This is a question for everyone! What would you do differently next year, eg. would you sow/not sow certain seeds, or use different techniques etc. I guess the phrase I use most (when it comes to gardening!) is 'there's always next year'. So, what will you change?

This past spring I bought flower seed packets because they looked so lovely on the pack. I planted different seeds in 3 places and never again. They didn't grow, and the ones that did were ugly and spindly. I think I'll stick to the greenhouse bedding plants...atleast I'm reassured I will have something out of them.
Also I've learned to plant more than one variety of tomato plants. Some years one variety will grow better than others. On some years the variety that had a nice harvest the year before failed to produce anything at all in the next year..

I plan to try out Square Foot Gardening next year. Got a book on it this week and think its a cool idea. Gonna try melons again and see if growing them vertically really does work as well as the book says Think I will add some veggies and flowers as well, since Im in central florida I have the option of growing something thru the whole year.

For me..I am going to try gardening by the moon signs and also make a pact with myself to not allow the garden to be over run with weeds and put the mulch down right away where needed. I also am going to try a different type of watermelon, I finally found the perfect cantaloupe Now to find the perfect watermelon. Another thing I plan to do is to pay closer attention to the squash before the bugs can destroy all of it.

This is a really great topic, Bamboo ! Good idea !
I have learned NOT to cave in to temptation and buy tomato plants too early.
This past spring I had a 3 foot Celebrity in a large pot, and had to baby it all through the long, chilly spring.
Next spring I'll be strong !

Thanks Deborah!
Next year I'm going to try and grow butternut squash. Then I'll make some lovely soup with my mum!

This is an awesome topic! Don't be surprised if I steal some ideas...

For myself, we're going to have a real fence around the gardens, instead of the chicken wire. We're also going to have TWICE the size! (poor puppies are losing some running room, but oh well...)

I'm also going to have the vine-y things on trellises And we're (maybe) going to get another freezer so we can SAVE some of our veggies for winter.

Now...gimme gimme gimme...some ideas!

YUM, butternut soup - mint garnish, I hope?

comfrey, there used to be someone on the board that posted all sorts of stuff about gardening with the moon. I don't know what ever happened to her but it was really neat.

My plan is to get the weeds out in advance next season. I'm going to cover the areas with leaves when they fall and keep piling on leaves so everything will be smothered out. Then I can pull back the top, work the bottom leaves into the soil before planting, then replace the pulled back leaves.

Ok..Deborah, I'm going to remeber you said this. Good Luck!

LOL, Comfrey !

I'm looking into growing at least a few self-sowing crops and herbs. Why not take advantage of desirable plants that have a "weedy" nature? I think this is a great plan that will work well with my sq ft garden. What can be easier than self-sowing combined with no till, and no weeding?

I've already started with bunching onions and have dedicated ample space for them. Since my onions made it through the 100* plus weather this year, and even transplanted well, I'm certain I can keep them going year round.

I'm looking for other candidate crops as well.

I'm also going to start Square Foot Gardening, assuming I can get my conifer 'hedge' removed. I plan to have a 4x6 foot box, and I've already got planned:

4 early potato plants;
4 cauliflower plants;
4 savoy cabbages;
9 beetroot;
32 onions;
4 iceberg lettuces;
1 courgette (zucchini)
3 tomatoes;
8 marigolds;
16 pea plants;
2 sweet peppers;

And there's still some room in summer/ fall, so might have something else too.

Not bad for 24 square feet.

Cool, loads of new suggestions since I last looked at this topic. Might give some of the newer ideas a shot.

I'm planning to level my entire garden...which is on a pretty annoying slope(I'll try to get pics to post a topic in the landscaping forum when I start). Maybe 10' by 10', but not exactly sure. Doing this will keep everything from toppling over on each other. It'll also be easier to manuver-right now everything is being held up by support strings tied to trees

I'm growing:
eggplant
cucumbers
celery
lettuce
carrots
tomatoes
radishes
a few herbs (basil, oregano, etc)
And I don't even know what else!

