2012 Garden Goals

Today was the first official day the community garden is open, and it was a gorgeous day!  But we didn't bother going out there, because the soil was far too wet to work with.  Instead I puttered around the house, tidying the yard and shed.  I pulled the lettuce seedlings out of the hothouse, and brought the onion starts outside as well, to harden off a bit.  I also worked for awhile on a little project I cooked up last week to show the neighbors just how crazy I am: chopping down all the volunteer trees by our back fence with a hatchet!

Anyway, since the garden is open and the tomatoes and peppers are starting to come up I guess I better hurry up and finish my garden goals for 2012!

1. Use growing beds more efficiently - get another crop in right away when one finishes, so I don't waste time and space growing weeds.
2. Grow more root crops.
3. Fill in herb bed.
4. Finish reading the Master Gardener handbook.
5. Keep planting records for everything.

Goals for 2011 Garden

Here are some goals I wrote for myself in my paper journal:

Move blueberry bush to a large pot on opposite side of house.
Install asparagus bed
Set up low tunnel over cold frame bed
Soil tests
Rain barrels
Plant dwarf apple tree in pot
Let R help, try to foster an interest in gardening
Put up cheap fence so I don't have to chase R around the house
Buy some floating row cover
Get oregano to grow
Buy and plant a summer cover crop for the shady end of the garden


I hope I will be able to accomplish most of these, although with the baby coming in May I am trying not to plan too much for the summer months. N has promised to help with some of these projects, particularly those that benefit him directly. (He probably won't help much with the asparagus bed.)

I think the southernmost end of the garden gets the least sunlight and isn't really useful once my neighbor's tree is in full leaf. That's okay, because I've found it really hard to use the same garden space for both summer and spring/fall gardening. (I never want to pull out a plant that's still productive in order to plant for the next season, and interplanting only works sporadically, for seeds that are planted directly in the ground.) Next year that part of the garden will be my pea jungle.