New Year New Garden

I happily dedicate hours and days of my summer to the upkeep and harvest of my garden. This year is no different. I started early this year, last fall actually, when I planted out a mix of winter buckwheat and winter barley AKA a Cover Crop.
There are tons of benefits to planting a cover crop, but for me, I wanted the additional nutrients these crops provide. More on the benefits of a cover crop HERE . I planted a cover crop in Fall 2016 as well and had beautiful soil for the 2017 growing season.
In addition to the cover crop I planted out some Garlic & some Flower Bulbs. I went a little crazy with the bulbs considering the size of my plot (6-7' x ~5') I love planting flowers, but considering the size of my plot and the crops I like to grow I have difficulty justifying the use of Space. So, this year, I planted the bulbs in a raised portion of my plot with the expectation that I'll plant a later season veggie in that space. Last year I had carrots in the raised garden. I bought three varieties of Tulip - an Early Blooming variety called Secret Perfume , a Mid-blooming variety called Green River , and a Late Blooming Variety called Dordogne. I got these from Burpee, but also ended up making a trip to Home Depot where they had some Hyacinth Bulbs & Crocuses. So, those went into the plot in late October/Early November.
I got into my plot to turn over the cover crop & plant out some carrots/beets & noticed there were already crocuses coming up. I had also forgotten that I planted out some garlic & nearly ruined that when I was turning over the cover crop.
I started planning out the space in January - during those slow, dreary, cold days at the beginning of the year. I had a list of the plants I love & have had success with, the plants I want to try this year, and the plants I've tried in the past & didn't have success with. I also noted the best & worst companion plants. It looks like I added 3 extra feet to the width of the garden so f & g aren't actually there. I updated the plot layout farther below. I'll need to figure out where/whether I want to plant parsnips this year. They are a nice addition to Stews in the winter, but they have such a long growing season... 105 Days until harvest

This particularly plot has done very well with the Square Foot gardening method, so I plan on keeping that up this year. The original plan for the plot is below, but I've already had to change it.
I plan on putting in a Watermelon in the blank space (Where the tulips are currently). I got this smaller variety from Brew & Grow that I'm starting from seed. I had heard of other gardeners' watermelons being stolen in the past, so this variety is a bit sneaky. It doesn't quite look like a watermelon - it's a variety called Golden Midget 

I also need to make a decent trellis this year. My plot is right up against a 6ft fence, so the late sun shelters that part of the garden. it can be good & bad. Some of the cooler weather crops like it, but sometimes the soil doesn't dry out. Before, when the raised bed was along the fence instead of to the left, anything I planted in the bead would rot/not sprout because it was too wet. I hope to grow a Cucumber vine up the trellis this year & stave off some of the problems I had last year.

For the record, this is what I did in the garden a few weeks ago:
1. Turned over the cover crop
2. moved the Garlic to one Sq. Ft. space - 4a
3. Planted:
- onion sets and shallot sets in 4c, 4e,
- Mini Carrots in 4b, Normal carrots in 4d
- beets in 3a & mini beets in 3f
4. Pruned the Lavender back

I've also started some seeds inside this year. I've rarely done plants from seed unless they're beets & carrots. They just never grow well in the plot. This year I have some grow lights & a heat mat in the laundry room under a tray with 18 starters.  I've started a Determinate Tomato variety called Silvery Fir Tree & that's already sprouted in about 5 days - I started 6 of those. I also ended up getting some Mini Red Bell Peppers & a Mustard Habanero Pepper I'll probably have to keep these on my Deck - again, garden thieves... no one wants Carrots or Beets, but fun things like Tomatoes & Peppers go missing before they're ripe. I have a few other things started in my laundry-room, but we'll see how those turn out.

My next steps are:
Plant the 2nd rounds of Carrots & beets
Check on the tulips - I want to use them as cut flowers
Build a Trellis