Happy New Year!

It's 2015! You know what that means my darling spiceberries?! No seriously, do you? 'Cause I haven't got a clue.

Anyhow, I think I've got the home gardens figured out. The problems I face at home are two fold: the Back Yard is cursed by the fact that it must  remain very small. I have a pair of large, curious, dogs who want to "help" when I go play in the dirt. Chicken wire only does so much. The Front Yard is cursed with shade. So anything I plant out there needs to be fairly shade tolerant. Which rules out most veggies.

The front yard is getting the following along the porch:

Red noodle beans (to use the porch as a trellis, and if they don't grow then I'm not out anything since I'm growing them out at Fwigf too), then I'm doing a section of Kale (leafy greens are fairly shade tolerant and n fact growing them in shade can help keep them going in the heat of summer), then in front of that I'm doing as many carrots as I can cram in there (root veggies also like shade).

I also have a small narrow island between my driveway and walkway that I think I'm going to plant up with raspberries, blackberries, and use strawberries to fill in the negative space (at least until the cane plants get big and start baring).

My front yard will be pretty, and edible. Neighbors who complain will get bought off with small baskets of produce. Kill 'em with sarcastic, bless-your-heart, kindness.

I'm debating the pros and cons of doing cherry tomatoes along the sidewalk with a sign that says 'free, pick me!' I live right by a high school (and low income kids) and I like the idea of planting something they can take as incentive to leave the rest of my edible front yard alone. And give them something healthy to nosh on before/after school. We'll see how I feel about that when it comes time to plant.

The Back Yard:

I have a space in my back yard that's roughly 10ft x 3ft (or 3m x 1m for our metric spiceberries). What I'm going to do back there is a row of Jade Blue Dwarf Corn (because I had really good luck with it last year, so I think it'll work in the back yard) with turnip greens along the front of them.

That should (with any luck) keep me in veggies and greens all the way through next winter where all I'll need to buy for produce will be potatoes and onions.

What are your plans for gardens in 2015?