I’ve checked out my seed order for the year, minus the potatoes. I’ll order them in a day or so (after Seed Savers answers my question about garlic). Everything else will come from West Coast Seeds. I even remembered to check the stash of leftover seeds from last year and am not buying more zucchini or carrot or spinach seeds.

The challenge veggie of the year will be eggplant, which is more a challenge for the garden and less for me. Meaning that the challenge will be to see if the garden can produce actual eggplants, since I have a terrible time getting pepper plants to produce actual peppers in a quantity that justifies the space they use in the garden. Previous challenge veggies have been beets and turnips, which the garden produced just fine and which I didn’t do very well at finding yummy things to with the results. It seemed wise to stick to things that I am reasonably comfortable cooking – although I generally only cook one or two eggplants per year, so perhaps the challenge will be finding something to do with a sizable eggplant crop.

I also decided to get some melon seeds. Last year’s melon plant did pretty well. I’m skipping green beans this year since I have so many quarts in the freezer.

Otherwise, we’ll be planting our standards: peas, carrots, mescluns, pumpkins, butternut squash, zucchini (just one plant!), spinach, kale, potatoes, tomatoes. I’m going to try starting onions from seed, too. I wonder if that means that I need some deep seed-starting trays?

Outside, the garden sleeps under its blankets of maple leaves and fava bean plants. I wonder if it’s looking forward to planting season…