Last Year’s Garden = This Year’s Changes
More practical and laid back.
Last year’s garden was my first real serious attempt at gardening. I learned a lot and managed to reap a decent harvest! We’re getting close to planting season now. We shouldn’t have too many nights below freezing, however we still have snow drifts waiting to melt.
Changes to this year’s garden.
Not starting seeds inside.
Last year I was seeing posts left and right of everyone starting their seeds inside and so early (after all, they live farther south). I didn’t want to get left behind! I believe it was the end of February when I planted enough starter trays to fill a couple coffee tables full. Oh my goodness. Letting your eagerness and excitement trump rational thinking and planning is not a good idea. The last frost date for our zone is May 1-15. However, because it was too wet, I didn’t get them transplanted until late May. That was a long time to have so many plants in the house!
I didn’t start them all indoors though. While I transplanted those that were inside, I planted the other seeds straight in the garden. You know what? They seemed to do just fine. Maybe a little better even, than the ones that were started early. I know starting seeds inside have their benefits, but this year, I’m siding with sanity.
Being practical about how many plants of each variety to plant.
I had heard that you’ll want to plant more seeds than you want because you don’t alway know how many will make it. I didn’t have a clue. I decided to plant all the seeds that came in the packets. Haha!! Did you know some packets come with more than 72 seeds? Well, when I filled a 72-cell tray and still had leftovers, I figured I’d better stop there. I didn’t realize just then that 72 pepper plants was a little overkill. Oh, and also, they all survived! I know that may not be the case every year, but I have learned my lesson when it comes to planning how many of each kind to plant!
Adding another plot.
There’s a good chance we will be adding another area to garden in this year. After I made my list of things to plant, the Big Man thinks we are going to need the room. It doesn’t help that there are still evergreens lying in our garden from last fall either. I’m not sure when they will be dry enough to burn.
Laying down straw.
Now that we have our own straw bales, I’m so excited to make my days of weeding so much easier (if all goes right, of course)! No more rows of plants with rows of weeds in between. That was awful.
I think that is about it for garden changes this year. Here is the list of plants we (why do I keep saying “we” instead of ”I”?) plan on this year:
tomatoes, bell peppers, garlic, lettuce, cabbage, dill, sugar snap peas, celery, onions, carrots, zucchini, pumpkin, asparagus, green beans, cucumbers, strawberries
I may add more depending on space.
So excited to get to gardening this year. We actually started some raised beds at our house here in Chattanooga TN and have some good peas and sprouts showing their greens. The sweet peas already have blooms on them!
We are moving in June back to Oregon, though, so won't get to see this garden to fruition. Hopefully the next folks to live here enjoy it as much as we have.
Will you use straw in your beds or just between the rows? Ruth Stout is famous for her method of gardening that is only straw, no digging, no tilling, just straw and seeds!
Will you get to reap any harvest before you leave? That was really nice of you to start a garden for the next owners!
I think we will try and get the straw as close to plants as we can get. I don't think we will be able to do no-till this year, but hopefully in the future we can do that.
Hopefully some of the greens and peas will make it into the kitchen before we move, but the fruiting veggies will be a nice offering!
Maybe this year's tilled ground will support next year's fertile bed!
Howdy hebrewhousewife! wow you are ambitious! dang. Well it's going to be a great garden though and that's lots of food you don't have to buy so it's a smart choice!