Spending a little time in the fall taking notes on what happened in your garden over that past season is a great way to get a jump start on your garden planning for the following spring. In this episode we are going to briefly introduce garden mapping and then Kellie and I will share our favorite crop varieties of the 2016 garden season.

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SHOW NOTES:

In the episode we discuss:

• How to make a garden map.

• Basic information to include on your garden map.

• Our favorite crop varieties of the 2016 growing season.

Important Take-aways:

• Garden mapping enables you to keep track of what happened in the past and project the best ways to use your garden in the future. We highly recommend you create a map of your garden at the beginning of each season so you can accurately track what you planted and where each crop was located in your garden.

• The first thing you need to do when preparing to map your crops is to make an enlarged base map that consists of a simple outline of your annual garden beds.

• Our stand-out varieties of 2016:

  • Beans: ‘Fortex’ (pole beans) and ‘Provider’ (bush beans)

  • Broccoli: ‘Bay Meadows’

  • Brussels: ‘Doric’ and ‘Gustus’

  • Carrots: ‘Nelson’

  • Peppers: ‘Anaheim’, ‘Padrone’, ‘Shishito’

  • Squash: ‘Tromboncino’

  • Tomatoes: ‘Golden Rave’

Heard on the Episode:

“Let's be honest, for a gardener, digging into a seed catalogue in the dead of winter is one of the great joys of the off-season. These beautiful publications, with all their colorful images are a incredibly inspiring! However, it is important to remember that, no matter how eloquent the description of the variety in the catalog, not every variety will live up to your expectations.” - Hilary Dahl

“...get ready for this dorkiness - I do my garden planning in Excel! Since I grow my veggies in raised beds, they are a nice rectangular shape - either 4x8 or 4x10 or 2x8 - so it's easy to make each cell in Excel equal to one square foot. ” - Kellie Phelan

Fall Gardening Tools We Love:

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