Happy New Year friends! The seed catalogues have been showing up in my mailbox on a daily basis which has spurred on my planning for the garden this year. While we grow flowers to sell in our field, we also have a rather large vegetable and flower garden. I love growing the two together as it gives me great satisfaction to feed my family with the vegetables we grow and to make the house more beautiful with flowers from the garden. As a bonus, flowers and vegetables make wonderful companions in the garden as they help each other in a myriad of ways.
As I start to get excited for this upcoming season, I’ve made a list of a few resolutions for the garden this year. While every year there are lots of new learning opportunities, I’ve found that a few things keep showing up for me that I need to concentrate on.
This is a big one for me as I seem to get burned by my lack of notes every single year. At the beginning of the season, I start out strong in my note taking, but as the months/weeks go along, I get lazy and somehow think I will remember. I won’t and I don’t! Inevitably, I cannot remember what variety I seeded where, when I planted it, or even what worked and didn’t work from season to-season. Currently, my favorite notebook to keep notes in is this one from Appointed.
I need to work on maintenance in the garden. This includes cleaning, sharpening and, if needed, replacing tools. It also encompasses my inability to keep ahead of pests and diseases in my garden beds. I would like to stop them before they start, or at least deter them a little, so that I don’t have Kale that is eaten before I ever get a chance too! I think a calendar of to do lists would be super helpful, and right in line with my first resolution.
This one isn’t just for the garden but rather for our entire farm. One can never go wrong with trees as they provide so much for our environment; shade, oxygen, and, of course, beauty.
Sometimes I get an abundance all at once and while it always goes into the compost if it doesn’t get used, it’s too much work to let it go to waste. Therefore, I want to work harder to plan menus better so that I can use everything that comes out of the garden. This includes baking/cooking more with flowers, drying herbs and flowers that don’t get used while they are at their finest, and canning/preserving as much fruit as I can. And, of course, sharing with family and friends is a must!
Inevitably, I lose steam at the end of the season and leave tasks undone that if I only would make a little bit of an effort, the spring would be so much easier! While I always clean my beds, and put a fresh layer of compost on each, I don’t always save seeds, or remember to get the scented geranium up before that first frost, or even harvest those late bloomers that have just gotten going (Kale, I’m looking at you).
Now, it’s your turn! What are your garden resolutions for 2020?