I also plan to put my tomato cages deeper into the ground-they seem to 'rise' over time!
I also want to start planting a little earlier...this year i didn't start until mid-June or so!
Well, I have a lot planned for next year!

Need more space...

LOL John,

Come over some time and see what happens when you DO get more space!! I'm telling you, my garden was way successful and with my boyfriend working 2 jobs now, it's all I can do to try to keep up with the canning, the drying, the freezing, the blending..not to mention the tending, the weeding, the tying. The priests at my church are going to start running from me because I keep pushing eggplants, basil, tomatoes, plums, pears, and beans on them. At some point, you have to say, ok..this is as much as I can do. I've reached that pinnacle and surpassed it!

Cheers,
Julianna

I think I'm going to try a lot of these suggestions!

I've considered the SFG idea, but I just can't bring myself to it just yet. "Maybe the next year**". LOL

Next year I'm going to try planting a variety of tomato plants like DaisyM mentioned.

I think I'm going to continue growing my cucumbers vertically - that was a great space saver FYI.

I'm going to plant:
cucumbers
variety of tomatoes
potatoes
leaf lettuce
banana peppers
squash
and are you ready for this one...I'm going to try eggplant!

I've never done egg plants before, but my Meme and Papa have HUGE egg plants, and I think I'm going to try it next year.

Oh, yeah, I'm also going to find an ALMANAC! My dad used to always plant his fields with the almanac, and sure enough, it worked every year, so I'm going to plant my garden and flowers (and go fishing .....if I can find one. Now taking suggestions as to where to pick one up. I haven't seen one in ???years???

***
Oh, I forgot one thing!

I'm going to use TOMATO CAGES!!!!!! and not those silly (insert curse-dirty-word) sticks that we have to continually tie the darn boogers to every time we're in the garden.

That's all for now...Have a great harvest!

CajunMama,
You can use the online Farmer's Almanac.
I love the names "Meme and Papa" - so charming.
French?

I have 4 foot tall tomato cages, but I also have at least 2 stakes on the outsides of the cages, one to hold them steady and keep them from blowing over, and also so if I do need to tie up a huge tomato stem, I have something sturdy to tie to. I don't have enough tomato cages, so the odd tomato plants left get three stakes put around them, when these are fist put in I run at least three different heights (rows) of ties around them to hold the tomato plants up off the ground, The best thing I have found for making tomato ties is old tee shirts, if you start at the bottom and make a cut, you can tear the shirt and make really long pieces of tie material, plus they stretch nicely and tie good, and then you can just cut them and throw away at the end of the season.

Is the online Farmer's Almanac a link from this site? and if so, where do I look for it?

Quote

I love the names "Meme and Papa" - so charming.
French?

Thanx! And, No, they're not french, I grew up in S. Texas, and my Meme said she was too young to be a grandmother when she started getting grandkids, so we called her Meme, (and sometimes Memaw to rhyme with Papa), and Papa has always been Papa. ("PawPaw" in a deep, south Texas drawl.)

CajunMama, I found the Farmer's Almanac just by Googling the title.
I don't know how to add a link, or else I'd do it here for you.
Let me know if you find it.
I love your signature !

CajuMama, I'm going to continue to grow the cukes vertical. It works well and seems to keep any bugs off them.

I too, will somehow secure my tomato cages this time. I've never had such a time with them blowing over. We must have had much more wind this year. I've used the same cages for a long time but this year it was a daily thing to have to upright them.

And, I've decided not to plant okra. I love okra but for some reason in this garden I don't get enough to eat at one cutting so I try to save it and it's just not worth the trouble.

The leaves are starting to fall already.

Next year I get to have a garden!! This year I only had tomatoes and basil. I am soon to move to a new house and there I will have a quarter acre(give or take) to use as garden. I am going to have(good lord willing, and I can find a tiller...)

Tomatoes(several plants and several varieties)
Potatoes
Peppers (green, red, banana, jalepeno)
Cucumbers
Beans(pole)
Corn
Lettuce
Spinach
Onion
Radish
Carrots
Herbs(assorted)

That is a start, anyway...I want so badly to do everything, but seeing as how this is my first garden in many years...I am trying to stay small....so far...I just keep thinking of more and more things I need to add!

