I’ve already started turning this year’s earth and I unpacked a bunch of our seeding equipment. If at first you don’t succeed – try, try again!!

A handful of notes and how I think we’ll improve this year:

Pests were a huge issue. We found some “eco friendly” (in only the broadest sense) bug-killing phosphate soap that finally did away with the angry ants and slugs we disturbed when we put the garden in. We figured out that diatomaceous earth is wasted if you use it the day before it rains – important to check the forecast before throwing it down or it gets washed away.

The rabbits were a bigger problem – Rabbits ate about 80% of our garden last year, leaving us the tomatoes and herbs. We started with the “leave clumps of human hair in your garden” trick, but our rabbits didn’t care. We tried putting hot pepper on some of our plants (which is sortof cruel, really) but actually ended up burning some of our plant leaves. This year’s strategy is building a big penned-off area with chicken-wire to keep the rabbits out of our seedlings.

We had some spacing issues – mostly because we didn’t realize how big some of the plants would get (the tomatoes ended up more than 7 feet high!), and kept backfilling new plants over ones that had been eaten by pests without following our plan. This year we’re expanding the garden area and (definitely) dropping the space-hogging squash.

Our seeding efforts were problematic. We got off to a good start with super productive seeding trays, but the new plants had weak roots and didn’t take well to being moved outdoors. I think we should have left some of them longer and in a deeper seeding pot (particularly the bigger plants, like the tomatoes) with better drainage, denser dirt and more consistent watering. Our seed-planted herbs couldn’t take the cold of our sunroom and we should start this year’s later or in the kitchen or living room. We had a lot more success with larger plants (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant) that were started in a pro greenhouse. (Chartrand’s in Aylmer is awesome for strong plants and neat varietals)

Other improvements this year:

I found a surprising number of clever tips in this Wired gardening article. I wouldn’t normally go to a tech magazine for gardening tips, but I saw a few of these ideas duplicated in good gardening books.

Our compost from last year has broken down enough to enrich our garden this year. That’ll help break up the texture of our soil -  I think we have too much clay, despite our efforts to break it up with added black earth and manure. We might get a yard of topsoil and blend it in.

I’ve collected enough water jugs to build a small  “water wall” – a Greek invention. You put a bunch of water jugs in your garden and the water radiates out the stored daylight heat all evening, keeping your plants warm. Sheila poked fun at me for my excitement about cluttering up my garden with silly contraptions – but I think it’s a great idea.

I’m going to build a proper trellis for our tomatoes – they loved our fence but kept falling over when the wind blew because there weren’t enough “handholds” for the vines.

More of the things that worked! We started off with just a few herbs, but by the end of the season we were harvesting heaps for our friends. The tomatoes were awesome, and we’ll plant more cherry tomatoes and different varieties of heirlooms this year.

Stay away rabbits!

I’ve been reading about interesting heirloom varieties and hybridization – maybe I’ll try crossing my cucumbers with jellyfish this year. Mmmm, Pirhanapples. Kukumberoos?

Living among the normal radishes and cucumbers you’ll find:

Chocolate Peppers

8-Ball Zuchinni

Black Cherry Tomatoes

(Images liberated wantonly  from copyrighted sources all over the internet.)