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2017 - lessons learned

M

Mr_Yan

Guest
The season is not all the way over but there are several things I learned that I need to record so I don't repeat them too much.

  1. Don't plant dense rows of sunflowers over squash. The dwarf sunflowers I planted were to attract pollinators to the winter squash but I failed to thin them out. With that the sunflowers out competed the squash and I will have next to no squash or pumpkins.
  2. Mulch is great but its all or nothing. Don't do it halfway.
  3. Switch from woodchips to chopped leaves for raised beds.
  4. Beets and carrots suffer if they don't have absolute full sun
  5. Onions worked well but move them to a raised bed next year.
  6. Don't bother with tomatoes or peppers unless they're where you pass them and see them daily.
  7. Don't grow so many varieties - one or two cultivars of peppers, potatoes, tomatoes (exception dry beans).
  8. Never buy the variety pack of seeds again (ie 6 types of beets, multi colour carrots, 8 types of peppers).
  9. Homemade seed tape worked really well for carrots.
  10. Stick with soil blocks for beets, spinach, cole crops, peppers, tomatoes, corn.
  11. Pre-germinate beans on wet paper towel.
  12. Walk each row with the wheel hoe weekly.
  13. Carrots only start nicely in the spring - don't try for a fall crop of carrots unless watered 2x daily.
Plans for next year:
Community garden:
  • Raised bed 1 - Onions and carrots (beet late)
  • Raised bed 2 - sweet potatoes
  • Raised bed 3(?) - onions and carrots (beet late)
  • Ground A - 25'x25' - squash with dwarf sunflower perimeter
  • Ground B - 25'x25' - dry beans 12" between rows
  • Ground C - potatoes, greens, cabbage, popcorn(?), cantalopue
 
K

ksk

Guest
Excellent points.This past Spring was my first garden.W_R_Ranch has been a very valuable resource for me,and hopefully for many years. I owe much of my success to his guidance this past year.My motto for this next year is ''Plant less,grow more''. Two major things I learned was,give my plants more space and thin more[beans/carrots].My entire garden is raised beds.
 
M

Mr_Yan

Guest
@ksk Leaning from someone local is great. Somethings transfer generally but somethings tend to be rather local. I've learned much form @w_r_ranch too but it needs a little translation going from the Texas coastal semi-desert to the almost-upper Midwest.

One of the best things I've done is take notes (like the post above) about what worked and what I need to do different. Things get misremembered after 5 months of winter then I find myself in front of a seed rack or catalog and my eyes are bigger than my garden.
 
M

Mr_Yan

Guest
Two major things I learned was,give my plants more space and thin more[beans/carrots].My entire garden is raised beds.

I'm a raised bed guy learning how to grow in the ground. I do much better in raised beds and containers.

As for carrots - I stink at thinning. This year I glued carrot seed properly spaced to strips of paper and planted the whole thing as seed tape. This worked really well, wasted next to no seed, and shifted the work time. I say shifted the time as I was able to space things out and place the seeds perfectly while sitting at my kitchen table with a beer at hand when it was dark and cold out and nothing was growing in February. This was after the kids were in bed too so I didn't have to keep an eye on them and pay attention to what I am doing in the garden.
 
K

ksk

Guest
I'm a raised bed guy learning how to grow in the ground. I do much better in raised beds and containers.

As for carrots - I stink at thinning. This year I glued carrot seed properly spaced to strips of paper and planted the whole thing as seed tape. This worked really well, wasted next to no seed, and shifted the work time. I say shifted the time as I was able to space things out and place the seeds perfectly while sitting at my kitchen table with a beer at hand when it was dark and cold out and nothing was growing in February. This was after the kids were in bed too so I didn't have to keep an eye on them and pay attention to what I am doing in the garden.
I have both a notebook,that I keep notes about things I have learned from this site and a brother that has had gardens for 40 years and also a calendar that I have recorded all plantings and when I started harvesting each.I look forward to planting a small Fall garden.
 
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