Annual Garden Planning: The Raised Beds

It's that time of the year again where I tend my many houseplants and dream of spring while the world is cold and gray. I happily tend to my plants in the greenhouse this year too (and hide in the greenhouse from the kids as needed), it's like a secret bonus room of plants I can escape to. The thing that keeps me going the most though? 

Planning the garden for the spring. Even if I don't stick to the plan well. 

Honestly, my plans are rarely followed. For example last year, this was the original plan for the 2020 garden. I worked really hard on it with the intention of following it precisely. 

And this was the actual 2020 garden once I squeezed all the plants in. A lot more plants. 

I love the planning process, even when I know things will change a bit (in addition to rotating the four beds). Sometimes things die, sometimes things don't grow like they should, sometimes other things take over. The plan makes a nice foundation though and helps me implement all my learnings from last season. For example the dahlias - I didn't like the stems on my Preference and Totally Tangerine dahlias - they were too short for bouquets, so I'd like to move those to the side garden dahlia bed next to the driveway, where I can enjoy the blooms without frustration and bring in two new cutting dahlias. Right now I have ordered the American Dawn dahlia and I have my eye on a Penhill Watermelon. 

I've seen photos of other people's American Dawn dahlias and I'm always like OMG THAT COLOR. And every time I'm swooning over these giant pink dahlias, they turn out to be Penhill Watermelon dahlias, so I think these will be a happy edition. 

This year's plan garden plan looks like this:

The herbs, tomatoes and vine beds will stay mostly the same (other than rotating). For the herb beds I'm overwintering rosemary, lemon balm, lemon verbena, lavender and the peppers (habanero and jalapeno) in the greenhouse. Thyme, oregano and the strawberries always come back on their own, as should the st. john's wort. I'm planning on planting more calendula, chamomile, sage, sunflowers and borage from seed. Borage (has little blue flowers) is supposed to improve tomato production and I really think it helped last year, so I plan on making it a permanent addition to the garden. 

I'll have herbs in pots as well, just like last year, some are in the greenhouse right now. And I'm overwintering two hot pepper plants, so I'm hoping those come back. In the top right corner I planted nasturtiums in a huge pot, but these have been replaced by the brown turkey fig tree that is overwintering in the greenhouse. The pot will spend the spring/summer in the same spot as last year in the garden. Lastly, I want to plant morning glory seeds again against the trellis on the garage again because I really liked the look last year, even if they didn't bloom until October. 

The flower bed is changing a bit. Last year the globe amaranth plants went crazy, this year I'm planting one instead of two. I overplanted the lemonade cosmos - I did two rows when I should have done just two or three plants total, as they overcrowded each other and spread powdery mildew. I'm also moving the yarrow into the yard. I would like to do a mix of snapdragons this year in addition to the Chantilly bronze snaps - in year's past I struggle to grow snapdragons from seeds, but I'm hoping with the greenhouse this year I'll be able to do more. 

Not shown are the early spring crops - lettuce, peas, snap peas, dill that will go in early. I can't wait for spring...!