Garden changes for 09…early June edition

By fall all of these opinions will have probably changed, but as of today, here is what I would/will be doing differently with next year’s garden:

• Raise the two beds on lowest ground another 8 to 12 inches.
• Eliminate trying melons at all.  I set aside a lot of space for them and they don’t look good yet.
• Eliminate things we can’t eat, namely jackolanterns and decorative gourds.  The plants are doing well, but it does seem like wasted space.
• Twice as much broccoli, maybe even two full beds.  I thought I planted a lot, but it’s definitely not going to be enough to freeze any.
• Twice as many bush green beans, again maybe even two full beds.
• One whole area of lettuce planted really close together, that I would intend to harvest as leaf lettuce in May and early June.  I’m tired of waiting for lettuce heads to grow…I want salad!  Perhaps 9 or 12 plants per square foot.

I have five full-size 8×6 ft. beds and one that is smaller where the fence cuts it off diagonally.  If I were to do it right now I guess I would plant 2009 as:

• Two beds of broccoli
• One and a half beds of green beans
• Half a bed of salad stuff (it’s still 24 square feet)
• One bed to grow peppers, cucumbers and zucchini
• One full bed of tomatoes

That eliminates cauliflower, some cabbage, peas, melons, gourds and probably a couple other things but hopefully puts more food in my belly.  I guess we’ll see what I think later on down the line.

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EDIT (June 10):

You know…my first-in broccoli has all just about finished up already.  It was a disappointingly small harvest of broccoli, but maybe I’ll try a different seed next year.

However I’m havin’ a thought here.  Since the broccoli is going to be finished producing by the middle of June, I can plant 2 full beds of broccoli as early as possible, completely harvest them, empty the beds and then plant rows of green beans.  June 15 green beans will be done in mid- to late-August.  That should work!