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2014 Garden Resolutions

sunnyside1
10 years ago

Well, nobody's going to read this, this time of year, but if you are, what are you resolving to do/do better/try for 2014?

Mine are: 1. Redo my bad-off zoysia grass in front.
2. Make more compost and teas
3. Learn all I can about seed planting, indoors and out
4. Keep trying new vegetables and recipes for them
5. Keep being inspired by the photographers on this forum to take better photos myself
6. Watch my energy level and break up big projects into
smaller pieces.

Those are mine, off the top of my head. What about you?
Have you any 2014 resolutions?

Happy New Year, everyone! See you in 2014!
Sunny

Comments (4)

  • helenh
    10 years ago

    Start tomato seeds later or at least most of them later.

    Convert some garden area back to grass so it can be mowed

    Hide the junk that is too visible. I have five gallon buckets, pieces of wire and stakes and tomato cages that show up in winter and look ugly. I use these things but they are ugly.

    Fight the vines and tree sprouts before they get too big. In summer it is too hot to hand saw things and snakes are in the wild areas. Winter is the time to use a pole saw too.

    Trim the trees along my driveway with the pole saw.

    Move Honey's fence so I don't worry about people running over him. He is too short to see in mirrors. When I come home, he bites Beau and they run around. He does not think I would run over him. I need to mark an area for parking and put Honey's fence where he can't go there.

  • rockwhisperer OK zone 6A
    10 years ago

    I don't generally make resolutions because I never seem to keep them anyway.

    But some of the things I want to do in the coming garden year are:
    -try growing lentils. Great sources of protein and good for the soil, will grow same schedule as peas and therefore be done by the time the summer garden goes in.
    -like Helen said, I'll try not to sow seeds inside so early. It's hard not to but last spring convinced me, finally.
    -grow more plants that attract beneficial insects. No chickens now to do bug patrol, but they did more damage in the garden than that was worth. I think I will set up a couple of birdbaths and try to attract more birds, see if they will stay long enough to eat bugs, too.
    -try Sunny's method of covering squash so I can keep squash bugs at bay (maybe).
    -combine plants that compliment each other, last year I companion planted cabbage, beets and potatoes and that worked out pretty well. I had okra, basils and peppers together in another bed but that needs a little finetuning. This year I'll plant hairy vetch with my tomatoes. I didn't notice much benefit to having calendula and borage in the tomato bed, although the yellow flowers on the calendula did attract the cabbage beetles away from other things and allowed me to grow cucumbers. I'll be planting nicotiana affinis with the beans, I think, to attract the aphids. Nest-egg gourd attracted the squash bugs so well, I'm thinking I might plant some, further AWAY from the garden this time.

    Those are just things that have been whirling around in my head. Hurry spring! --Ilene

  • christie_sw_mo
    10 years ago

    I've been trying to exercise everyday so it won't be quite so challenging to get up off the ground when I'm working outside. lol

    I have several perennials I need to move this spring because our neighbor put up a new fence and I need a path wide enough to mow between my flowers and her wire fence. I'm not looking forward to it but I think the maintenance may get very difficult when brush starts growing up in her fence row.

    Never thought about trying to grow lentils. Let us know how that goes. I like to use a few in soup because they cook so much faster than other beans.

  • rockwhisperer OK zone 6A
    10 years ago

    Christie, that is an excellent plan, exercising those muscles for gardening season. You won't then be like me and injure yourself pulling a plant out of the ground. I have been finding it very difficult to get up out of a kneeling position for years and should've considered it a wake-up call, but didn't. So I, too, am trying to get stronger for the coming summer.

    There's not a lot you can do about weeds and brush growing up in a neighbor's fence, especially if it's within their property lines. If it's ON the property line, you would probably be ok with putting down cardboard. I have cardboard under my chain-link fence and then wood chips on top of that and it helps immensely with keeping the Bermuda grass down. But it doesn't prevent it, Bermuda grass being what it is.

    I have Beluga lentils and those little round flat lentils that passed the germination test. The orange lentils didn't. I like them cooked and mixed with chopped tomatoes, peppers, onion and maybe a little canned corn, maybe not, a dash of Italian dressing, to be eaten cold. Makes a great summer side dish and in fact a good lunch all on it's own.

    Everybody stay warm and safe!

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