I'm sure I will have TONS of questions for you all soon!!

since you mentioned it....how DO you grow potatoes?

We always took potatoes and cut them up so that each piece had an "eye" on it and planted that. Once the plant started dying off...dig up your 'taters.

Someone told me they grew them in old tires. They planted the tater and kept adding dirt and tires(going up) and when they were ready to harvest, they just knocked the tires down...no digging!

thanks Tonya!!
i might have to try them next year! (not in tires though )

One thing on the growing potatoes...when you cut them into pieces, be sure to let them heal/dry good where they are cut to help prevent rot etc. Some people also cover the pototaoe pieces in sulfur to prevent disease and bug problems.

Thanks Comfrey--thats good to know!

Just one more question--how long do they take to mature? When can I/do I plan them?

well, thats 2 questions, but anyway...

thanks again!

Well they are planted alot earlier then anything else...Around here by Saint Patrick's day is good, not sure if it would be the same for your area or not Mark, but it will be before your last frost date. Depending on what kind of potatoes you plant..maturity takes about 95 days.

again, thank you so much!!
I'll probably start them around April 1st.

There is a website that provides what they call "potatoes in a bag" its the potatoe pieces in a bag(like potting soil or mulch) that you simply slit open and water, the plants grow and when they wither you open the bag fully to collect your taters. Havent tried them myself but friends have and say that its a tidy easy way to grow them wvwn if you lack a lot of room. The plants themselves are quite pretty too and add interest to a balcony or patio!

I will definitely be growing in containers next year and I've never done it before. Currently I have:

Peppermint
Pineapplemint
Oregano
Tyme
Cinnamon Basil
Par-cel
Tiny Tim tomato

They are all growing indoors and seem to be doing fine the mints are alittle leggy but that's the most problem I've had so far.

Next year if space permits I would like to get the chemical Bill mentions in the "growing seeds" fact sheet for stopping damp off disease and using it on my lettuce seeds. That way I should be able to have lettuce indoors almost all year round. That would be super because I love salads.

I would also like to plant my spinach seeds the same way.

I will also do a pot of chives, green onions, radishes. And I will take some cuttings from my tiny tim so that I have several more plants than the one I currently have. But I only have one shoplight that handles two bulbs so unless I have plenty of windows where I go I will have to decrease what I want to keep by quite a few.

I wonder if growing them in an old plastic container i have would work, Maybe covering them with hay or straw as they grow larger so the taters are kept covered. What do you guys think?

DeborahL
Thanks for the suggestion....I don't know why I didn't think of doing it all by myself. I've just been having one of those months, I guess.

I did find the website, it is here for anyone wishing to use it The Old Farmer\'s Alamanac

Happy gardening!

Great, CajunMama !
It's neat, isn't it?
Nice of you to post it for everyone.

TK, damping off usually cannot be prevented with chemicals. It is easily prevented however, with proper seed starting procedures. Most importantly...clean pots and soiless seed starting mix.

That's about the only thing in my garden this year that was prolific...got a bunch..
Planted them for my Father~in~law, he loves them.

HANDBRIGHT... I think she was in Fla?
*originally from NY*
Somebody PM her and get her back on board..
I enjoyed her thread too!
(I have to tackle my PM area, and delete some)

May I ask what happened to the chicken wire?
And what are you getting?
Very Curious?

Sheri,
Okra is a veryyyy heavy feeder...
Do you fertilize alot, and with extra compost?

Tonya, stick with that plan, not to over do it..
Really... and do you soil first, get it worked up NOW *or as soon as possible*, so it's ready to plant in spring... that takes time to ammend the soil and get it right the first time..
so much depends on it..

If you do a FORUM SEARCH and type in POTATOES, there should be something, about how to plant them and about covering and layering hay...

I am not planting a garden next year if I
still have Woodchucks... bane of my existance this year.. :p

I had squrrils, and raccoons...if you remember my mad attempt to get rid of them over the summer!

hopefully, they won't come back!

