Yes, yes, I know it’s the wrong season to be talking about/working on the garden. But I think we’ve come to realize that’s part of the reason why our garden has been disappointing year after year – we’re starting it too late and rushing to get things in, and it just doesn’t work. So, this time around, we started our garden in the fall by putting in a ‘potager garden.’

I’ve seen potager gardens all over the internet, and for some reason I’ve never been that interested in them. It’s essentially a kitchen garden, and what I didn’t like about it was (I thought) it was more about being ‘pretty’ than productive. From what I saw it looked more like herbs and cutting flowers than anything else. Both of those are nice, but they don’t feed a family. After reading more about them I saw that I was incorrect; it’s a lot more to it than just that. Specific flowers are planted to attract beneficial insects like bees, butterflies and ladybugs to boost garden production, plants are planted in succession to maximize the amount of vegetables that can be grown in a small space – in other words, it’s almost exactly what we need.

Additionally, we’re starting the garden in the fall rather than in the Spring. It’s about half done so far. In having it built now, we’ll avoid the rush in the Spring of having to plant seeds, build beds, transplant, weed, till, etc, etc, etc. With this, we’ll be in a good place.

We were able to get the garlic in just a few weeks ago, and we’re starting to look at seeds. Normally we’d look at seeds in about January or February, but with everyone likely having to social distance into 2021, everyone is thinking that a garden is a good idea and is buying supplies up. So, we’re looking to be prepared.

What are we planting? Hopefully we’ll be able to can our own tomato sauce and pickles. Other than that, I’m not sure. The pumpkins and squash will have to go in their own separate bed somewhere. We’ll probably have to consider something cold hardy to go in before and after the tomatoes. And some bee friendly flowers are also a must. But, these are still as yet vague categories, so we’re going to have to hit up some seed catalogs and figure it out.

There’s much about this world that’s wearying right now. But, as long as we’re homesteading, there’s always something to look forward too. On to 2021!