planning for next year!!

[Heather Husvar]

I suppose it's never too early..

We're down to tomatos and peppers after a so-so year in the garden. Next year everything changes at any rate. This year we shared a garden with the in-laws on their property. Next year we're gardening in our yard behind the garage and only maintaining the strawberry patch and planting corn and green beans at the in-laws. (I'm guessing that my MIL will probably plant squash as well.) :D Our yard retains a lot of water so I'm going to plan on container gardening. I'm almost certain we're going to try using tired like Pat. We have a great spot that is never used because it's behind the garage and off to one side and all the way at the back of the yard so it's basically "perfect". We're going to pick up some pea gravel to put in between the tires for the "aisles". I'm thinking that this method will work well for me as I had a lot of trouble traveling to my IL's house and then weeding, especially when I hurt my back this year and then followed it up with some horrible tummy bug. I am thinking that we can put about 16 tires in the area so it looks something like | || |. The only thing I know for sure right now is that neither family is going to plant potatoes. We know a few other families who plant excessive amounts of potatoes and think giving to them to us is a GREAT idea. So, what is everyone else thinking about, if anything?

Heather H. - who obviously should of stayed in bed a bit longer.

[Pat Meadows]

The gravel would be really nice - the aisles in our garden get really muddy. We have heavy clay here, and it stays muddy for a LONG time whenever it rains.

If I can ever afford gravel, I'll do that too.

This would work fine. Or - if you can afford it - you could make raised beds out of lumber or cement blocks. You would get a bit more planting area that way.

The only thing I know for sure right now

Well, I packed the seeds in an airtight (I hope) container and put it in the freezer.

Before that, though, I started some more seeds for our fall (outdoors) garden - chard, lettuce, and mache. I already have kale and Chinese cabbage that have been transplanted outdoors. I started all these late - we had thought we were moving (but we aren't). So they may or may not be productive before real cold sets in. I'll cover them with floating row cover and they'll probably do OK.

I also started seeds for my indoor 'winter' garden - this will be on the big bay window ledge in the living room. This is almost like a mini-greenhouse, it's a sticking-out kind of window and consists of one huge window (8' x 6') plus two regular sized windows at about 45 degree angles to it. Gets lots of sunshine - from three directions.

For winter, I'll be growing indoors:

*my rosemary plant which spends summers outdoors and winters indoors

• Spicey Globe Bush Basil - supposed to be a smaller basil

• Red Robin tomatoes - true miniature tomato, grows happily in a six inch pot. I grew these indoors this summer and they were surprisingly productive for such a little thing, and the tomatoes had a great taste

• Yellow Canary tomatoes - another miniature, but yellow-fruited

• Micro-tina tomatoes - yet another miniature. I got these seeds from the developer, Utah State University. I don't think they've been commercially released yet.

• Mini-bell peppers - supposed to be a very small bell pepper

• Tom Thumb lettuce - small heads of Boston bibb-type lettuce

• Succession plantings of cilantro

I don't expect the indoor garden to make a really significant contribution to our food supply - it's just for fun, and to see how all the 'mini veggies' do for me indoors in winter. I hope to sell seedlings of these at the farmers market next year.

We hope to be building our hoophouse in October - we hadn't started it yet because we thought we were moving. I really need it available by early next spring.

And I hope to get the main garden weeded and cleaned up before the real cold weather.

You'll notice there are a lot of repetitions of the word 'hope' in the above... in reality, it seems we never catch up with everything, but these are the things I hope to get done this fall.

Pat

[Heather Husvar]

Well, a ton of pea gravel here is 10 dollars. It's kind of a luxury item that I have stashed away some change for. I hid it so we don't spend it on anything else. :D It may not be a luxurious thick path of gravel but it'll help with the sog.

No, we can't afford it, but in our area there are a LOT of tire stores who will be HAPPY to give us tires for free.

*trimmed of the amazing stuff Pat has done to prepare for winter*

Well, your "hope" is pretty awesome. I'm continually amazed by all you do.

Heather H.

[Pat Meadows]

Thanks, I'm going to investigate that. I'll call the local ummm... I don't know what you call them...they sell sand, coal, cement blocks, gravel etc. Anyway, I'll call them. I'd love to have the paths graveled for next year.

That's how we got ours. Better yet, we found one tire store here that will give us tires WITH THE SIDEWALLS ALREADY CUT OUT. They sell the sidewalls to 'farmers' who do ... something ??? .... with them.

I wrote a report on my tire gardening experience this year, and it's on the web here:

You might be interested in reading it, it's very specific to tire-gardening, as such.

It will be on the web for another week only, then I'll take it down, polish it up, rewrite, edit and try to sell it somewhere.

Good luck with your plans!

Pat

[Barbara Foss]

Pat and Heather. We have a sq ft garden. Have been working on it for 5 yrs. First we used gravel in the walk ways. Be sure the stones are not to big. Ours were and caused some turned ankles and near falls. (we are old guys--72 and 73) Took them up and put down plastic and covered that with hay. Daughter gave it to us after Thanksgiving. Part of her decorations at her store. We are retired and have to watch the pennies carefully. We live in South Georgia and can work our garden all year. Really helps with our budget and provides healthy fresh produce for us. My Fall carrots were up this AM. Looking forward to the spinach . Barbatra

[Pat Meadows]

That's a thought. Thanks for the warning. I hadn't thought of hay-covered plastic.

We had old carpeting I could have used. We had the carpeting replaced by sheet vinyl in our house - and I did think of putting the old carpet down in the paths. But I just couldn't bear to think of looking at it! Ugly. :)

Hay-covered plastic would be attractive, though.

A productive garden really does make a difference in the food budget, doesn't it?

Besides which we grow a lot of vegetables that just are not available here at all: not at any price. And of course, homegrown is much fresher and better.

Pat

[J. Lane]

Hi Pat, Heather and Barbara, Despite the drought we had this year, I still have a pretty good crop of tomatoes and peppers as well as some amazingly large Butternut squash and tons of carrots ( I overplanted as usual). For some reason my beets hardly germinated, and the four rows I planted only produced one 20' row. I added manure, compost, shredded leaves and all the leavings from my rabbits cages to the garden this year and, because I was working at the time, I had the garden ( 50' x 20' ) rototilled. It seems to have made a real difference in the produce. The crop was better and the soil held the moisture long enough to get it through two days of no watering. My city has watering restrictions that go into effect every June and lasts till September 1st. Next year I plan on using the greenhouse I'm currently building.I found that I can't get enough sunlight in my house to germinate and grow anything. Actually, things germinate fine but become leggy and fall over then die. Most of what I'll grow in the greenhouse will be flowers ( to convert 1/2 an acre of lawn into flower beds) but I want to try growing my own tomato and peppers from seed. I usually buy the plants. Haven't made up my mind yet about the types. Sorry, this was a longer post than I planned.