Yeah, but did those rodents eat EVERYTHING in your garden???????/
If I planted 20 types of plants/vegetables,
I harvested about 5... :p

But I do know any kind of pest that takes the fun out of gardening, isn't fun...
So, I know your pain..

I gave up 4 years ago and now buy animal foods, species appropriate. Sigh............
But the wildlife brats don't "prune" for me anymore !

Weezie...You need to find a live trap and trap that woodchuck, they usually live in pairs (male & female) and since you provided them with a good food source, they probable were able to raise a baby or two. Do you live in a rural area or town/city? If you live in a town the city might trap it for you, if you are rural then you could contact fish and game and they might help you with your problem. I had one last year that caused me alot of grief, but it got ran over on the dirt road, so no more groundhog problem. Turtles gave me grief this season, so I will be turtle proofing the bottom of my fence before spring.

We used a live trap once..
We caught one.. and then my husband and f~i~l went to pick it up and relocate it.. well, when f~i~l picked it up, the rodent lurched forward *and this guy/girl was a tub filled up from my garden bounty* well, the latch wasn't latched right and as it lurched forward, it came out..

Well, that rodent must have told every other woodchuck here and not one went back in that thing, nooooooo matter what I put in it..

Although, I came out my back door one day, and one was sitting on top of it, *surveying the property to find where the good crop was today* and two more were munching at the base of it, like waiting for the "lunch report"

TRY 5... :p
one died, it went up into my motor in my van to keep warm I guess one night and when we started the car, it got caught and we lost our fan belt.
I have pictures of some of them, on my front porch/steps.. but haven't gotten to them into PB yet..

We live in a small country town... but NO shooting in town though...

I would still contact the city and also fish and game and see if one or the other could help with your problem.

Weezie, I just saw your question...

The short answer is, a tree fell on the chicken wire fence. It leans terribly now.

It's kinda dark right now, but I think you can see the "lean" in this pic...

The long answer is, the fence was thrown up in a day using deck pickets, the chicken wire and staples...the wire isn't sunk into the ground, so the dogs can lift it up and get into the garden. The fence is REALLY not sturdy, and just looks awful!

Next year, we'll be working on making the back yard into a place we can ALL enjoy. Rob wants an outdoor dining room, and I want a bigger garden. Sooooo, we're going to fence in the front third of the back yard, in two sections with a path between for access to the back. We'll be using the vinyl picket fencing to make it more decorative.

I'm not sure if this pic is big enough to really show the plans, but this is what we came up with:

The scale is a little bit off, but it's enough to get the general idea.

The big white square is a huge garage that he won't let me knock down. Behind the garage is the fruit garden, to the right of that is the compost. That section of yard is bigger than the plan says. Middle-right yard, across from the garage, is an enormous white oak or swamp oak, not sure exactly which.

In the future: The front-right is a low deck with table and grill, surrounded by flowers. The left is going to be the larger garden, with a table in the middle of the old driveway - the better for me to work out there. (as opposed to doing my garden projects on the kitchen counter or dining room table...)

My Mom has planted by the moon all my life. I do it some and believe in it. Just sometimes have to plant when I have time and not when the moon says. My plans for next year is to try more OP tomato varieties. Plan on saving seeds from some of the OP's. I mulched heavy this year with good results so will continue that. May not plant any cabbage due to insect problems. No major changes here as I had a good year overall. JD

I'm going to try that pretty squash, Sunburst, the bright yellow patty pan/scallop with a green blossom end. That's a pretty one.
Also plan to plant my first Brandywine, and cardoons. I've always thought they look interesting.

Deborah,

i grew the Sunburst squash this year and, though pretty, it's absolutely tasteless... the only use to which i could put it was to stretch my grated zucchinis for fritter-making (i've frozen quite a few packages of pre-grated squash for winter fritters & zuke bread), but even then, i had to keep the proportion of Sunburst to a minimum for fear of rendering the batch... crummy. So, if it's for appearance sake, fine; if it's for food... i don't think it's worth the space.

