What Are you Going To Change Next Year?

[so lucky]

Now that the main garden season is over, I am reminding myself of all the things that I want to do differently next year.

1: Plant more tomatoes, and more varieties.
2: Plant fewer cucumbers.
3: Start cabbage even earlier, and plant more. (I'm into making old fashioned kraut, big-time)
4: Try peas early in the spring.
5: Figure out some other support for my pole beans. The tee-pee thing is not working too well; catches the wind)
6: More spinach!
7: Plant a small row of bush beans, to tide DH over till the pole beans start producing.
8: Move the garden a little to the west, just add a couple rows to one side, subtract 2 on the side nearest the elm tree.

How about you? What are you going to differently?

 

[Smiles Jr.]

I think next year I'll . . .
1. Plant a few hybrid tomato plants along with my usual 20 heirloom plants.
2. Finish putting in my 40'x20' strawberry patch.
3. Start some cabbage earlier.

That's about all I plan to change.

 

[ninnymary]

I will plant one less tomatoe plant. They were a little too crowded this year.

Plant a pear or nectarine in a wine barrel.

Add hoops to my beds and add netting to keep cats, squirrels, and other animals out.

I might shorten my tomatoe trellis down to 6' instead of 7'. No point in having it tall if I can't reach that high to harvest or weave tomatoe plants thru the grids.

Mary

 

[897tgigvib]

The north bed will be all Blackberries, and basically nothing else.
There will be a few more bramble berries added there.
I plan on getting 2 dwarf apple trees in the vegetable garden. Maybe just dwarf rootstock to graft many heirloom apples on.
The peas will go in mid march this year, covered.
Fewer regular vulgaris beans, but some for sure. The most special ones. Wide spaced too instead of intense spaced.
Some tepary beans will be seed increased big time.
A few new varieties of Quinoa, and one of amaranth
Oh, more changes too that i can't think of right now.

 

[Mickey328]

Lots of changes planned! Probably going to triple the size, but will have to see how much space the new rabbit cages will take. Will probably use the actual "garden" for smaller things like carrots and beets and bush beans. Pole beans will go along the fence which we'll drape with netting for them to grow on. Larger vegetables will go in the borders with the flowers, as well as herbs. We'll also be putting in quite a number of patches of grains and other things to feed the chickens. They're busily working on the garden area now, so it should be in great shape come spring.

 

[curly_kate]

I think I'll do fewer tomatoes. I had too many for me, but not quite enough to have for the farmer's market. I need to come up with more value-added products for the market. Everyone is selling veggies, so we didn't do much there, but man, when I brought sun-dried tomatoes, they went like wildfire! I think that I might do more hot peppers, and make hot pepper flakes to sell. Also, I need to figure out what we're doing wrong with potatoes. We've tried about 4 different ways to grow them, and never get any more than just a couple per plant! And, like every year, I am bound and determined to grow some )(&^ cauliflower!!!

 

[nittygrittydirtdigger]

There's lots in the growing process that I will do different, but the biggie, and the one thing that everything else relies on, is to find a way to lower the ph of my soil. It's so alkaline that the plants can't pull the nutrients from it, even though the soil itself is loamy and nice. I see a truckload of amendments in that garden's near future.

 

[catjac1975]

I have 5 giant new beds that we are preparing for my daylily farm. My husband told me they are the LAST ones he is building. (Hahahaha) He even got my 5-year-old grandson to concur with him. Aidan told me I had to sell ALL of the daylilies that I have in my other beds before I could get any more beds. We had a bobcat skim off and compost the grass, and brought in the richest looking soil I have ever seen. We had a big pile of rotted horse manure that was spread on top. My husband is making a giant raised bed near my seedling bed. This will hold me for quite a while. I will till and mulch the beds when they are complete. It is too late to split and transplant any more plants, but they will will be ready for early spring. Attached is the last new daylily of the season. It is from a 1 year old seedling. That is very rare for a northern grown seedling.

 

[ninnymary]

Cat, this sound kind of weird, but can you post a picture of those beds. I would love to see them even if they're empty. They sound beautiful!

Mary

 

[so lucky]

There's lots in the growing process that I will do different, but the biggie, and the one thing that everything else relies on, is to find a way to lower the ph of my soil. It's so alkaline that the plants can't pull the nutrients from it, even though the soil itself is loamy and nice. I see a truckload of amendments in that garden's near future.

Gritty, what are you going to add? Would wood ash work for that? Is the rest of your property too alkaline, as well?