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Notes -
Wish I could give you more concrete advice, but I'm on the opposite side of the country, on sandy soil, and in a much milder winter climate.
For me all the brassicas are a staple all year round. You can't beat good broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, etc. (collard in winter).
It never goes below 10F here, so it's all easy to keep alive with only the most sensitive stuff in a cold frame. I've had spinach come back up from under 2' of snow, but if there's a killer frost before the snow it'll kill anything outside a frame. New england winters sound much harsher, so your window is probably limited there.
Green beans are essential in summer. Squash is fun just to watch it spread. Tomatoes... Eh, they never seem worth the effort for how little I actually eat them, although seeding a few golden cherry types near the house makes a wonderful snack.
Garlic is one of the better things you can grow almost anywhere. Just make sure to get a good hardneck that bulbs on your long summer days. Mine just came out and is hanging in the shed, wonderful crop this year.
Potatoes are fun and easy. I actually just stick them in a trench on a bed and hill them up. This year I grew a few hundred pound in a compost trench that's going to take a screening hedge this fall. Lots of stuff loves growing directly on a compost pile.
I'm very against mulching tbh. In spring it leaves your undersoil cold and harbors insects. In summer it soaks up any rain and water and evaporates it off without it getting into the soil. Here people use either bare dirt or black plastic mulch, which is absolutely great.
Somebody convinced me to try a woodchip-heavy mulch in one area this year, and I have a pic somewhere of a chard plant totally skeletonized by woodlice.
Speaking of cold frames, they're the most time and cost-effective way to do any cold weather gardening. Even in the summer they're great for starting your winter veg under insect mesh. Mine are full of the final batch of tray-seeded brassicas to go in before the final direct-seeding of spinach.
Imo the real value in a garden is always having something you can just go get for dinner. A lot of people grow way too much in summer and get bored of picking and pickling it or whatever. Cottagecore women especially tire of it quickly.
Better to have a bunch of fast cabbage in the spring and winter than a giant crop of useless football-sized sauerkraut stuff in August.
Oh, and fuck raised beds, especially the silly wooden ones. Zero point, active detriment, God knows why people do it.
One last thing: it sounds like you've already picked a spot, but I found out too late that sun isn't the only important factor in location. I have a tiny 12x12' secondary garden uphill now, which gets much less light in summer due to east+west tree shading, but stays 5-10F warmer than my valley garden during winter (and gets almost as much light due to sunrise/set being further south).
It's great for keeping broccoli going in the heat of summer too.
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