A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 What do you plan to do next year?

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!!