1. Plant hedges. I need hazelnuts, because we are too far north for decent peanuts. So, plant hazelnuts and a few other bushes I've been plotting. I have all these straggly-looking wire fences the previous owner installed that are falling down and look like heck. Rip em out and put in nice hedges of hazel, bayberry, etc.
2. More grapes. Half the grapes I ordered last year did crummy, I think their root systems were just too tiny to get a decent start. I should have suspected because the price was so cheap, if I'd had any sense I'd have let them stay in large pots for a year before transplanting.
3. Bees. Neighbor's bees are slackers, and I have plenty of veggie blossoms that could be pollinated right through October. I got terrible yields from my fall crops because although there were oodles of bees in the early summer, hardly any in the fall. Also, for some reason the bees make it as far as the veggie garden, but not the extra 25 feet to the orchard full of fruit blossoms!
I guess I need my own.
4. Mushrooms. I have this one shady section that looked like it could qualify as "part shade" when we moved in and when I initially laid out the garden. Nothing partial about it, everything I plant in there dies for lack of sun. 2010, I'm planting hellebores to entice the bees into the garden, and installing mushroom spawn into the firewood too big to fit in the woodstove. Some things, like chanterelles, I can't find spawn for but hopefully will be able to find good enough material to subculture. I sure have plenty of spare logs of various species of tree from the woodlot, might as well put them to use.
Other than that, the usual. Early January is when I take a long hard look at my gardening notes and crop rotation and start making decisions about seeds, which maple trees can be tapped.
