Gardening Plans

My hatred of winter and all things cold has me daydreaming a lot about warmer weather and gardening.  This will be our first full gardening season in the new house.  We were far too busy unpacking and planning a wedding last year for me to do much more than growing a few pots full of flowers.

I'm pretty sure my first attempt at vegetable gardening will be a flop as I have very little experience.  I've helped my mom with a garden a few times and had a few plants on the patio at the condo but that's about it.

Pinterest is a dangerous place to spend time when planning a garden.  It seems like everything is "easy" and I know that's not the case.  I'm trying to narrow down my list of things to try because I know I can't grow everything and have a huge garden right out of the gate, especially considering the area that will become our garden is still fully landscaped from last year.  I'm thinking of using containers and a few small raised beds to test out areas of the backyard, side yard, and even front yard to grow some things.  So far I've got this much figured out...

Sweet potatoes - Everything I've read about sweet potatoes is they need a very long, hot growing season.  I'm going to attempt to grow some in containers along the back fence.

Carrots - I'm going to use my old cold frame and some round pots to grow carrots.

Tomatoes - I'm thinking a small raised bed that will hold about three plants would work well for the back corner.  There are a few pathetic perennial plants back there that could easily be dug out to make room for a raised bed.

Peppers - A matching raised bed would also work for pepper plants.  I'd like to do red, orange, and yellow peppers because these are the kind I buy the most at the store.

Sugar snap peas - I have a few extra window box planters that I didn't use last year.  I was thinking of using these to grow snap peas up a trellis.

Lettuce - Lettuce likes shade apparently so I'm going to try growing some along the north side of the house.  I'm not sure if I'll grow it containers or in one of the beds along the side of the house.

Just those things alone will probably keep me plenty occupied when I'm not mowing the yard.  I'm going to use some gift cards to buy some big containers and soil.  I'm not sure if I'll try starting seeds indoors for the tomatoes and peppers.

For now, I think I'll just work on getting my containers gathered.  I'm thinking whiskey barrels and galvanized containers.

Anywho... I'll keep browsing the internet and coming up with grand plans for spring and summer.