What would you like to do differently in next year's garden?

[punkin]

This year my cuke runners were incredibly long. I picked cukes hanging from okra stalks and tomato plants. Next year, I would like to let them run on cattle fencing or something. They would take up less room and grow straighter and more blemish free.

I want to plant way more onions and some garlic. Love both of those!

I need to support my tomatoes better. I had a really good and long harvest, but lost alot to ground rot.

I would like to time the green peppers, zukes and tomatoes to come in closer together. I plan on making losts more zuchinni salsa!

Oh, and be more diligent about weed pulling. Ugh!!:watering

 

[Beekissed]

Tons of things!

I would use more soil amendments, more living mulch, get a tiller that would plow deeper(mine barely scratched the surface) , establish a drip line waterer, utilize row covers more, not stack so many vegetables in one bed, plant more onions and garlic, build better trellis for my maters and the biggest thing I will be changing? I will be growing my own bedding plants this year!

 

[me&thegals]

Where to start? Every year I HAVE to have another garden to have one more chance to fix all the mistakes from the year before!

I am still looking for a better way to support my tomatoes. Baler twine strung between fencing worked better but not perfectly. I NEED to mulch my vine garden next year. Way, way, way too many weeds going to seed out there right now. Plant potatoes much more shallowly--maybe even in straw. Plant potatoes and onions much earlier and more of them, plus double the garlic garden. Otherwise, it was actually a pretty good year! Need to find some good ways to deal with the squash bug/borer infestation and Japanese beetles...

 

[VT Chicklit]

I am thinking of trying to veggies in hay bales. I just saw this in a post on another site (possibly sufficient self) and it intrigued me. Has anyone tried this? It seems like a reasonable way to deal with bad soil until you can get it amended to a point when you can grow plants that require richer soil. I was wondering if haybale gardening means less weeding? I hate to weed. I usually give up somewhere in the middle of July. Here is a web site on this if anyone is interested:

http://www.carolinacountry.com/cgardens/thismonth/march06guide/straw.html
and
http://www.co.clay.mn.us/Depts/Extensio/ExAPHydr.htm

 

[theOEGBman]

More corn and lots of cucumbers for pickling. More watermelon as well. Varieties that ripen at different times, because my family loves watermelon and I did not have enough this year. I think everything else did pretty well, but Im sure there is a lot I'd love to add. Babying my giant pumpkins too, cause I want a big one, lol. Growing more varieties of pumpkins would be fun too. Just load of stuff, to be honest.

 

[Rosalind]

-Trellis everything that can be trellised. This has the dual advantage of avoiding rotten stuff on the ground and keeping things out of rabbit's reach. Beans must be pole beans, squash the vining kind (not bush kind).

-Mulch, mulch and mulch some more, fertilizing with chicken litter. No point in rototilling for any reason, it did no good and made a lot more weeds than I could handle. Better to mulch a lot and plant down through it.

-Start just about everything except peas, beans, corn and carrots indoors on a heating mat. My stuff that was direct-sown and started on cooler windowsills took way too long to get going. Like, I'm just getting winter squash now. My longer-season pumpkins are a wash.

-Put corn in blocks fairly close together and whack the stalks to get them adequately pollinated. I'm going to rotate them into the spots that previously held beans, hopefully that will help too.

-Really cannot have too many tomatoes. If there is one thing we use lots of, it's tomatoes. Tomatoes, frozen mixed veggies, herbs and fruit. Peppers and onions, also good. I really underestimated the tomatoes though.

-Fence. Must have a fence that is sorta rabbit proof. It is not optional.

-Set up an aquaponics system with the turtle tank. I've been meaning to do it, I just need to build the aquarium stand and buy the plants. I suppose I could grow starts using the remains of this year's veggie seeds, huh?

 

[DDRanch]

Several things I would do differently next year.

I will not plant painted corn in with the regular corn. I will also stagger the corn plantings.

Add lots of soil amendments to my squash and cucumber area and stagger the plantings. They did not do as well as I had hoped.

Search the internet and this site for additional uses for my plums. You can only make so much jam.

Plant fingerling potatos with the reds and blues. I had so much fun with my first time potato crop...and the home grown potatoes made tasty additions to soups.

Plant butternut squash...somehow I forgot this year.

 

[vfem]

Next year I want ALL my veggies off the deck. No more veggies in pots!

I caught my 2 black silkies hopping on each others' backs to bounce up the side of the deck to get my cherry tomatoes. I can't believe what I saw! Then they would wrestle each other when they finally knocked one off. BRATS!

Not to mention my DD who kept picking green tomatoes and even pulled up some unfinished lettuce. She's so helpful sometimes :|

Anyways, I need everything fenced in!

 

[patandchickens]

Oh, good topic

Tie up my tomatoes earlier and better. (I say this every year. It's long, slow learning curve... )

Not plant more than one tomato variety that needs a long hot summer to do well, in case, like this year, we don't get one.

STOP telling myself I'm planting too many Early Girl tomatoes. In a year like this they are probably my best bet and you really *can't* have too many so why all the guilt and shame

Scrounge stormwindows or buy palruf panels to make a transparent-walled roofless enclosure for earliest tomato plants and for later in the season if it is a cool year. Hopefully to give them a hotter microclimate.

Enlarge garden so I can grow more beans!!! Also more garlic, although since I already have it and will plant it soon I am not sure that counts for 'next year'.

Pat

 

[CottageGardener123]

First of all I'm NOT planting corn! My weather just isn't hot enough for corn. Oh well, at least I can have hydrangias without them wilting!
Second I'm making my front garden bed bigger. Thats all I can think of right now.