Next Year, Things are Going to be Different

went though my seed basket this morning and weeded out all the experiment seeds as well others that was not happy with. so now waiting for the onslaught of garden porn, which start coming any day now so can start researching next years experiments for the main and raised gardens. dw has already informed me that she wants garden peas, summer/ winter squash after that it's mine.
with the new garden expansion figure it would be good for things that need to be trellised or a heard of sweet corn..oh decisions decisions.... either way going to plant smarter this year.

I think this next summer is the one that will be perfect, with just enough gentle rain, and hot, but not too hot, temperatures. And there will be very few bothersome bugs and disease. And fairies will come at night and pull up the weeds and sprinkle fairy dust on all the plants, to make them taste even better.
As long as I'm daydreaming, may as well make it interesting.

I had fantastic cauliflower this year for the first time in many years. I attribute it to buying seed suggested for the Northeast. I will use it again next year and see if it was the variety or just one of those good years. I planted about 5 types of brussels sprouts this year. One did not do well-never made a good sprout-just leafy florets. I bought seed proclaiming larger sprouts. I believe in using different varieties for that reason. One may just be the right one for that particular year.

majorcatfish said:

have been thinking on the changes for next year already
first off this gum tree is coming down, in this way do not have to worry about raking leafs up during the fall.
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second going to move soil from the old garlic bed to the low spot in the new expanded garden.
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3rd plant the fall garden a wee bit earlier had to cover the carrots today..
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4th plant better disease resistance seed varieties...

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Thats a rather nice looking tree to cut down because of leaves. I add leaves to all my gardens. Turns into rich soil.

It's kind of hard for me to say what I'll do different next year. I really have almost no control over most of the variables that occur out there. The chaos means I can't even learn from previous years, since what worked last year is almost guaranteed to NOT work this year. And the only "sensible" choice I could make is the one I never will, to give up and stop planting ANYTHING.

I've already more or less decided to chuck the lablabs. With one plant flowering two years ago (too late for seed to be saved) and NONE this year, I've more or less gotten the message that all of the edible seeded and vegetable approved strains are just too long season for as far north as I am. The only lablab that can take things up here is Ruby Moon, and that isn't a good one for eating, so I have no interest.

Gourds are probably out too. Mine did alright but they take up a lot of space; space that could go to other more useful things.

I'll probably start some seed alliums in a few days (the seed ones get inside treatment so they can go out as plants in the spring. It's usually too cold over the winter for direct seeding) I may do some of the bulbs over the winter in pots as well, so I have the mobility of being able to move them back and forth between the outside and inside as weather demands (The garlic does better fall planted outside, but the last two years we have had some unusually cold and wet periods that proved too much for the bulbs) There is also the fact that I am toying with using some of the allium plants as defense items (I have read that squirrels and deer find the smell of Allium roseum so repulsive they wont get near it, so I have this theory that, if I put a plant in each hill of corn I am planting, it might keep the critters away long enough to give them a half decent chance of making it to a size beyond critter interest.

Actually the corn patch is going to get a little tricky anyway, since it's basically going to end up doing double duty in a sort of pseudo-three sisters (or more accurately two sisters, since I am not putting in anything squash like. Unless you consider the allium sister 3*) Early in the year I'm sowing the whole thing with those weirdo vetch seeds (the ones I found in the lentils, that I can't tell if they are really weird vetch or really weird lentils) They are there for a bit of green manure, except I'm not planning to chop them down (well not all of them) Ones I have to take down to plant the corn I will, but the ones in between are staying as is, so I hopefully can get more seed out of them to keep the line going (the company whose lentils were providing them switched suppliers, so what I have is what I am going to have to work with from now on.)

Beyond that its still pretty flexible. More peas, now that I'm skipping the favas? Less rice beans, to make room for more cowpeas and adzukis? (maybe I'll even get around to the mungs this year). I know I'm doing barley, but if it get done early enough can I sneak some wheats in too? Who knows?

I'll be starting a whole new garden. So next year, things are gonna be different, for sure! It was chin high in some kind of yellow flowers, now there is a big pile of pine to be burned, found 2 bedspring units out in the weeds...... I sure have a lot to do! And I did get some of it bush hogged!

@baymule, remember to follow your own advice and start smaller than you eventually hope to make your garden. Starting a smaller kitchen garden while you check out the lay of the land, where water sits, where the shade is too heavy, those types of things.

I would expect your garden in fall of 2015 or in spring of 2016 to be your best one yet.

@Smart Red we are going to fence it and put the horses in it for the winter. We have to fence the whole place and I want to fence the garden anyway, so I'll just start there. The garden area will be on the left in this picture.

w_r_ranch said:

Mary, do you like 'Caponata' and/or 'Eggplant Parmigiana'???

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I like eggplant parmigiana but I sometimes find it too acidic. I love eggplant cooked asian style. I love lemon grass chicken with eggplant.

Mary

catjac1975 said:

Thats a rather nice looking tree to cut down because of leaves. I add leaves to all my gardens. Turns into rich soil.

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sorry @catjac1975 did not fully explain why this gumball tree <sweetgum>and 7 others are slated to come down, i do agree with you it's a very nice tree during the summer,but it produces these seed pods

these pods drop over the winter, when spring time rolls around they have had time to dry up and become hard as a rock. over the years these little guys have caused numerous flat tires on the g/tractor, cart and wheelbarrow because of their sharp points their like the stop strips police use to stop a car, plus they wreak havoc with the mower blades can dual a new set of blades in no time.. they also tears up the dogs pads while out running around on our walks.
these trees just not have a couple pods they have 100's of them


had to replace all my toys tires this year, while they were being changed had them put in tire snot<commercial fix a flat>.
needless to say nobody likes these trees on their property where they have to mow..