Garden Plans and Goals Update!
With Spring coming in four days, I would like to start giving regular updates on the progress of the garden this year. I will also share my frustrations too, but I would like to be positive about gardening. Gardening is therapy for me and I want to be an encouragement to all of you!
I plan on sharing my progress through my goals and plans as well as what I have gotten accomplished. As of right now, that is not a lot due to snow, snow melting, and muddiness right now!
2014 Garden Plans and Goals
1. Buy a rear-tined tiller. My ground gets very hard even with the additional soil conditioners. A tiller will be a gift from heaven. Especially if I can find one that I can start easily.
Not yet, but soon! I am researching and patiently waiting for an used one. A new one costs $500-600 and that just makes me cringe to spend that kind of money!
2. Adding in more peat moss and compost to nourish the garden.
3. Buying biodegradable plastic or material that will block the weeds in between rows. I will also be adding mulch on top of this to further choke out weeds.
Done, done, and done! I bought three rolls of 45′ x 3′ rolls of weed blocking fabric for the garden! I might need more mulch, but I have five bags of it left from last year.
4. Move the raspberries out of the regular garden.
5. Adding two raised beds outside of the garden. One bed will be for asparagus and the other will be for the transplanted raspberries. The raspberry bed will be 12′ x 6′. I haven’t quite worked out the dimensions for the asparagus bed yet, but I am thinking an 12′ x 4′ bed.
Better get cracking on the asparagus bed! Those crowns will be coming soon!
6. Planting tomatoes in the regular garden this year instead of buckets. I will be planting 16 plants. I am borrowing an idea from a friend and using fence to support them. I may keep a few in tomato cages too such as the grape tomatoes.
7. Planting four blueberry bushes. I am looking at two different varieties that are Zone 3 hardy. I am a very northern Zone 4 so I look for plants that survive in Zone 3. I will need to add aluminum sulfate when planting them, but I have hopes. I am still trying to decide exactly where to plant them. Maybe along side the barn?
I better figure this out soon. I ordered four plants on Friday and they will be shipped out sometime in April along with the aluminum sulfate.
8. Starting asparagus this year. Since asparagus will take 2-3 years to get established, I figured I better get this accomplished now.
I ordered 10 crowns on Friday also. We will definitely be getting these started.
9. Expand the garden about five feet to the east.
10. Planting in the garden this year: spinach, kale, green beans, carrots, summer squash, onions, potatoes, three varieties of tomatoes, Anaheim peppers, and bell peppers in the actual garden. In four of the buckets, I will be trying cabbage for the first time. I am still not sure about the other four buckets, two big round containers, or three oblong planters. I want to try herbs, but I have not had a lot of luck with them in the past. I also want to leave some space for new and interesting things I find at the garden center!
11. I want to add a hose splitter and another sprinkler for watering. One sprinkler is not enough for the whole garden. Also, after the last few very dry summers, I need to get more serious about the watering issue.
12. Cut the tree down in the rhubarb patch. It is seriously starting to affect the rhubarb production. I don’t want to use chemicals, but I will be using Tordon RTU on all the cut areas to kill the remaining stump.
Soon, baby, soon!
13. Trim up the apple trees for a better production. We got an amazing amount of apples last year, but I would like a little bigger apples.
14. Leave the strawberry bed alone this year. It is at the end of my garden and doing okay for now. I would love to give them their own bed or space, but not this year.
15. Move the day lilies out of the edge of the garden. I have no idea as of yet where I want to put them, but I am thinking about where.
Ahhh!!! I still don’t know where to put them! Anyone want some daylilies!?!?
