Its that time of year again...

When the seed catalogs start arriving like glimmers of light at the end of a long, cold tunnel to remind us that winter will indeed end eventually. Time to start dreaming and planning for a new growing season, making seed lists and sketching garden maps, and laying the earliest foundations of this year's harvest.

As usual, my own plans are continually in flux. What started as plans for 900 sq ft of garden space has expanded to over 1100, courtesy of my kids who submitted their own seed lists after flipping through the spectacular Baker Creek and Seed Savers Exchange catalogs.

With the increasing list of crops to sow, I'm rethinking my overall garden design, if only because cinder block construction really eats into the available growing space of each bed. I may end up with a much more mixed design with cinder block in place to secure my tomato supports, but wooden beds for the beds where no trellises are needed.

So what varieties am I growing? Almost too many to count!

The seed list:
Blue Lake bush bean
Purple Podded pole bean
Old Homestead pole bean
Calabrese broccoli
Long Island Improved brussels sprouts
Danvers 126 carrot
Dragon carrot
Purple of Sicily cauliflower
Snowball cauliflower
Honey N Pearl sweet corn
Strawberry popcorn
Round Mauve eggplant
Diamond eggplant
Rocky Top Mix lettuce
Petit Gris melon
Green Arrow peas
Oregon Sugar Pod peas
He Shi Ko bunching onion
Bronze D'Amposta onion
Yellow Finn potato
All Blue potato
Caribbean Red Habanero pepper
Ancho Gigantea pepper
Miniature Chocolate Bell pepper (potted)
Miniature Red Bell pepper (potted)
Miniature Yellow Bell pepper (potted)
California Wonder pepper
Orange Bell pepper
Quadrato D'Asti Rossa pepper
Quadrato D'Asti Giallo pepper
French Breakfast radish
Bloomsdale spinach
Early Prolific Straight summer squash
Black Beauty zucchini
Pomme D'Or winter squash
Sweet Dumpling winter squash
Connecticut Field pumpkin
Amish Paste tomato
Cosmonaut Volkov tomato
Copia tomato
Riesentraube cherry tomato
Hartman's Yellow Gooseberry cherry tomato
Andrina cherry tomato (potted)
Hahms Gelbe cherry tomato (potted)
Pendulina cherry tomato (potted)
Picnic watermelon

The plant list:
Mary Washington asparagus
Pink Champagne blueberry
Blue Crop blueberry
Duke Blueberry
Elliot blueberry
North Country lowbush blueberry
Kiowa blackberry
Navajo blackberry
Autumn Britton raspberry
Heritage raspberry
Caroline raspberry

The tree list:
Cortland apple (2)
Zestar apple (2)
HoneyCrisp apple (2)
Prairie Spy apple (2)
Moonglow pear (2)
Bartlett pear (2)

Written out, it looks almost overwhelming!

In keeping with my goal of detailed accounting of the costs, income, and yields from this year's garden efforts, the breakdown for all of the above, including shipping when applicable, looks like this:

Seeds - $151.40
Plants - $154.89
Trees - $238.01

Big outlays to get started this year even before we get to building the beds, supports, and pathways, but the plants and trees are long term investments. To some degree, the seeds are as well, since I'm growing mostly heirloom varieties and will save seed from the ones that do well.