what did you learn from this summers garden? | Food Production and Preservation | Forums

....and what will you do different this fall and next year?

so kvr's fall garden thread got me thinking about what went well this year and what i could do better next year.

we moved the family into a new house a year ago last week, so this was my first year gardening at this location. a lot of what i did this year was figuring out what grows, and what doesn't grow in different areas of the yard. i have a small south facing yard that has no shade and has heat reflected off the white siding, a large fenced garden area in the back that is full sun, a small shaded garden area on the north side of our lot that has acidic soil because of a 70 foot white pine, and a larger north side yard that is shaded by the house, and has sun after 1pm during the summer. there are some pretty diverse microclimates just in our yard alone

i was able to get some perennials planted (horseradish, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, asparagus) i really wanted to plant fruit and nut trees, but i haven't gotten around to it.

next year i'll concentrate on planting some smaller gardens around the yard that have shrubs, perennial and annual flowers, and herbs. we already have a "butterfly" garden that blooms from spring through summer.

i really wanted to keep bees, but there just isn't enough space for bees, kids, and pets. i think i may have talked my in-laws into letting me keep a couple of hives at there house, but it's just not going to happen at ours. i have a neighbor that has 2 langstroth hives and 2 top bar hives, so there's no shortage of bees for pollination. he was pretty geeked that there was someone in the neighborhood planting so many different flowers and vegetables. i also have given him produce a couple of times this year as a thank you for his "working girls." i was doing some reading about bees and i have made a couple of bee houses for orchard mason bees. they seem to be relatively docile because they aren't protecting honey and they were the principal native pollinators before europeans brought honeybees with them.

a couple of other things i learned this year: spaghetti squash do well on a trellis, hubbards do not. bales of straw save you time (weeding) and money (water). compost tea is worth its weight in gold. and if you try to trap a woodchuck you might catch a skunk.(not fun)