The Planning of the Garden

So, in between everything going on in regular life we're planning our vegetable garden and today I thought hey... why can't we start growing things now. Sure it's the dead of winter, but somethings take forever to grow... that and I kill plants, so we might have to make several attempts at growing things successfully. These musings have been mostly prompted by learning that it takes a number of years to grow some of the things we'd like to have:

1. Coffee Beans - 4 years
2. Asparagus - 3 years
3. Grapes - 3-4 years
   (We're still investigating the homemade wine process but figure if these folks can make peapod & elderberry wine [ffwd to 3min. 40seconds] that we could have a go at grapes!)

Beyond those "luxury" items, I believe my first challenge will be tomatoes. Because our growing season is short I think I'm going to go with the
"Bush Early Girl"

I'm hoping if we start early the plants will be big enough to put in the ground (and live) by the ends of the frosts sometime around May 11th. Of course the potatoes will need to go in earlier!

Here are our FINALISTS for this years garden:

1. Orange Rocket Carrots
2. Looseleaf Lettuce
3. Snow Peas
   
4. Zucchini
5. Mellon
6. Tomatoes
7. Green Peppers
8. Potatoes
   

Of course I welcome any and all comments and suggestions as I hope to make this my first successful garden ever - all others have failed miserably!