82. Changes to Next Year’s Garden

Next year, my garden will look a lot different than it has in year’s past. There are several reasons for this that I’ll get into. I’ve seen this happen to other gardeners, they get several years into gardening and they completely switch up what they want to do in their space and how they want it to look. In order to tell you what’s going to change, let’s first recap what’s happened this year in my space.

This was my first year working from home while growing a garden. While I thought it was going to be a lot easier than it was, it turned out to be very challenging (more on that soon). I still had some wins though. I set out to grow a lot of our own food while still using our space in the best way possible. Things that stand out to me from this year that went well were my potato harvest, growing beets successfully for the first time, my snapdragons, the amount of green beans I was able to preserve and the fact that I was able to can so many tomato products this year including but not limited to salsa, pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce.

I also tried out some new things to me this year like a couple greenhouse varieties of different crops, growing leeks, and a variety of peas that performed well for me.

Like I said though, I had challenges. I dealt with more weed pressure this year than in years past and really, it was all my fault (or at least a lot of it). I should have covered by garden beds better and done a better job early on in the season of getting them under control. I also had a lot of struggles with my pepper plants and never really got a great harvest off of them.

So before I tell you what I’m adding to my garden next year, let’s talk about things I won’t grow next year to save time, space and energy. From peanuts to potatoes and much more, I sat down and made a list of things I’m willing to cut from my growing space for one reason or another. I also thought about things I’m not willing to take away from my garden space and the reasons behind each one. The things I’m willing to cut next year doesn’t necessarily mean that I will never grow them again, it just means that I feel like their work isn’t worth the reward in the long run. The list includes the following: potatoes, peanuts, leeks, okra, paste tomatoes, black eyed peas, beets, corn, most peppers, dry beans and pumpkins.

I could go into reasons why I won’t grow each of these but like I said, they simply aren’t worth my time and effort for most of them. As far as the paste tomatoes and peppers, I plan to out source those and support a local farm in order to save space.

Now onto what I will be adding in to the garden space. I want to add a lot of flowers. My plan is to grow and sell flowers to other wholesalers as well as the public. I want to make bouquets to sell to others to brighten their day. Saving space on other food crops will allow me to add in as many flowers as possible to grow and sell. I hope to come up with a list of everything I will be offering soon. I really enjoyed the flowers I did grow this year and I hope to spread the joy to others.

I hope you have some time to reflect on your garden season and begin to plan for next year very soon.

Until Next Time, Happy Gardening!