A New Year Brings New Things

Happy New Year!

This year, I have set some lofty goals for both my garden and my business. Both are going to require some changes to the way I've been doing things. But the possible outcomes have me incredibly excited!

Starting with my garden...ah, the garden. It is my absolute favorite place to be. While I love sewing, there is something incredibly peaceful about being in the garden. I don't mind the normal garden chores - I covet that time to myself. Threatening to make other people help weed the garden sure buys you some peace.

Last year, I had some pretty miserable crop failures across the board. We had a long, cold and wet spring followed by a summer that never really got "hot". Sure, it got into the 80s, but we normally have stretches of seriously hot weather, with temps in the upper 90s. By July, we can normally guarantee that water restrictions have started. Not this past year. It rained practically every.single.day.

My garden is right next to a bog that developed over a period of years. We've talked about installing a french drain to help alleviate the problem, but the toads lay their eggs in the bog in the spring. I don't want to mess around with their habitat, so I am working around the bog instead of draining it.

My goal last year was to grow 500 pounds of food. I barely grew 1/5th of that goal. The cold weather and constant rain brought fungus and root rot, and a late visit by another groundhog finished off the fall crops.

So this year, it is ON. 

I reinforced the fencing around the garden to prevent it from getting back in. We're clearing some of the brush behind the fence to keep it from climbing into the garden as well. 

I decided to also give sweet potatoes a whirl this year. I couldn't get them to sprout to save my life last year, so I started them super early. I have no idea where I'm going to put them yet, though. They're related to the morning glory, and the vines can be quite invasive.

I've also got the beginnings of my spring crops started. They'll be going out under a row cover in a few weeks. I have 20 broccoli plants and 20 swiss chard plants growing strong.

I also want to give leeks a go this year. I just sowed them a couple of days ago, so not much to see there yet.

Quite possibly the most exciting news - the worm castings were ready to harvest! I got 6 pounds 8 oz of worm castings in 5 weeks. Snowflakes are all MUCH happier. There were a TON of eggs and wee tiny baby worms. Production of castings should speed up now that there is a population boom.

6 pounds 8 oz of worm castings

Wee baby worms!

I spent the day outside in the garden cutting honey suckle vines off the blackberries and I uncovered the strawberry plants. They're showing signs of new growth, and I didn't want to suffocate them with the mulch. 

Garden in January

Have you started prepping your garden for spring?

Garden Fail

It's been said that Thomas Jefferson kept detailed notes about his successes and failures in his garden at Monticello. It's also been said that he was one of the only gardeners to admit to as much failure as he had. Drought was often the cause of crop failure, at least according to A Rich Spot of Earth, a book about Jefferson's garden at Monticello (which is one of my favorite places to be).

So in honor of TJ, here's a post about a whole bunch of garden fail.

The past few weeks have been unseasonably cold. Our normal last frost date is April 15, and yet we got a frost a few days ago (late April). The last 2 years have had very warm springs, and one could say I was spoiled by how warm the springs were.

This year, I set out my tomatoes on April 9, very early. I started them early, so they were monsters and needed to go outside. The same goes for my peppers.

Well, let's just say that I learned a very important lesson in gardening this year. A late frost handed me my hat, so to speak. About 10% of my crop suffered frost damage, and I lost a couple tomato plants.

On top of that, at the beginning of the month, we had above average temperatures. Temps were well into the  high 80s - low 90s for almost an entire week, which caused my broccoli to button. (Buttoning is when broccoli forms a small head, much like a floret.) So I'll try broccoli again in the fall when things cool down.

Thomas Jefferson said the success of one crop outdid the failure of another. I purchased a few starts to replace the ones I'm going to lose due to frost damage, and am keeping them inside at night until early next week. Here's hoping that I have some successes in the garden this year to outweigh the loss of the broccoli and tomatoes.