My Vegan Garden

Trim Rose Bushes and Trees

First off, March is trimming season in Iowa, so sometime next week, I’ll trim all of the rose bushes on the property and maybe some of the fruit tree branches. The rose bushes grew wildly because they weren’t trimmed last year and probably not the year before. I didn’t trim the rose bush at my parents’ place that much because it didn’t need it, whereas I’ll have to make those bushes close to two feet tall.

Mulch Around the House

Before I get too into planting stuff around the yard, I’ll have to put new mulch around the house. The current mulch is old and ugly, so I’ll get some cherry mulch from the local hardware store. It’ll look nice around my house because it’s white and looks like a mini stereotypical farmhouse.

Plant Regular and Sweet Potato Plants in Large Pots

I also want to grow some potato and sweet potato plants, but I’ll probably grow them in massive pots. It’s hard to find all the sweet and regular potatoes in the garden at harvest. If the pots seem too expensive, I may ask my dad if he has any old tractor wheels that I can use to plant stuff in and then put yard fabric and rocks on the bottom. We’ll see how that goes.

Take Advantage of My New Asparagus Patch

I now have a colossal asparagus patch with at least 10-15 pounds of asparagus. I guess I don’t have to asparagus hunt in the ditch anymore. My mom is super jealous and is taking some. I’ll tolerate that because I’m renting this place from my parents as long as they save some asparagus for me, or I may have to bring some cats to fertilize the garden. That was a joke, but I’m serious about being salty if people take all of my asparagus.

Check and See if I Have Any Rhubarb Plants

I’m pretty confident that I already have a couple of rhubarb plants next to my dad’s farming shed, but I’ll have to see if they survived the winter before I’m confident about a reliable supply of rhubarb. If not, I’ll buy some rhubarb plants from the store in April.

Plant a Strawberry Patch

I don’t think there’s a strawberry patch on my acreage. I’ll have to find a decent place to start a patch, and hopefully, I’ll have some homegrown strawberries in two summers from now. Strawberry bushes are like berries because they don’t produce fruit right away.

Get More Grapevines

I have a few grapevines, but they taste gross because they’re wine grapes. I might try growing a few grape flavors there that are more likable to my tastebuds. I’ll keep the remaining wine grapes there because some of my family likes them. Iowa’s not that known for grape growing, so we’ll see how that goes.

Start a Berry Patch

I won’t mind starting a berry patch somewhere if I have the room. I’ll try to plant some blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry bushes. There’s a good chance that if I go to the semiannual Amish school auction in Hazleton this May, I can get batches of baby blackberry and raspberry bushes. I’ll buy some blueberry bushes from Menards or online.

Decorate the Yard With Beautiful Flowers

I might get some lovely hanging flower pots from the Amish. If not, I still have a decent amount of options. There’s a big greenhouse near that Amish community owned by some Mennonites with many great flowers. There’s also a local place that sells flowers and produce near the waterpark. I also have two local nurseries on my way to work.

Treat My Current Fruit Trees With Pesticides

I currently have a tart cherry tree, a few apple trees, and a large pear tree. The main problem with the fruit trees at my acreage and my parents’ fruit trees is they’re deer food because of all of the bugs in the fruit. I’ll try finding some pesticide to get rid of those bugs, so I can eat the fruit without eating bugs too, which isn’t much to ask.

Buy More Fruit Trees

I’ll probably get some stone fruit trees, like apricot, plum, and peach trees. I know having plum trees in Iowa is reasonable because one was on the farm I grew up on until it died years ago. I don’t know how easy it’ll be to grow apricots and peaches in Iowa because it’s a colder climate. I’ll try to get some apricot and peach trees online that are hardy for cold winters.

Plant an Epic Garden

Not too long ago, I got a bunch of produce seeds at Menards. Probably a quarter of the seed packets would fill up the garden space enough. Here’s the massive list of seeds I got at Menards (all Burpee seeds), and I’m willing to give some away to the family if they want some because I don’t need them all.

Cruciferous

• De Cicco broccoli
• Snowball Y cauliflower
• Sun King Hybrid broccoli

Herbs

• Dolores chives
• English lavender
• Genovese basil
• Greek oregano
• Green Dream parsley
• Plain or Single Italian parsley
• Red Rubin basil
• rosemary

Leafy Greens

• Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach
• Burpee’s Rhubarb Chard (Swiss chard)
• Fordhook Giant Swiss chard
• gourmet-blend lettuce (seed tape)
• Lacinato kale
• salad greens mix (seed tape)

Legumes

• Bush Blue Lake 47 garden beans
• Golden Wax Improved garden beans
• sugar snap peas
• Super Snappy peas
• Tenderette garden beans

Melons

• Crenshaw melon
• Crimson Sweet watermelon
• Hale’s Best Jumbo cantaloupe
• Honey Rock cantaloupe
• Jubilee watermelon

Nightshade

• Best Boy Hybrid tomatoes
• Black Krim tomatoes
• Burpee’s Black Beauty eggplant
• California Wonder sweet peppers
• Carnival Blend sweet peppers
• Cherry Baby Hybrid tomatoes
• Gigante Verde tomatillos
• Honey Delight Hybrid tomatoes
• Honeycomb Hybrid tomatoes
• Jalapeño Early hot peppers
• White Knight Hybrid eggplant
• Yellow Pear tomatoes

Other

• Bi-Licious Hybrid sweet corn (x2)
• Clemson Spineless okra
• Glass Gem ornamental corn
• Jerusalem Gold Hybrid sunflowers
• mammoth sunflowers
• Straight Eight cucumbers (x2)

Root

• Detroit dark red, medium top beets (seed tape)
• Hollow Crown parsnips
• Kaleidoscope Blend carrots (seed tape)
• Nantes Half Long carrots (seed tape)

Squash

• Big Moon pumpkins
• Black Beauty summer squash (zucchini)
• Burpee’s Golden Zucchini (summer squash)
• buttercup winter squash
• Early Sweet Sugar Pie pumpkins
• Jack-O’-Lantern pumpkins
• Pic-N-Pic Hybrid summer squash
• vegetable spaghetti winter squash

Build an Outdoor Cat Pen

Outside of gardening, I want to make an outdoor cat pen for my cats to enjoy the nice weather and be safe from getting hit by the semis on my road. I want to paint the inside of the shed shades of teal, blue, purple, and pink and then put up some cat jungle gym stuff from Amazon. Then, I’ll put some chicken wire and wooden posts around the existing fenced area that used to be a dog enclosure, except I have to make it with a roof, so the cats can’t get out.

Conclusion

Thanks for listening to episode 1 of Mischievous Monsters’ new podcast. Next week, I’ll tell you why I quit my Misfits Market subscription. If some of these foods sound tasty, I have some blog posts on asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Have a great day.