New Years Garden Resolutions?

11 years ago

Well its that time of year again. The catalogs are pouring in and the garden bug is biteing. This year my New Years resoulution is to replace all my old seed with new (alot of faild germination from seed that was 3yrs or older). Get those trellises finally up (alot of wasted space) Get the hay down (put it off til it was to late this year) Get the drip irragation put in (although moisture content this year was nt to bad) Right now im working on a few hoop tunnels over some of my beds to extend the season. We havnt had a hard freeze yet so still picking alot of stuff. It is snowing out as we speak, but i have to mulch my garllic bed (yea I actually had sucess this year with garlic, so far) OH and the Grandaddy of them all Is figuring out how to get rid of those pesky Ground/hedgehogs in my yard, they destroyed the 1st 2nd and 3rd plantings of my cabbage crops, so had to resort to only growing collards and kale (for some reason they left that alone even when it was the only thing left) I have a family of 5 living under mine and my nieghbors shed. But thats the big one getting rid of them.

What other resoultions are being made by fellow GWers?

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Comments (11)

Edymnion
11 years ago
I'm going to convert my backyard garden plot into a raised bed plot with underground watering.

Simpler than it sounds, really. Get some cement blocks to build a one brick high wall around the plot, then get PVC pipe to lay out in a couple of grid sections. Drill holes in grid pipe, and have a center pipe coming up out of the dirt to a funnel top. That way when I want to deep water, I can just pour it directly into the pipes and let it seep out 4-6 inches below the soil line.

Figure as long as I keep all of the holes on the bottoms of the pipe I shouldn't have to worry about them filling up with dirt or roots, and long as I keep the holes small shouldn't be anything down there that could crawl up and try to live in them either.
gardenman101
Original Author
11 years ago
Ed,
Let me know how that works out. I allready have raised beds so am looking for low cost watering solutions. I just saw on Youtube a vidieo where the guy sunk clay jars up to the neck then filled them with water. The water slowly seeped out as the soil needed. I may try that in my containers and see how that works.
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nancyjane_gardener
11 years ago
Extending the garden, adding white picket fence (bought new at yard sale for $40) building a pergola as an entrance to the garden (need to buy a few 4x4s per month to get things going!)
That's probably it for this year. I'm doubting we will actually get the raised beds built in time for spring! $$$$$ you know!
Then I can PLAN the new garden! Oh yeah, and the DH (artist) can draw zillions of plans! LOL Nancy
gardenman101
Original Author
11 years ago
Nancy,
I got most of the mats for my bed from a building being demolished for free. The boards were 2x10s.You might want to keep a lookout for demolition sites. But if buying is your only option start 1 bed at a time evry other week or so. PT 2x10x10 or 12 are only about 6-10$$ a peice and you only need 3 with 1 cut in half for the ends. Do 1 or 2 to get you started and go from there. Just a suggestion
tracydr
11 years ago
Getting my tomatoes planted by Feb 1 instead of April. I was so late last year and the heat/spider mites took everything. Not a single tomato for me.
zzackey
11 years ago
I have planted my winter garden. Collards, lettuce, carrots, swiss chard and kale. Peas are next. No garden this spring. We plan to go up north to visit our brothers. It will be weird not having a garden then,I will probably plant one as soon as we get home!
nancyjane_gardener
11 years ago
gardenman thanks for that thought. Construction is starting back up around here lately along with demos. I'll keep my eye out. I also peruse freecycle, recycletown (at the dump) and Habitat for Humanity. Free and cheap is great! Nancy
gardenman101
Original Author
11 years ago
You know Nacy I completely forgot all about freecycle. Ty for reminding me.
tracydr
11 years ago
Planting my tomatoes today so that I can get them out on Feb 1!
sunnibel7 Md 7
11 years ago
Get more from my garden! Mostly this means getting better at succession sowing, which for some reason I have a mental block against. I took good records this year, so that should help my decision making of how much to sow and how often. And I can now look at a failing plant and remove it without remorse. Important for clearing up space for the next sowing!

My secondary resolution is to work smarter, not harder. I'm pretty happy with my watering setup, but the weed situation could still be better. My mulch worked well, but was a lot of effort due to the size of the garden, so I'm thinking of trying the biodegradble paper-based mulches that come in rolls. I think there are other things I can improve, but they aren't coming to me. I just finished (more or less) harvesting this past week, so a little breather before it all starts up again in a month...
gardenman101
Original Author
11 years ago
Sunnibel,
I have the good fortune to work for a newspaper company so I have access to the unspent cores (whats left of the roll of newspaper after a new roll is put on) so paper mulch for me is no problem. After seeing and ad on YouTube about garden mats i thought about making my own useing the newspaper. I can cut it to fit my raised garden beds then cut holes exactly where i want to put plants or seed, thus eliminating thinning and spacing. As always, im looking to make my job easier, and I have access to plenty of grass clippings to go on top of the news paper. So we will see how it go's. Last year I tried making my own seed tapes, didnt go to well, ill try one more time with that as well. I also bought my airpump so am going to be brewing Compost Tea this year as well.

New Years Garden Resolutions?

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Edymnion

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