What should I be doing now in terms of my garden? Zone: 7a

So last year's garden was ok, some bigs wins, lots of failures.

What should I be doing now for zone 7a to get my new garden going in the spring?

-should I be planting certain things?
-other stuff?

Random questions:

I thought my garden was at its end and just going to die off as it was getting cold. I went out there and I have two huge parsley bushes, with huge leaves. should I cut this back now? how much? will it survive?

I also have basil that is still rocking out should I cut it back? or yank it out

Hi, Ryan, glad to see you didn't give up on your garden.

If you purchased the Parsley as plants, rather than growing them from seed they could be one or two years old. Parsley is a bi-annual, which means it will flower the second year and set seed. Leave it alone. If it's one year old, it will come back next spring. If it's two years old, it will flower and set seed. When it comes to Parsley, I have found seed that is self-sown grows more easily than seed I sow myself from packages (shrug) I don't know why.

The basil will die when the weather gets cold enough for it to do so. If it flowered this summer, then the seeds should sprout next spring - or maybe not, depending upon your conditions.

I don't think there is anything you could be planting at this time. As you know, I live near you, and my broccoli has been producing for some time now. I've pulled some of the plants, as they are not producing as many side-spears as they once were. My collards are doing well, as are the carrots.

Ryan, I've only gardened for 2 years, and onions have been successful for me. My Dixondale Onions catalog just arrived and I will be ordering my onion plants now so that they can be shipped to me in January. Later on, in February and March I can buy plants locally at the feed stores and the produce market but I want to be able to choose my varieties and be certain they are "short day" types. They tell me those of us in the south need "short day" types in order for them to produce bulbs, since onions bulb based on the length of the daylight hours.

I had poor luck with potatoes and don't think I am going to try them again yet, but I think that soon will be time to order seed potatoes. I ordered some last year and they had sold our of many varieties by the time I ordered.

Honeybee that is good to know about the parsley plants. I will leave mine in place and see if they come back.

Tina

Tina - just a thought on your potatoes...

Maybe there is a way you can find out what varieties others grow in your area? I know that some types I like will not grow well here in Phoenix. The red potatoes do best here.

Kelly

Kelly, that is a really good suggestion. I was hoping to raise some of the fingerlings and tried them in trash cans. I am going to put them in the ground next time. Maybe I'll try some locally-bought seed potatoes this year and see if I can get a handle on tater raising :-)

Tina