Planning this spring's garden

This is the time for garden catalogues, when those of us who are weary of cold, clouded days of rain pore over pictures of pumpkins, strawberries, snap beans, tomatoes and whatever else strikes our fresh produce-deprived fancy. Of course, I do as little buying from catalogues as I can, preferring to save my seeds each year and start them the following spring. I do a four year rotation plan with each individual plot (I have ten rotating plots in all, as well as others where I plot the same things every year, like herbs, asparagus and rhubarb), to make sure the soil doesn't get depleted and to minimize diseases. First year is potatoes, second is peas, beans, leeks, and lettuce, third year is cabbage and winter greens (our kale was very successful this past year) and the fourth year is carrots, beets, turnips, and parsnips. Ginny helps me draw up the garden plan each year and decides where the flowers will be interspersed (marigolds, for example, are so helpful for deterring insects, such as whiteflies). We definitely need to plant lavender again this year, too, and I think I'll add some bee balm and borage. Maisie Diggory was telling me that borage repels tomato hornworms and cabbage worms.

We've already started some seeds in starter sets in the celler, under the glowworm lights that Arthur set up for me. Lobelia, of course, needs the longest lead time (I set the seeds out in late January), but I do love it so, those tiny blue flowers foaming over the edges of planters, so I definitely think it is worth the trouble. I have great hopes for the apple orchard this year, too, now that we have our own bees to help pollinate. Arthur has built me another cold frame, too, which I hope will give us more lettuce early in the spring.