As many of my friends know and have laughed at, I keep a garden spreadsheet with when all the seeds are planted. Each spring, I made a new tab, remove the things that didn't go well, and decide which new seeds to purchase. Truthfully, I also keep a Powerpoint slide for the location of plantings each year. This is particularly important for crops you have to rotate, like tomatoes, but also sometimes helps me figure out what small green thing is in a given patch if my memory fails me. Like everyone else on the planet, I spent lots more time on hobbies at home this year, so I thought I'd reflect on my successes and failures during a summer when I have presumably gardened as much as I ever will.
Here is the garden in May, June, July, and August. The front perennial garden still looks terrific, where plants bloom from March through November. I have arranged my home office so that I can look out on the garden. Not only do I enjoy the view, but I watch many neighbors stop and admire the flowers. I will make few changes next year, although now that some of the plants are big, they will need to be divided and spread around or shared with friends. But that is a task for the spring.
Looking back, I was extremely pleased with the butternut squash (untidy but productive), the tomatoes (plenty for dried and frozen), and zucchini (which have so much more flavor when homegrown). I had lots of cucumbers, but I do not love the recipe I used for making pickles, so I may look for local friends to share them with. I learned that I am very good at growing turnips, but also that they are too bitter for me and I will have to harvest them directly into the compost bin. If I have extra time next year, I am toying with the idea of building a small cold frame so that I can extend my growing season, at least for salad or other leafy things.
6 comments:
I love that you are so diligent in your gardening and keeping track of things! If you don't keep the data, how do you know what went wrong? I briefly contemplated putting my garden to rest but since most of it is in pots, I figure the weather is doing this for me. I am not sure I'll be able to reuse the same soil again next year. I had an infestation of tiny bugs in the biggest pots and everything had to be discarded and scrubbed - that was most of it.
I used to document my garden like you do - but I have been slacking off. Now I am planting more local - desert flowers and hoping to have more bees and butterflies!
Gloria, I guess your garden journal should track how well the plants attract different pollinators!
Beautiful display in your front garden, and you may be encouraging your neighbours to add flowers to their own front gardens - all good for pollinators.
Your back garden looks so different when taken from this angle - I had no idea your veg patch was in the centre - your back garden looks much bigger than I had imagined from other photos.
With only two plants we grow for food (tomatoes and chiles) and a tiny space to grow them, not much is needed for rotation planning.
Have you thought about growing daikon? Very versitile.
I have never consider daikon! I will consult you and other friends about its uses. This is an intriguing suggestion.
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