Deciding What To Grow in the Vegetable Garden 2024

Now that the new seed catalogs are showing up in the mail, it is time to start thinking about what to grow next this year.  Again, I am using only half of the raised bed garden for veggies and leaving the other beds for pollinator friendly annuals.  I am not making many changes from last year because things went pretty well.  As always, I will do a few things differently.  I am in the mood for some fun tomatoes.

Peas, Beans, Cucumbers, Zucchini, Lettuce, Carrots:  I am doing everything exactly the same with one minor tweak.  I am going to plant my row of pole beans in two stages.  I will start in the center and plant half of my yellow and half of my green varieties.  Two weeks later I will finish off the ends of the row.  I had plenty of pole beans all year, but there was a two week lull towards the end of August, then they began blooming again.  I want to see if I can stagger their recovery period by planting at different times or if it has more to do with weather.  And I want to plant a little more of the green Seychelles than the yellow Monte Gusto because the Monte Gusto is just such a heavy producer compared to the Seychelles.

Cucumbers 2017

Tomatoes:  Although I have been planting my main crop in large containers, I still end up with a few plants in the ground.  I am going to try some more dwarf varieties in the containers but I am planning on six indeterminate plants in a raised bed using the Florida Weave method of support.  For the past couple of years I have stuck to one red variety, one yellow or bi-color, and one black or brown variety.  This year I also want to have a green and a blue variety.  It has been years since I had fun with colored tomatoes.  I also plan on buying an Early Girl plant.

Blue Beauty Tomatoes 2018

Peppers:  I am not changing anything about my two pots of hot peppers, but I am going to buy some bell pepper plants and plant them along the tomato plants.  Peppers like some filtered sun and planting them at the feet of tomatoes works well.

Bell Peppers 2019

Cole Crops:  Last year I purchased all of my cole crop plants.  The cabbages were fine, but I really missed having the yellow cauliflowers.  So I am going to go back to starting all of my plants.  This adds a month to my gardening season, but it also makes it more rewarding.

Flame Star Cauliflower

Sweet Corn:  As of right now, I am not in the mood for sweet corn.  I am not in the mood to water it every day and turn on the electric fence to keep the coons out just to yield four dozen ears, no matter how awesome they are.  I think I will take a year off and buy from the nearby farm stan.  I have many months to change my mind.

Cantaloupes:  Again - a huge commitment for a non-guaranteed return.  Last year we got most of our rain just before they ripened which watered down their taste. Weeks of excellent weather, then days of counter productive weather at just the wrong time.  I am not sure I want to water them every day and cover them every night just to get a dozen ho hum melons.  I still have seeds.  I may plant a few, but they are not high on my list of goals this year.

Sweet Potatoes:  My variety is called Mahon Yam.  It is only sold by Johnny's Seeds.  For years they were getting about $24.99 for 25 slips.  That was pretty pricey, but the variety grew really well for me. In 2022 they went up to $37.00 so I learned to start my own slips.  I wasn't going to pay $37.00 plus tax and shipping for a small harvest of sweet potatoes! Especially since not all of the 25 bedraggled, mail order slips could be expected to take. Out of curiosity, I checked the price this year.  $45.25 for 25 slips.  Holy Crap!  I will again start my own slips.  Last year I tried seven gallon containers, which were easier to keep watered than grow bags, but they weren't really deep enough.  I am going back to the 25 gallon grow bags. 

Sweet Potato Slips

Regular Potatoes: Also a no this year.  Growing your own potatoes is easy and cost effective if you put them in the ground.  If you put them in grow bags they are quite a bit of work (and can be expensive in terms of soil) for a marginal return.  It is still the best way to get some new potatoes though.

Herbs for Butterflies:  Last year I chose a random raised bed,  one where the soil was under preforming for food crops, and planted Parsley, Dill, Basil and Dara.  It is becoming a "perennial" herb bed.  The Parsley will winter over and should flower this year and planting Dill in the same place each year is wise if you don't want to fight volunteers all the time. Last year wasn't good for Dill, so I will buy extra seeds. I plan to put my Rosemary and Sage in this bed this year and also try Valerian which is another pollinator friendly, perennial herb.

Valerian from Victory Seeds

So that is my gardening plan for 2024.  I have most of my seeds, but I will probably be placing two small orders to fill in my cole crop seeds and to add a couple of fun tomato varieties.  Cabbages and Cauliflowers will need to be seeded in mid-March.  Until then, I can pour over these catalogs and dream of warm, sunny days.

Happy New Year!