Gardening 2019, share your plans!

[PirateGirl]

It's that time of year when some days it feels like spring is here, and others, like today, it's snowing again and I sit and dream of my garden to be.

What was your biggest success in your garden last year?

What are you thinking of trying/planting new this year?

 

[Trish1974]

Unfortunately I am downsizing this year. I am getting too old and too tired to keep up with a 50'x60' garden. I will be planting half and using the other half as turn-out for the chickens to graze in. Last year my biggest success was the Opalka tomatoes. They are great for canning! Very little juice and seeds, and they get HUGE! I'll try and find a pic of one I took last summer.

 

[Brahmachicken240]

Well, my biggest success in the garden last year was getting the cottage garden done, it’s where I keep my animals. I wanted it to look nice and presentable.

Here’s some photos of it this year.
The plants are starting to grow again, as you can see I’ve changed the stones.

This year I’d like to do some raised beds to grow fruits and vegetables in them and I’d also like to add more plants to all the flower beds.

Some photos of the patio last year.

Photos of the patio this year, just put new wood chips on the flower bed last week.

Flower bed in the front lawn.

 

[PirateGirl]

Unfortunately I am downsizing this year. I am getting too old and too tired to keep up with a 50'x60' garden. I will be planting half and using the other half as turn-out for the chickens to graze in. Last year my biggest success was the Opalka tomatoes. They are great for canning! Very little juice and seeds, and they get HUGE! I'll try and find a pic of one I took last summer.

Will you rotate which half the chickens can use each year? This would let them till and fertilize the soil for you.

 

[Chickenaddition]

Well I have built one 4'x16' that's 27" tall raised bed. I am building 2 more this weekend (hopefully). The end goal is to get around 15 of these in the back yard. Hopefully half of them this year and then the other half next year. We have to do raised beds for a few reasons. First we have clay that is right below the surface, and two we have a huge vole problem. So we put hardware wire below to prevent them from getting into the beds.

 

[Trish1974]

Will you rotate which half the chickens can use each year? This would let them till and fertilize the soil for you.

Unfortunately no. I have perennials in there that can't be moved. (Asparagus, strawberries and rhubarb).

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Last year my biggest success was Dragon Cayenne hot peppers. This year I'm excited to be trying out some habeneros too.

Last year my biggest failure was tomatoes - my san marzanos because overwhelming and died to blight. This year I'm trying on a variety of blight resistant tomato varieties. So far my biggest problem is disappointment with germination rates on the blight resistant hybrid tomatoes.

But we have an inch of ice on the ground right now.

 

[Chickenaddition]

Everything will be brand new for us on this property. Our goals are to try just about everything we can and see what's successful.
So far on the list is about 9-12 varieties of tomatoes.
Peppers both sweet and hot (but nothing crazy hot)
Okra
Cucumbers (especially to make our own pickles)
Zucchini
onions
in fall garlic
Rat tailed Radish
spinich (several varieties)
probably some ginger
watermelon
pumpkins
and herbs of a variety

 

[Better Than Rubies]

What a fun thread, PirateGirl!
I want to start my garden as soon as possible, but I don't have it fenced in yet, and I had wanted my chickens' new pen built (it will be adjacent to the garden, but even bigger), so they could till it for me, because I don't like destroying greenery (but chickens do a fine job at it, and seem to enjoy it); I don't think that will happen after all, though.
I get paid this Thursday, so I'm really hoping to buy some fencing and other stuff needed, and, of course, plants (and probably more seeds, too).
And then, I have tomorrow and Thursday off as usual, and the whole weekend as well, for once! So I'm really hoping to use that time to get a lot of things done.

Now, perhaps thee biggest success last year was the mustard plant. That stuff was fairly hardy and lived a long time, too, 'til later October (perhaps very early November), I believe, when most of the plants were dying/already died. And it's very productive, and loves cooler weather, and wet conditions. But so long as it was watered enough, it did fine in the heat.

This year I want to grow:
Cherry or grape tomatoes
The large husky tomatoes (whatever they're actually called)
Strawberries
White potatoes (and probably the red ones, too)
White Onions (and perhaps the red ones of these, also)
Carrots
Strawberries
Okra
Bell peppers
Cubanelle peppers (probably not any other ones of the smaller types, because they're too spicy, but I've heard these ones are pretty mild)
Iceberg lettuce
I might want to grow mustard again, too, and I'm trying to decide on what other green I should grow...perhaps spinach and red cabbage
I also kind of want to grow corn again (but give it more space this time so it can get bigger and thrive more), and pumpkins, too, but I'm afraid I won't have the space for them...unless I planted them in a different part of the yard, which I'm not sure my mom would go for that

And I want to grow peppermint, spearmint, lavender, rosemary, basil, and oregano(to feed to the chickens).
And as for flowers, I kinda wanna' plant or grow marigolds again, sunflowers, Venus flytraps, aloe Vera, cactus, morning glories, white moonflowers (it's also a vine like the morning glory), Shasta daisies, and probably others, because flowers are so beautiful and look nice wherever they are.

 

[meglynnie]

Well, my biggest success in the garden last year was getting the cottage garden done, it’s where I keep my animals. I wanted it to look nice and presentable.
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Here’s some photos of it this year.
The plants are starting to grow again, as you can see I’ve changed the stones.
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This year I’d like to do some raised beds to grow fruits and vegetables in them and I’d also like to add more plants to all the flower beds.

Some photos of the patio last year.
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Photos of the patio this year, just put new wood chips on the flower bed last week.
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Flower bed in the front lawn.
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Oh my goodness, your cottage garden is what dreams are made of!