2010 Garden Reflections

These are some notes I made to myself in my paper garden journal about last year's garden:

Cut down multiflora rose several times - need to keep it up.
Put in new plot in backyard (~10x18 feet)
-used municipal compost over cardboard/newsprint
-everything did badly for several months, especially legumes; i think the city compost lacks nutrients and is too sterile
-next year must add lots of fertilizer based on soil test results, and use innoculant on legumes
-much of this plot doesn't get quite enough sun; i'd like to thin the branches of the evergreen tree some more and see if that helps
Added herb bed around the bird fountain
Grew carrots in recycling bins - wow!
Had a lot of pest and disease problems:
-mosaic virus (?) on tomatoes and cucumbers; probably this is what killed the potatoes in 2009 and the virus was transmitted to the cherry tomato seeds I saved
-squash vine borer on zucchini and squash - need to get some floating row cover for 2011
-squirrels ate sunflowers, tomatoes, and bell peppers but left eggplants and hot peppers alone
-i think a mouse/rat ate several edamame plant tops before being slaughtered by one of the cats
Jalapenos and chili peppers did well, as did the lima beans after prodigious fertilization. I don't think I planted the limas densely enough, as the harvest was pretty mediocre for the number of square feet taken up.
Raspberries spread with abandon, blueberry bush is still pretty small and sad-looking
Strawberries had bad borytritis, eliminated by cutting plants just above crown and cleaning debris from beds - I think I will do this at the first sign next year
Pinetree Gardens seeds did not do well, I don't think I'll buy from them again.
Sunpatiens and petunias were great! I like growing them from seed, the plants seemed to do much better than any I've ever bought at the store. I need to start them earlier next month.
Spirea bush likes its new home in the front flower bed a lot.
Park Seed went bankrupt :(



So many good lessons the garden teaches me every year!