I’ve been making my 2025 wishlist for weeks, I actually need to prioritize and possibly prune it down a bit. But first, some lessons learned from this year:
- I need to not panic when the pepper seeds don’t sprout exactly on time. This did lead to the next two items on the list, so for this year it was informative, but there’s no need to do it twice.
- My cayenne peppers LOVED the hanging basket I put them in (after I ran out of space everywhere else). Definitely doing that again!
- No planting peppers in the shady boxes, or in the shadow of tall, sun-blocking plants, like the beans.
- Some of the creatures hereabouts will munch on potato plants. I suspect deer, as the netting prevented further damage from whatever it was.
- Netting prevents birds from eating insect pests.
- The netting I put around my ground level planters needs adjusting/rethinking in general. Chipmunks were able to get inside it, leaving holes in the ground at the end of the season, and recently I had one strangle itself to death in the netting.
Ideally, they are completely excluded and/or repelled, with no fatalities and no damage to the veggies!
- Jury is out on why, but carrots did not do well. I suspect lack of sunlight (they were in the shady boxes), and I have an experiment currently in progress to help determine that.
- Onions did not do well. I suspect sun problems here too.
- Basil did extremely well outside!
- Herbs planted for pollinators were, in general, a huge success and brought in lots of bees and similar species. Will be doing that again too.
- I need to plan my vining plants planting schedule to avoid building maintenance.
- Quasi-related to the above, I need to trellis better.
- Water globes were helpful for the plants in hanging baskets during heat and drought.
- Tarragon needs to be trimmed back more promptly so the leaves don’t die off before harvest.
So for 2025 I am planning to implement some Square Foot gardening principles - primarily plant spacing and not overseeding, as I dislike having to thin seedlings, but also not starting a lot more of any given plant than I have space for. I’ve done the first two with the peas and beans in previous years and it worked well. The third is going to take some self control.
I’m looking into more forms of self-sustaining pest control; this year even the pungent herbs and other plants that insects supposedly don’t like got munched heavily. I do think the dill helped, as once it bloomed I stopped seeing aphids, but the bigger insects like caterpillars were rampant. So I’m putting out BSFL to keep the insectivorous bird species around more, and planning to get some beneficial nematodes as well as planting some marigolds, though I need to find out if the marigolds will play nicely with the beneficial nematodes and what kind of spacing they need to dissuade critters. I’m also planning to put eggshells over the top of the soil rather than mix them in, in the hopes that will deter ground pests.
For trellises I’m looking into cattle panels for some of the vining plants (beans and cucumbers/squash/melons depending on which of those I end up growing), currently trying to find a place that ships them for a reasonable price (
Tractor Supply is winning so far, but they only ship the 8’ panels not the 16’).
I plan to continue banging my head against the wall as far as onions and carrots, I might try to find some shade-tolerant varieties.
Now for the actual wishlist:
- Potatoes
- Scorzonera (aka ‘Black Salsify’)
- Carrots
- Peas
- Beans
- Cucumbers
- Squash
- Cayenne Peppers
- Mystery sweet pepper
- Strawberries (alpine and regular - note to self, check if these can cross-pollinate)
- Onions
- Leafy greens - lettuce, spinach, arugula, russian kale
- Melons (exact variety to be determined)
- Herbs of various kinds
There are a few complications for the above. Right now I have carrots and bunching onions already existing in the ground from this year because they’re biennials and I’m trying to get seed off them. They’re not doing spectacularly but I’ve been surprised before, so if they survive the winter I’ll need to plan around them and my dill will need to go in a pot so I can move it inside if/when the carrots bolt, so those don’t cross-pollinate. I also have an experiment going on presently with the carrot and scorzonera seeds which may impact how much space they get and what variety gets planted in the case of the carrots. I’m also skeptical that I have enough relatively sunny space for all the vining plants listed so I may have to cut some of those from the list.
