Are you planning big changes, or minor tweaks to a working system? Are there new-to-you plants you’re excited to try your hand at? Let’s share our dreams and goals and inspire each other!
One of my main goals which I have had for years now is to fill in the dirt patch in my lawns on my hill and on my dog running path. Each year it decreases slightly with my constant seeding of grasses and clover covered with straw. I hope this year I get more finished and the great plantain that I throw on it will break up the soil compaction to fill in any gaps that grasses and clover don’t get a hold of. I had some good luck with clover and grasses in the sun dried spot over the last years so hopefully all gaps are getting covered with a low maintenance bee lawn.
I planted self heal and English daisies from Flawn over my already White Dutch Clover filled lawn in the late fall in the front and side lawns which have been neglected. So hopefully I can see some of those sprouting and possibly get some flowers.
I want to try to harvest some more of my forage edibles from my yard and not miss the edible window. I have missed my window for ostrich fern fiddleheads two years now but this year I will grab some to eat. I did get some milkweed stems which I ate so hopefully I can get that again. I want to get my chokecherries in the fall but have missed that as well. I will try some of the other volunteers in my garden including the Mullein that came up.
Hopefully my wildflower garden by my alley has some of the perennials I planted two falls ago start blooming instead of just the black-eyed susans. I love them but they are early pioneer species until the coneflowers, early sunflowers, bee balms, purple prairie clover, etc. come in their own this year. I want to try to harvest some of these for teas, tinctures and salves along with my chamomile, calendula, anise hyssop and yarrow in my tea garden along with my traditional garden herbs of mint, lemon balm and sage.
The real goal is getting some cut flowers to grow by starting a lot of them by seed early spring. We have tried for two years to get marigolds, snap dragons, cosmos and zinnias to grow by direct seeding with little to no success. I want to get some started to they can self seed. We did some sheet composting in a previous overgrown weedy section for a Dahlia garden this year. So hopefully that comes along.
I guess I have a lot of plans for the next year. I might be too ambitious seeing it all written out. But I want to try to keep a garden journal maybe with a garden pixelfeed account so I can better track what I do and what I see throughout the year. I think it will be fun and help with my planning and foraging for years to come.
I’m in love with your plans and goals! Something that’s resisted a lot of wear from our dog’s circuits has been wild violets, and we’re seeing more clovers volunteering in those patches alongside them.
It sounds like just the right amount of ambition to me, I’m hopeful you’ll see great results and will share them with us here!
I’ve been trying to get wild violets in my yard for the last few years. I got some seeds two years ago that didn’t sprout very well. I did plant some bareroot pink violets which I hope come back and start spreading. They are common wild violets in my neighborhood and I keep hoping they volunteer in the yard since we don’t put any herbicides anywhere.
We’ve had good experiences transplanting them during the early part of the growing season, maybe someone nearby would let you take a clump or three to get you started. They can spread pretty prolifically from a start like that. I haven’t noticed them spreading seed very far, but their roots will spread them out readily.
I will try this spring to transplant some. There are tons along the weedy sections that people don’t care about. I will try to get some in my yard. I know the seeds of violets don’t spread that far so transplants is a good option.
Strawberries. Lots of strawberries
Any specific varieties you have in mind? If not, we’ve been really pleased with our ‘Marie du Bois’ cultivar - they’re huge and delicious
- get a proper composter because the bin I was using started rusting
- plant more herbs
- really a lot of herbs, they’re so worth it
- don’t forget to fertilise my olive tree
What herbs are you planting? I have been focusing on herbs, especially perennials and self seeding annuals. I know I will never be able to grow enough vegetables to feed my household but I can get enough herbs for all my teas, salves, seasoning for a year at some point I think.
There’s tons of ways to properly compost! What kind of setup are you considering?
Something small 😅.
I currently just have an actual bin with a ton of mulch that I put my dead plants in and give it a little water sometimes. Has been working fairly well for a couple years now.
I know there’s ‘proper’ ways to compost but I never really got into it because it feels like overkill for the amount of compost I actually use (there’s already basically a never ending supply).
Any suggestions for a small setup?