Wow, Dee, glad you spoke up.
I wouldn't grow it for looks - I thought it would taste like a regular patty pan.
I wonder why it's sold if it's tasteless?
I grew that round zucchini once and it was wonderful. And fun.
Thanks again for saving me from a waste of time, effort and money !
This forum is really great ! For input just like this !

for one, i'm going to start MUCH earlier! i had a very late start. other than that i am just going to plant tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, beans, etc and maybe some melons and just hope i get a turn out!

Wow, I spoke too soon on our garden plan...it's already evolving! I guess the basics still apply though - but I've added quite a few things the last few weeks.

Here's a question: given the plan that I posted, and the fact that the sun travels from behind the garage to in front of the house (meaning, full sun most of the day) where would be the best place to put trellises for the melons and cukes? Would they grow well if I made them a "shelving unit" trellis out of lattice?(or something with bigger openings?) This is my idea:

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(the dots are just for spacing - didn't display right with just "spaces")

Any thoughts?

I am making three very large raised beds for the new veggie garden!

I definately will have some bright lights swiss chard, my friend grew it and it was breath taking!
http://www.cooksgarden.com/prodinfo.asp?number=499&variation=&aitem=5&mitem=12

I'm also planting some dandilion greens as well, I must be insane to plant dandilions

How do you cook dandelion greens?
I'd like to try eating them - it'll be my first try.
I couldn't use the dandelions in my lawns, since the gardeners use chemicals on the grass. (Not my doing, I live in a condo).

I have a big garden that I have trouble filling every year and even more trouble WEEDING! Next year, I'm gonna pass on growing corn...it turns out to be a bigger disappointment each year. I'm gonna plant LOTS of the stuff we eat alot of: tomatoes, peppers, carrots, radish, beans, leaf lettuce, peas, potatoes, cabbage, cucumbers, melons and pumpkin. And I'm ripping out those so-called-raspberry-bushes that have not given me a single raspberry in 4 years! I'll put in more blackberries and strawberries. And I'll continue to add to my asperagus patch. And I'll keep it weeded (or more likely make the rows wide enough to run the roto-tiller thru!! )
Gee, I'm gonna be really busy out there !

That all sounds so nice.
You'll be busy but happy !
I like all of your choices. YUM !

myndful.....Here are my thoughts: I have always heard that garden rows should run east to west direction, so the trellis should be on the west side of a growing area, so it does not block the sun from other plants for the biggest part of the day, if this makes sense. What program did you use to make your garden plan with??? I see it says garden planner, is that name of the program you used???

My plan has changed already a couple of times since I started planning, so at this point and time...I have no definite plan for my garden next spring, but I still have months to get it worked out.

Netty,
What do you do to/for you corn to grow?

Corn is a veryyyy heavy feeder..
Needs' lot's of nitrogen...

Netty...how big is your garden??? Sounds kind of like me...I always seem to end up with a little extra space, and too many weeds.

Ciao netty,

I'm with you, corn is a pain in the you-know-what. My boys like it, which is why we've grown it, but I refuse to tend to it, so it ends up sucking up water and space and resources without getting used. God willing, we'll be moving West of the tundra soon, so next year, we most likely will not have a garden, but I don't see corn in our future. I like your reasoning too..plant stuff you use a lot of and I think berries won't be a problem..they tend to grow like weeds out West, with zero care by gardeners. We'll see. This year's garden has out-done itself with the bounty and it ended up being more than I could handle myself. We'll need to make some adjustments, but at this point, I'm not sure what those will be because it will be a whole new space with a new (and higher) growing zone.

Cheers and buona fortuna with your '07 plans.

Julianna

I went a little crazy when I made my veggie garden -I had just moved to our almost 3 acre property from a 50 X 120 lot. I think my garden ended up being about 25 ft X 50 ft! Now I've got lots of Asperagus growing and that takes up lots of room. We can buy fresh picked corn for about $2 a dozen at the end of the road, so I'm not going to waste my time with it next year.

Julianna, what do you mean by West?
Also, no garden? Is that going to upset you? I can't imagine you without tomatoes ! I have learned alot from your posts and would miss ya !

