Your 2024 Garden

[Justagalwithchicks]

My wife bought me a specific gardening journal last xmas and I barely used it so this year I bought a cheap A4 sized business diary and will use that. The journals were too "busy" for my simple brain

I totally understand that! I've done both ways for journals. I did find one I liked that I could do my garden sketch in also. I've also used something you are going to use and it worked just as well! Hope you have a great gardening year!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I think a sketch journal might be fun to keep. Does anyone have one from past years they could share pics of? Just looking for clues as to what to include in mine, I'm seeing dozens of different pages from plant dates to pesticide calenders to garden plotting....

 

[Nomadicus]

I used to grow only red and green leaf lettuce then tried a bib type. That is one I want to try again. It was a crispier than leaf but withstood heat better than iceberg. The leaf lettuce fixed as a wilted lettuce is a favorite also.

 

[Cammo77]

I totally understand that! I've done both ways for journals. I did find one I liked that I could do my garden sketch in also. I've also used something you are going to use and it worked just as well! Hope you have a great gardening year!

Thank you. Hope you have a productive year and plenty of good weather to help it along. I've just put some seeds in so my first diary entry will happen now

 

[Sally PB]

Just looking for clues as to what to include in mine,

Here's something to keep in mind: Where/when the sunlight is on your garden plot. Are there some shrubs/trees/buildings that might cast shade some parts of the day? How many hours of sunlight do you get in the more marginal months, like in April or September?

One half of my downhill garden gets shade about an hour before the other half, just due to the slope of the hill and the trees to the west.

The uphill garden probably gets at least an hour a day MORE sunlight, because it's up on the hill.

These are things that don't change, year to year, so if you map it out once, you're good. Unless you add buildings or cut down trees.

 

[saysfaa]

...

So lots of zinnias and marigolds will be scattered through the garden. The bees will be happy about that!

The bees do much better with single blooms. Double blooms have become much more common but the singles can still be found, at least as seeds. Around here, I find single blossom marigolds at only one retailer of the five or six retailers I check.

I've begun starting my own because they are soooo easy and I'm afraid the ladt retailer will stop carrying them. And then I buy a couple of trays just to encourage the retailer to keep carrying them. I guess I could just ask them - they grow their own plants to sell.

 

[saysfaa]

Do yours reseed themselves? I did some more reading about them who raise them up here in the frozen tundra and some said they die every winter and come back every spring from seed. If that's the case, I could buy some seeds once, then be done with it.

Or, could buy some seeds, start them indoors, then steal some seeds from them in the fall and keep doing that.

Yes, mildly enough you don't need to worry about them being invasive. But then they don't flower as early. I don't think it matters for the beetles and the plant itself is fairly pretty.

If I set out seedlings, they also get a good start before the hot, dry weather sets in. The plants from transplants end up two and a half feet high and bushy vs the volunteers at ten inches or so and spindly, given the same care. Mine don't get the greatest of care, though. They are what get shorted if I run out of time or energy to water or weed.

The seeds are really, really, really easy to save for the next year. And easy to start.

I didn't know about digging the tubers. I noticed them when I cleaned up the garden; I'll try that next year.

 

[Iluveggers]

The bees do much better with single blooms. Double blooms have become much more common but the singles can still be found, at least as seeds. Around here, I find single blossom marigolds at only one retailer of the five or six retailers I check.

I've begun starting my own because they are soooo easy and I'm afraid the ladt retailer will stop carrying them. And then I buy a couple of trays just to encourage the retailer to keep carrying them. I guess I could just ask them - they grow their own plants to sell.

How can you tell which marigolds are single bloom? I usually buy a few flats of marigolds and petunias to sprinkle around the garden. I start all my own veggies so buying the flats gives me a little break.

 

[saysfaa]

How can you tell which marigolds are single bloom? I usually buy a few flats of marigolds and petunias to sprinkle around the garden. I start all my own veggies so buying the flats gives me a little break.

I get Disco yellow.

The Disco series comes in yellow, orange, red, and marietta colors. The marietta color is the second picture here (sorry for the picture quality, it is as pretty as the others if you like that color), I don't see marietta in the Park's picture. E and R seed company carries the mix and each color individually. Most of the seed companies I've looked at offer only the mix. Same for retailers of seed packets.

I see more marietta than anything else as seedlings at the retailer that does offer the single blossom type; the tag says they are Disco.

I don't think the bees, nematodes, etc care what color they are but I really like the yellow. The last picture is mine on a very rainy day - they just glowed. They are bright and happy on sunny days too.

 

[NanaK]

I get Disco yellow.

The Disco series comes in yellow, orange, red, and marietta colors. The marietta color is the second picture here (sorry for the picture quality, it is as pretty as the others if you like that color), I don't see marietta in the Park's picture. E and R seed company carries the mix and each color individually. Most of the seed companies I've looked at offer only the mix. Same for retailers of seed packets.

I see more marietta than anything else as seedlings at the retailer that does offer the single blossom type; the tag says they are Disco.

I don't think the bees, nematodes, etc care what color they are but I really like the yellow. The last picture is mine on a very rainy day - they just glowed. They are bright and happy on sunny days too.

That's a very pretty one.
I've noticed hummingbirds love marigolds too!