seed catalogs cometh

tis the season of dreams and hopes and wishful thinking...
for the seed catalogs fill the mail box!
now i garden, (not last year cause edmund my wether threw my back out but good) so seeing the seed catalogs fill my soul with a rush of emotion
and empty my wallet very fast
i read the descriptions, and drool over the pictures
i imagine us lunching on the deck under the umbrella on colorful mixed salads or grilled veggies interspersed with hunks of chicken or our own home grown hard boiled eggs

of course since i think in pictures, the salads are in hot colors of reds, oranges, magentas, yellow, greens and purples, set off by slices of yellow centered white hard boiled eggies.
the lettuces are even colorful as i like red loose leaf lettuces
and all this abundance is heaped on platters
which we eat from with glasses of pink lemonade with frosty sides and cracked ice
and a sprig of mint fresh from the garden
(are you dying with envy yet? .........i am..cause lately it hasn't been like that)

ok so back to the seed catalogs, this year i am adding some hybrids.........yes i know....i am normally totally anti hybrid but i am going to test a few against my heirlooms
especially eggplant and brussel sprouts
the peppers and tomatoes and lettuces will all continue to be strictly heirlooms
but i need to figure a better way with eggplant and brussel sprouts, which in the case of the eggplant is going to be a hoop house
and who knows in the case of the brussels sprouts

i liked the way the bannana peppers did in the garden, although this year i want to have a thick layer of manure under their beds ( i do that with tomatoes usually.......as that's what my folks always did) i am thinking though that the 4 ducks and the 4 chickens aren't enough for the amounts of manure i need
i really could use a cow at this point

i would like raised beds, bernie has been promising me
i am almost to the point of pounding nails and using zip ties to get them too....
i would like them about 12-18 inches deep
and even if i can't yet have all the beds raised, it would be nice to have the pepper and eggplant beds up so i can cover them easily

as to what i am putting in.......well my favorite white seeded merchant of venice yellow pole bean......tastes to me like vanilla and is never a problem even if you harvest it at 10 inches or so
hmmmm
one of the ky pole beans......either blue or wonder
of course snow peas, i love them
lettuces and greens naturally

the peppers and eggplants are a problem...... of course banana peppers, and some italian sweets
i like sweet peppers like some folks like tomatoes, i wouldn't mind putting in 300 different sweet pepper plants.
i want patty pan squash, as i love it.....i want the orange and the yellow (baker creek rare seeds has the orange)

pumpkins......well duh....... this year i think italian jam and the long pie pumpkin
butternut again duh, as is acorn
zucchini is san pasquale.......the BEST tasting, and it's a bush type (although this one i wish was a viner)
cuc's: northern pickling, boston pickling, and homemade pickle
cabbage, just red ones i don't know which yet

probably kohlrobi, and i would love spaghetti squash too
broccoli no, as i have too much button heads due to weather
brussels sprouts oh man...... i love them and they hate me it would seem
i am putting them in for a fall crop

and i am going to do lasagna gardening this year
since i am having trouble with my back still, and i don't see any help from bernie.
(he's not a gardener)
so this year i am going to experiment with a bunch of stuff.........i hope that a lot of it will be good, (if my back holds up to it all)
i want some hoop houses, and container gardens
in addition to the normal beds i have,
and i want some raised beds
i think i am going to mulch the pepper bed with black plastic again AND maybe with dark rocks or even milk containers painted black and filled with water!
ok so what are you're garden plans?