter squash did very well with watering and early use of Agribon to protect baby plants from invasion of cucumber beetles. Also had black plastic on the bed to kill creeping jenny weeds. Debating growing squash in same location for a third year.

I grew three kinds of pole beans that were great fresh but area also supposed to be good dry. A friend sent me 6 seeds each and I was thrilled with harvest. Still have the dried seed pods in bags and need to thresh.

I think the hard part about planning and the reason why I keep a journal is to avoid too many sugar snaps and not enough green beans. Foolishly planted old bush bean seed this year and it didn't germinate. Duh! It was more than a few years old. I didn't think I wanted to grow carrots since they are cheap and plentiful at the store but my husband asked for some. I didn't realize how much better home grown carrots taste. Just pulled the last of them before the ground freezes ... if it ever will this year. Still have leeks in the garden grown from purchased plants. Found a really great nursery which had leeks and celeriac seedlings plus a great assortment of annuals (I have a hard time finding lemon gem marigolds.) then the bonus was a trip to Maine for 4th of July and finding a nursery with great looking seedlings probably for the summer people who were just starting their gardens. I got a bonus crop of late broccoli from that purchase.

But no, I don't have anything down on paper!

In the desert, June to Aug is basically the "winter"--nothing grows and a lot of stuff dies. Really only the trees, basil and most chiles can take that kind of punishment. The chiles don't set but they straggle along and set like crazy once it cools off. Too hot for avocados to survive.

Picked my first lemon last night, beautifully sweet and flavorful. I used that and the Aleppo in some home-made hummus, turned out excellent. The Aleppo was really good, mine was spicy with a lot of flavor. I'll keep that plant around!

Finished another big raised bed this weekend and transplanted the tomato seedlings I've got around into it. They'll mostly grow roots and get a bit taller in the next few weeks, 50-70s for highs in the next few weeks. The soil never really gets colder than 50s so they'll be ok. Spring is 8 weeks away!

Lone Jack, I got my vege porn (Baker Creek catalogue) today! I'm expecting rain this weekend, and curling up with my catalogue and a notebook! I'm very lucky that I have a BK store just a few miles away! Nancy

Nancy, I mailed off the Baker Creek postcard request late last week so I don't expect it will take too much longer to receive the catalog since BC is headquartered in Missouri. I already have an order planned for Johnny's but have not completed it yet. I think I will wait until after I look thru the BC catalog which will probably take awhile. I don't want to add to the USPS workload until after Xmas anyways. I don't believe BC has a store front in the KC area.

I keep looking at their Chihuahua squash and wondering how big that thing grows...so tempting to try it.

I treated myself to a years membership with garden planner while we were waiting to close on our new house, so I have been playing around with that. I also ordered from Baker creek/ Pinetree/ swallowtail all yesterday. Still need to order a few more things from Southern exchange and I'm ready to start seeds. Bought mid-heavy range frost cloths last year, gonna try to plant out earlier than I'm used too.

I've started picking out seed from my collection. Planning out what goes where, or rather, what isn't going where. I have a lot of crop rotation to figure out. I'm going to wait till after the holidays to order the three packets of seed I want for this year.

Short of actually planting the garden, the planning is the most fun! For 2016 I have started my plan. I have 4 areas in which I plant garden vegetables.

Area 1 - Is an area about 15' X 8' on the north side of my house landscaping in which I plant some vegetables among the roses and azaleas. Here I intend to plant peppers, hot habinieros and bell, basil and 2 tomatoes purchased locally.

Area 2 - Is an area about 15' X 12' on the south side of my house landscaping in which I plant some vegetables among the bush cherries, roses, russian palmogranite, strawberries, and apache blackberry. Here I will plant tomatoes purchased locally, eggplant, and bell peppers. I might have an artichoke if it survives the winter. Picture included.

Area 3 - Is a 18' X 5' raised garden in the backyard shown in the picture. Here I already have 2 gojiberry bushes and will plant bright-light swiss chards, broccoli raab, and beets (all on line seeds).

Area 4 - Is a 10' x 20' backyard garden spot next to my north fence. Here I plan to plant yard-long oriental beans in a row along the fence so they can run up the fence. In five 4 foot X 8 foot patches I will plant bush beans (local purchased seeds), musselburgh leeks (seeds on line), swiss chards-lettuce-mustard greens-green onions (local seeds). On the fence I will hand some milk jug containers where I will plant cucumbers to trail down. The yard-long beans will entagle with the cucumbers using them as support. The picture shows 2 of the 5 sections. Last year I grew garlic and leeks.

I received 1/2 of my on-line-ordered seeds yesterday. I received my mustard, bright-light Swiss chards and beets. Still waiting on cucumbers, musselburgh leeks, and broccoli rabe. Planning some projects for the spring (besides pruning fruit trees, bushes and vines and preparing garden soil). Project # 1 - Rplace all native grass in the backyard with good grass. Project # 2 - Graft another variety of jujube onto my sherwood (need scions). Project # 3 - Graft another variety of apricott onto my moorpark (need scions). Project # 4 - Build wooden plant box. Project # 5 - Build 2 feet wide walk from patio to storage.

harlieboring, I love the way you mix growing veggies into your landscaping. a creative way to make the most of your lawn.

Charlieboring, is that a bat box on the chimney?

Oot... - Sorry, not a bat box, it is a woodbox door.