Gardening: What To Plant?

I have been thinking about next spring and gardening already. Most years I have so much going on that I don't think about it until January and then get an itchy trigger finger to start planting with cheap poor quality but expensive seeds. I'm rewarded with poor germination, slow, leggy growth and usually fungus or insect damage before they reach the outside air.

I have had pretty good luck with perennials and want to expand my flower gardens significantly so I know I want some of those. The only problem is I really want all of those. I'm not so much of a landscaper as I am a plant collector. My gardens typically end up with one or two of everything. Plants are too expensive so I get one, plant it and plan to divide it in a few years. So far, I haven't had to do much dividing, so that doesn't work out that well. There are a few favorites of mine which I don't have. Chief among them is oriental poppy. I don't know why, but I can't seem to get them to germinate. So I have a few plants to start, but I really want some unusual plants. Also, I need to find some more things that work in my front yard. That ideal poses a significant challenge because very little grows well in the deep shade of the North side of a house.

Moving on to the vegetables, I have had disappointing tomatoes since I move into this house. The first few years, blame fell mostly on the soil. I made new gardens directly in the ground which even had a hard time growing grass. The tomatoes were totally flavorless and few. I made a raised bed on top of one of the gardens and got decent flavor and production one year, but every year after that the weather has been highly uncooperative. We started getting a blight or two which are manageable unless you have cold, rainy years like we did last year. This year was almost a total loss. We had several problems but the biggest issue was that the fruit never ripened. It only started turning red when it started rotting on the vine.

Finally, I have been looking into forage for the chickens. I want at least 3 seasons of forage which I can plant, successively after the chickens decimate an area. I plan to double their run and then divide it with bird netting so I can replant.That way, they will always have an area of dirt to scratch and bathe in and an area of fresh foliage to eat. Looking at my options, it seems that I have taking on a somewhat challenging effort. There are mixes that I could get, but most are constructed for grazing animals. Right now, I'm leaning towards making my own mix, but that adds a whole lot more guess work into the equation. The area gets partial sun and is a moderate slope. Right now, I'm leaning towards a mix of clover, peas, mustard, and turnips. I might mix in some carrots and salad greens and possibly some mangel (which is apparently, a beet). I figure the partial sun will only be an issue for production of fruit, which isn't an issue if I plan to let the chickens decimate them in their vegetative growth stage.

So, what does all this come down to? Right now, I'm planning on installing the third raised bed to grow tomatoes. I'm hoping that will take care of the disease problems for at least one year. I'm thinking about solarizing one or both of the other beds to try to kill off some bad stuff. Finally, I'm going to have to put together a list of seeds to order from someplace that sells high quality seeds. Maybe I'll think about doing that in January.