Netty...My garden is 50'x50'.
I have the same feeling about this, we can buy if off the back of a farmers pickup truck and sometimes $1.00 a dozen, even at $2.00 a dozen it is cheaper and much easier to buy it then to grow it!!!! Besides it leaves more room for other veggies to be grown.

Wow Comfrey! That's a BIG garden to take care of!
How do you control the weeds?

I love corn for Fall/Halloween Decorations...
And for me, I've finally figured out that I just feed mine lot's of bunnie poop and they do great...
I hardly even watered mine this year..

Alright, alright, I"ll share another tid~bit of something I do for my corn too....
I plant peas' at the base of each corn..
**I let the corn get a head start, then push the seeds in at the base of the plants.. then as each grows.. the peas don't over whelm the corn.
In fact it's the other way around..
I sacrafice the peas to the corn...
The corn, being heavy feeders, use up the nitrogen the peas put back into the ground..
And the peas don't do all that well, cause the corn sucks up all their stuff and shades them terribly, but the corn does good...**

That's a good idea, Weezie.
I never could figure out that nitrogen-fixing thing. Or what a pea inoc-something does either.

Netty..normally (I didn't do this last season and got in a real big mess with weeds)But I save my paper feed bags, also cardboard works well, I lay it down the rows and then I mulch on top of that with hay, straw, grass clippings what ever I have or can find, the paper/cardboard helps to keep the weeds from growing up through the mulch and it helps the mulch to break down slower, plus it also helps your garden to retain moisture better, and all of that organic stuff does break down and can be tilled right back into the soil at the end of the season. My mistake was that I got one of those little row cultivators, and it works really well, if you make sure to keep at it on a weekly basis, but when it got really hot and I was busy canning, I let too much time go by before I tried to get things under control, and the rest is history ...tooo many weeds to get under control. I only have half of the garden cleaned up at this point and time, but we just had our first frost and it was hard one, so now I feel better about pulling up anything left out there. I'm in my 50's have a bad back and do all the work by myself, so it is alot of work, but you know I have to enjoy it in order to keep trying.

Comfrey - I thought about using cardboard to help keep the weeds down. The problem around here is WIND! I am still trying to figure out how to keep the cardboard in place...

Comfrey, thanks. I guess I'll put the trellis next to the garage, then. I'm hoping to make it short height-wise and longer length-wise, than the ones I've seen for sale.

Rob downloaded the garden planner, I'm not completely sure which one he used, but I did a quick search and found this:
Garden Planner
It has a free trial, so no loss if you don't like it!

Netty it is windy here also, that is why I put the mulch on top of the carboard or paper sacks, but I also have used boards and rocks to hold mine down when I was short of mulch material, or until I could get the mulch put down.

Thanks myndful!!!!

Ciao Deb,

We're focusing our efforts on Vancouver. I have great difficulty with Toronto winters as I'm a California transplant. Some things are just too big to adjust. The sidewalk snowplows were cute for about a split second and then I got over it.

Yes, I will miss having a garden immensely, no doubt about that, but the knowledge that I'll be back in the land of my beloved Canucks and the only thing in my driveway during the winter will be wet pavement, not snow, not salt will more than make up for it. We might look into the community garden thing and if we have an apartment with a balcony, I could still grow some things in containers. We'll just have to see.

No worries, I'll still be posting here, though.

Cheers,
Julianna

I need a gremalin wiping her brow...
Whew..
Can't imagine the Vegetable section here
without you Julianna!!!

Julianna, how strange to think of you as a container gardener as I am !
But it sounds as though Vancouver is a happier choice for you.

My garden is about 50x55 and plan to expand a small bit next year. I plant sweet corn for shade and wind break for my tomatoes and peppers. Really helps. I have never had much trouble raising good sweet corn. I mulched really heavy this year. Hay,straw and grass clippings. Probably 6" worth before I finished. As the garden in winding down will start working it in and then put a light amount of manure down. Weeds and grass was very little trouble this year with the mulch. So much worse if you don't. Have some early before plants are big enough to mulch around. JD

i plan to try yet another pumpkin pach,
i also used rocks to hold down my newspaper, then mulched on top,

brushing the cut side of the potato with a dusting of wood ash before planting works well