We have a few small welded wire rings, roughly 3 feet in diameter and 4 feet high, that we use around the bird yard. That’s about the minimum size to get the piles to heat to the point of being able to kill off most seeds that make it in there, and it’s a simple thing to lift the ring and move it over so the pile can be turned. You could make it smaller if you’re not too concerned with volunteer plants sprouting. I know a few folks who will line the inside with landscape felt (not the plastic stuff) to have less material fall through the gaps in the wire and make them look a little cleaner, if that’s something you’re interested in.
I want to build a fence like, with integrated plants in too , I’m not that handy, so it’s gonna look great😁😛
You’re going to do great! And the plants will help to hide things you learned from 💕
I built up a few new raised beds / sunken pathways for more vegetable production before the ground froze, and used them to heel in dozens of perennials for the winter. We also have some spaces along our property boundaries that have newly opened sun access, so once the soil is workable again we’ll be investing in native hedgerow to replace some of our fencing. We and a few of our neighbors have had tree work done by a friend in town recently, so we’re going to have another 30+ yards of wood chips from the block for pathways and mulching.
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install three more raised beds and a shed
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start vermicomposting
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border the yard with lilac bushes, my favorite flower
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not make a malapropism of “Florida Weave” all season
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convince the Virginia creeper to only grow on the house and not cover the yard
Shoot. I need a shed. That’s a really good goal for the year!
Pull the permits now!
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I’m planning to devote about half of my fenced garden space to trying a three sisters patch, and this year I’m going to be more strategic about where I put my potatoes so they don’t shade out everything around them early in the season. I haven’t grown beans or corn before but my squash did great last year so I’m looking forward to more of that!
I didn’t have great luck with brassicas last year so I’m hoping to do better by starting earlier and figuring out how to fight the cabbage moths.
I also have tentative plans to build out a patio/fire pit area on the site of a pool and deck I tore down last year. I want it surrounded by raised beds with various perennials like blueberry bushes, and maybe someday a grape trellis. I have plenty of wood from that deck so I may also build random stuff like a bench to go inside my squash tunnel (:
This was a good reminder that I should start putting together a planting schedule and a seed order soon!
I tried the three sisters two years ago and none of my gourds grew and my beans didn’t get very high but the popcorn did great. Last year I did just beans and popcorn which did a little better. The beans didn’t fully climb the corn as planned and racoons ate my popcorn but I got a good bean harvest. Make sure you get the spacing and timing right with the three sisters. Corn goes first and then beans climb it up. I think gourds go last but I can’t remember
The cabbage moth solution I see everywhere is low tunnels with a fine mesh to exclude them. We were gifted a hinged low tunnel and I’m planning to use that for our frame, I’ll let you know how it goes
All of this sounds amazing, I can’t wait to see your results!
Good to know! A contractor we had doing some work on the house last year left behind a roll of thick poly sheeting so I was thinking about using that to make some floating row covers anyway.
I’ll be sure to post lots of pictures this year! I also started a personal website recently for fun so I’ll probably be putting stuff there.
Not all poly is equally UV resistant. If your roll has branding information on it I would highly recommend checking that before using it. Cleaning up the pieces of the wrong poly is a huge pain because it fragments more while you’re trying to pick it up.
If what you have lying around isn’t up to the task, ask around at your local greenhouses for offcuts from their last greenhouse skins. The box stores will try to sell you rolls from the paint department, and that’s no good for this. You could also try any local dance studios about tulle they didn’t use - plenty of folks use fabric mesh to do their brassica low tunnels.
Good to know - thanks!
I’d like to get rid of my front lawn, the maintenance of it is a massive mental strain, it always feels like an insurmountable job. I’d also like another raised bed in the back garden for veg!
You don’t have to replace it all at once. Do some winter sowing of clover, fine fescue and other flowers so they bloom in the spring. They will make your lawn less maintenance and pollinator friendly. Since you don’t invest as much you won’t feel bad as you chunk off portions for whatever you want.
I planted self heal and English daisies from Flawn over my already White Dutch Clover filled lawn in the late fall. Hopefully I get some by the spring. I also had some good luck with their sweet alyssum under our roses last year.
That sounds like a great set of goals!
