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​Garden Stories

​​Garden.True.North is about gardening in Zone 3,

​sharing thoughts, ideas and tips for all northern gardeners.

2018 in Review

12/28/2018

2 Comments

 
Picture
 I haven’t thought much about how my gardening year turned out, its successes and failures.  Usually I make notes on my garden rotation sheet about what worked and what didn’t.  This year’s sheet reminds me what happened in the garden and thoughts for next year.  Better late than never, here goes.  
 
  1. Major accomplishment – put in raised beds and wider paths.  See my July 29 post – Evolution of a Garden

  2. Early Planting – we had a warm spring that allowed one of my earlier planting, most were planted on May 25.  That allowed for an earlier and longer harvest season.

  3. Raspberries – great year for these berries, the third year since planting in a new bed. 

  4. Hollyhocks finally bloomed – see August 20 post – Hollyhock (Alcea rosea) Memories

  5. Dahlias – I was disappointed by the late blooms and short season.  Next year need to find a sunnier spot and maybe get them started inside.

  6. Tomatoes – BLIGHT!  Even though I put them in a new raised bed they were all dried up by mid-August.  Still got a fairly good harvest of tomatoes for the table but they sure looked ugly. 

  7. Cucumbers – it was a fantastic year for cukes, lots of them and a long harvest. Not sure if I can take the credit or Mother Nature supplied just the right amount of warmth and sunshine. 

  8. Green Beans – good year BUT…. Some creature ate the plants right to the ground late in the season.  Do I need to put a fence within my fence?  Still haven’t figured out who is the culprit.

  9. Lettuce, spinach, chard, kale – all did well but we didn’t eat much of what was grown.  I may just replace this whole group for more cut flowers next year. 

  10. Zucchini Failure – also documented in September 9 post – The 2018 Zucchini Failure  I may just give up entirely on zucchini, they are so easy to buy or get from other gardeners.  Why bother?

Writing these down now gives me a game plan for next year.  The challenge will be to remember where I put these ideas so I can act upon them.  Do you have any successes or failures to share?
2 Comments
Paul Gettelman
12/29/2018 10:50:36 am

Nice post. Sad to say, but it's nice to see that the "Pro's" have similar problems that I have. Zucchini was fair down here in Central WI but not the best. Beans were a bust along with the cuks. Tomatoes were good but to many and that was a mess at times. Garlic was pretty good. Yours were the best of the 6 varieties I grew. Planted 400 cloves this fall so we'll see where that goes. Also tried planting scape seeds. We'll see how that turns out. Indian corn and mega sunflowers were doing great until the Tornado hit on Aug 28. Learned something NOT to plant and that was Gourds. What a pain for a worthless item. I am waiting to see if they dry out to see if I can make bird houses but don't have much faith in that. Butternut and Buttercup squash was pretty good. Jack-b-little pumpkins were fantastic. I had around 400 of them. My Giant pumpkins were fair but something always got to them (deer jumped the fence). As far as what's eating your beans, get a game camera and put it up. Walmart sells them (Tasco) for $28. Works good. I have 4 of them around the farm for the deer and Trespassers. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Always fun to share and compare notes with you. I sure have learned a lot from you and your gardening tricks. Happy New Year and good gardening in 2019.

Reply
Sue Reinardy
12/29/2018 11:24:55 am

That is a pretty good evaluation for your garden and I like the idea of a trail cam to find out what is eating the beans! FYI- the gourds that we can grow in Wisconsin may not be the best for drying and making bird houses, etc. Those usually come from more southern climates.

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