Anyone else eager to get back out in the garden this year? It’s been a very long winter and I have so many ideas and am excited to actually put time and thought into planning out my garden this season. Normally I just throw things together that feel right in the moment, often over-buying plants and starting too many seedlings. The result? A cluttered space that lacks enough sunlight for everything to thrive. Oh dear, this is starting to sound like my home space for those of you who know me personally! Anyway, this season I would like to be more intentional with what I plant. I want to take the time to understand which plants pair well together and which plants have never grown in my dirt and should perhaps be skipped. I would also like to focus on a few champion plants that I can harvest a lot of, making the bounty worth my while. Last year, green beans did really well so I am looking forward to planting more of those.
Another option I want to explore this year is vertical gardening. We have two TINY garden plots and another area I have recently started expanding to for strawberries, raspberries, and most recently grapes. They say that it takes 2-3 years for grapes to grow on the vine. I am always leery of “long game” plants. I once grew asparagus – that was a 2-year commitment and it barely grew any stalks on year 2, and year 3 it never grew back. Fruit trees take 5-7 years and when we first moved into this house my husband bought several dwarf fruit trees and this will be year 8 on the land and no apples in sight… we did get some pears though! Back to the grapes – they will need something to climb on so my plan is to design and have my handy husband build a trellis for them to climb on. I also want to hang strawberry plants from the top of the trellis because then they are out of reach from critters and will get more sunlight being higher off the ground. I am also interested in seeing if green beans will grow up the trellis too, and be able to really take advantage of the vertical space this trellis creates.
What are some of your garden plans for this year? Let me know in the comments below!
Looking good! The extent of my gardening will be herbs in the Aerogarden, and cleaning some leaves off of my flowers in my backyard rock garden. Looking forward to seeing your crops!