Planting a Spring Garden is always a good idea in these times of trying to become more self-sustainable but also just to have a variety of vegetables to harvest for the season. Whether you’re harvesting for winter months too or just for the summer, these are all good to include in your garden!
We love to harvest lots of tomatoes, green beans, and onions to keep a stock on our shelves. Somehow I can never seem to plant enough tomatoes to keep up with my husband’s demand for pasta sauce and diced tomatoes for his eggs..okay well mine too (we both eat them like apples!)
Seeds are hard to come by these days when it comes to your spring garden. Everyone wants to buy seeds for their gardens and seed companies are definitely taking some hits. I have recommended in the past, getting them around January or February but if you’re looking right at springtime, True Leaf Market is a really good seed company! I feel like I save money buying them online, so I don’t go ridiculously over budget adding things I probably won’t plant that year. They also have lots of heirloom organic seeds too which can be tricky to find when you just go to the Home Depot. You can get a much better germination rate this way. Also starting your own seeds saves A LOT of money versus buying already started plants. We also use these vertical planters aside from our other garden beds so we can grow all year around.
Green Beans are a really easy thing to plant! Seriously, there have been times my soil quality isn’t as good as it could be and green beans are the only ones shooting up out of the ground like crazy. These are really nice for canning or freezing to preserve. Sometimes they get eaten by beatles but I have used dichotomous earth to prevent them from doing so.
We plant a RIDICULOUS amount of tomatoes in our Spring Garden every year and we seem to not end up with as much as I’d like every year! One tomato plant produces quite a bit. I will say if you’re starting from seed, get them in early so you can get the max amount of harvest! We love beefy tomatoes the most but also do Romas as well.
Lettuce is something we plant so we can make fresh salads. Honestly we really like it for making Homemade Dog Food. I am not a huge lettuce eater but I will eat it better fresh out of the garden. All year around lettuce, buttercrunch lettuce, and romaine are our favorites. You can also do spinach if you like to cook or add that in your smoothies.
Onions are really nice to have for the garden because they can last a long time without any canning method if you keep them in a cool dark place. The one year we planted about 50 onions they stayed in our garden (yes after fall into snowing winter) and we harvested them as needed! You can also turn them into onion powder.
Carrots are a must in our spring garden because our dogs LOVE them. They eat them like little bunnies. If you have followed me on Instagram stories you have probably seen them getting their daily treats (carrots). Sometimes carrots are hard to grow if your soil is compact. Make sure your soil is loose and not too packed down. You can also use the carrot tops to eat as well.
Potatoes are one thing to start now if you would like to have an abundance next year. We planted gold potatoes the first year and they were small little potatoes at harvest but when we came back the next year, they must have started growing more plants in early spring because the potatoes the next year were a decent size! Plant these where you want to keep them so you can easily get a bigger harvest the next year.
Squash is one that can take over your garden. I recommend putting them on a trellis of some sort. They can grow fast and your harvest will most likely be plentiful. Squash soup is my favorite and we love to make that in the winter. Freezing squash for winter soups is the best!
Everyone usually plants zucchini at least here in Indiana and gets so much they force their neighbors to take it! I wanted to include this in the list because I recently heard someone mention making it into flour! Now with prices going up and inflations at it’s high, this one note you may not want to skip.
Making Zucchini flour can cut back on your cost for flour. You can use ⅓ cup of zucchini flour for any regular flour. It thickens up your recipe but also you can hardly tell the difference. Instead of giving away most of your zucchini harvest just use the extra to make it into flour! Simply dehydrate it and then throw it in a food processor, and you have some flour. Make sure not to use the skin of the zucchini.
Bell Peppers are nice to have for a morning breakfast. Growing a few Bell Pepper plants can give you some good appetizer meals for the summer night friend get togethers. I usually melt cheese on Green bell Peppers for a snack. You can also dehydrate them to use in soups, stews, and rice meals for winter time.
Cucumbers are nice to have for pickling! I suggest getting pickling cucumbers if you plan to ferment them. They make nice snacks for summer with some ranch. You’re going to want a trellis or some type of stake to hold them up so they don’t take over the garden. Maybe add them next to your squash.
Cabbage is good to have in the Spring Garden because there are different ways to use it. Coleslaw is a common way but also you can make your own sauerkraut so you can have a fermented food through the winter. One thing we love to do is cook up fresh cabbage and sauté it with salt and about 2 TBS of Apple Cider Vinegar (Check Out how you can make that here for Pennies!). Cabbage can take a while to grow in the garden so I would start them from seed in early spring! It also requires nutrient rich soil to grow. Cabbage worms are also common. You can try using cornmeal, neem oil, or neem powder to keep the cabbage worms from eating your harvest.
Cauliflower is another thing we love. We have been eating a low carb diet with extra protein lately and cauliflower has been a veggie we eat often. It is filling and you can make cauliflower pizza crust or eat it as a rice recipe. It is sensitive to temperature changes and is more difficult to grow. Cauliflower needs nutrient dense, well drained soil to grow properly.
There are so many other vegetables you can grow in your garden but these are the top picks for your spring garden! You can add beets, radishes, corn, sweet potatoes, asparagus, and so much more. Find out what your family loves and map out your spring garden based on what they eat so you can be sure to use all those vegetables after all that work to care for them!
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