With our move-in date closing in I am confronted with two things.  Packing and garden planning.  Since I can't stand thinking about the former, lets talk about garden planning shall we?  Here is a photo of the most reasonable garden plot near the house.  If you can see that stick in the middle of the photo, that's the back line of our property.  You can't see the house, but it's under construction off to the right side and a little behind me.

So, as you can see, I'm starting from absolute scratch.  Except for the assumption that this was once pasture land back in the 70s, it hasn't been touched since.  It'll obviously need some amending, and raised beds with row covers will probably be the most practical as we get a fair amount of wind through our place.

Garden planning is so much fun, but I am known by my family as one who dreams big and gets overwhelmed, so I'm thinking of sticking to a "tomato sauce" garden my first year.  I figure if I can put up enough tomato sauce to last us the year it'll save us at least $15/month.  So, I'm planning on 20-25 tomato plants, a row of bell peppers, and lots of basil.  Anything else will be extra.  So, who has lots of gardening experience that could offer wisdom on tomatoes and such?  My family always did lots of gardening while I was growing up, but it's been a while since I gardened for anything other than fun.  Who has tried and true tomato varieties?  Favorite tomato sauce canning methods?  Lemme have 'em!!