The Modern Victory Garden

I hate this time of year sometimes. My garden is empty and my outside time is minimal. The worst of all is the shortening of the days which seems to affect me more and more the older I get. The one thing that keeps me going is making my plans for spring. This will be my third year growing my vegetable gardens. I will be getting new beds and soil this winter. I am going to plan out my garden as usuall but there are a couple of new things I will be tackling.

I want to have some type of irrigation system. Hand watering is quite time consuming and I don't like to use the sprinkler. A lot of my plants don't like wet foliage.

I am also considering moving my potatoes out of the garden. i did a few in pots last year and liked the ease of harvest. i also struggled with blight but had none in my container potatoes. I have read about all types of "potato towers" but it seems like I have watched 20 YouTube videos on people who are harvesting and all of them have had unsatisfactory results. Is there anyone who has had great results with these methods?

I will be putting up a rowhouse on at least one of my beds to try and combat our miserably wet springs.

Finally, I will tackle some succesion planting. I really would like to try this next year. Last year after my peas were harvested a large portion of my bed was left bare.

One other question I was wondering about. Can I still start plants for spring like Onions, cabbage, broccoli and such? Or is it too late. I have a hot pad and lights and could harden them off to put in my unheated greenhouse.

I appreciate any advice!

Larry

I also get a bad case of cabin fever in the winter.   I hate the confinement of not being outside more and I really dislike the short and dark days.   The time change back to standard time is always depressing because I come home in the dark after work and it is very difficult to do any fresh harvests from my winter garden in the dark and (often) rain.   (sigh)

You have some great goals and plans laid out Larry.   On the potato bins and towers - I have had less than wonderful success with them.   It works but the yeild is actually rather ho hum.   The advantage of them though is that you can tuck you potato crop in a small but still sunny location and keep your main growing beds free for other crops .   You definitely can start plants for spring but not quite yet - too early!   The only exception is onions (from seed) can be started and grown indoors and if you have the room getting them going extra early means you will have beautiful sized plants to go in the garden around March when it is time to harden them off and plant them.    I was planning to start some onion seedlings around the first part of December once I track down the seed variety I am interested in for 2012.   The rest of the early spring crops need to wait until mid February to start.   If you grow them indoors too early they will outgrow their containers really fast and get leggy and weak.   Generally, start kale and broccoli 6 to 7 weeks before you plan to be transplanting them into the garden.   I start some earliert than that, but have a protected greenhouse that the ultra earlies go into in late January/early February. 

My winter goals this year include switching over entirely to soil blocks for my seed startng (I have everything to do it - just need to take the leap), keeping my tree kale/collards and artichokes alive through the winter (first time overwintering both of these perennials), and keeping a steady stream of starts going to feed my growing areas at just the right time.   I always plan and replan the garden layout several times during the winter and have mentally already begun that work.