While the snow in this picture has melted it still very much looks like Winter out there. The Spring seriously cannot come soon enough! Until then I thought I'd take a look back and put some of my thoughts about last year up for everyone to see. Although it was a very successful garden, there were a number of things that I can improve upon....
1. Give The Plants More Space
I was pretty adamant about using the Square Foot Gardening book as a guide on spacing of the plants last year. I think the biggest lesson I learned last year is that there needs to be more room for everything to grow. The tomatoes grew haphazardly and after a month or so they had already begun growing over top of each other. Two square feet just wasn't enough! The zucchini and peppers also suffered from this. I have seen huge pepper plants a few feet tall that yield dozens of peppers per plant. While some of the plants (Cayenne and Banana for example) did real well, I think that the Bell Peppers and Jalapenos suffered from being over crowded. Like the Tomatoes, they grew fast at first until they shaded out each other. As a result, the Peppers were a bit smaller than I was hoping.
2. Less Is More (sometimes)
I'm sure I won't listen to this advice when the weather is warm and I'm at the Growers Market starring at the sea of flats begging to be planted. But just because I buy zucchini in a four pack doesn't mean I have to plant all of them. Someone remind me of that in May!
3. Focus On What We'll Eat
Cantaloupe and Watermelon are definitely out this year - the 'loupes didn't grow well and the watermelons were not necessary as my landlord grew tons! No radishes as I'm the only one that eat them, less Beans (see below). The sunflowers are out of the garden, although I may plant some down by the stone wall for decoration. They were fun to grow but I never really eat any of the seeds. I'm going to need the room they took up to space out the Peppers some. Which brings me to the Hot Peppers. I had 5 or 6 varieties of Hot Peppers last year, this year I think two will be enough. I love them, Stacey doesn't.
4. It's Real Hard To Work Between Two Sets Of Trellises
Last year I had a long trellis of Bean and Cucumbers, and a smaller trellis with Peas. The weeds got real bad in between and when it was time to harvest the Beans it was a huge pain in the ass to get in there. Especially because the Beans needed to picked every other day! So I think I'm going to pull up the smaller trellis and move the peas along with the Beans. A little less Beans shouldn't be a problem as they were so productive last year it was impossible to keep up.
5. More Prep Work And Maintenance
Before I get everything planted I've need to prep the soil a bit more carefully this year. I need to get compost, eggshells, and other goodies worked into the soil along early. I hope this will be a bit easier this year since I don't have to pull up the sod. I also need to try and keep up with the weeds better and prune the tomatoes more often. Easier said than done!
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Over the next week or two I want to finish up a draft layout of the 2010 garden. Any suggestions?
Yes! Keep the tomatoes and zucchini, because those are always fun. Though, I had masses of them with only 3 plants. Also, come summer time, I like to see those big bell peppers hanging there, ready to be picked ... then devoured. So maybe keep those, too. Keep the onions too. They'll go well with the tomatoes and peppers :)
ReplyDeleteAs for new things to try ... how about some lettuces? Those are cool-weather plants, so they can be started early. You'll thank yourself for it when you've got a bunch of salad greens, just begging to be consumed. Potatoes are good, too. VERY low maintenance, once you've mounded them as high as you'd like to go. Well, MINE were really low maintenance (they were the Pontiac Red variety). You can try some herbs, too, if you'd like. I like the classic Italian types, the kind that make me think of pizza seasoning: basil, thyme, oregano, marjoram, chives, etc. I planted two pots worth of basil last season, and got enough to make a couple of batches of pesto.
When fall comes around again, plant some garlic, if you like. I kept telling myself that I was going to do it a few months ago, never got around to it, and I'm now kicking myself for it. Looks like that's going to be on my list for next year, too.
Hi, I write about gardening for a big news organization and am working on a story about how to really plan a great veggie garden. Specifically, i'm looking to talk to gardeners who--in the heat of the grow your own food movement--took their first stab at veggie gardening.
ReplyDeleteDo you have time to chat?
Thanks,
Anne Marie
amchaker@gmail.com