Planning 2007

Well last night I sat down and looked at my gardening scrapbook calendar. In the “what to do in January” section was make a plan for the year. So that’s what I’m doing.

What do I want to achieve is 2007 in the garden.

I want my vegetable garden to become a more constant ongoing project, rather than just starting again in spring. Ways to do that are:
• Plant my Brassicas now
• Buy more baths and get dad to help me attach the axels.
• Fertilise my plants on regular basis.
• Plan what I need to plant in advance
• Use more seeds rather than seedlings

I want to get my native garden at the backyard established
• Plan
• Set up soil. I was going to use no-dig again,
• Put in structures
• Chose plants

Skills and Habitats I would like to develop or improve
• Dead-heading flowers
• Fertilising plants (How often and What to use)
• Growing things from seeds

Other things to work on over the year for longer term goals:
I would like to start caring for and extending the garden at the front of the house.
Plant bulbs in the back and front lawn
Start planning to turn the back lawn into two separate gardens.
Start building a mini-orchard along the fence.


In relation to this I have been thinking about ways to improve the vegetable garden.

What worked well?
The baths and the watering system within the baths
Corn, beans, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes all grew well in the baths.
The Chillies did well in pots and I would do that again.
The zucchini and pumpkin did well in the small child's pools.
I think the potatoes are doing OK, but I would try for something deeper next year.

Things I would change
Next year I would like to have two baths of tomatos rather than the pots, the pots dry out to quickly and it was only in the pots that I got blossom-end rot.
The capsicum plants really need to be in a bath, so I might consider 1 bath for the capiscums or putting them in with the tomatoes.
I think I could plant the tomato plants earlier next year, in particular the tub bush tomatoes.
The grape tomatoes are yummy when fully ripe, but they are very messy and hard to stake.
I'm still not sure if I will grow watermelon again, but if I do I won't go as many seeds and aim for a a few large plants rather than lots competing. I would also put the cucumbers with the watermelon, rather than with the zucchini.


Things I'd like to grow in the vegetable garden next year that I didn't this year.
I'd like to plan to grow butternut pumpkin's rather than the golden nuggets.
I'd like to try the roma tomatoes in the bath, rather than pots.
Beetroot
Garlic and onions
Broadbeans
Brussel sprouts
Broccoli

BRING ON 2007