I've learned some things this year for next year's garden.
- Ignore recommended spacing guidelines. Sometimes they'll leave huge empty spaces, and sometimes your plants will be climbing all over each other. Plant tomatoes further than you think you should and plant violas closer.
- Plant more fruits. Everyone loves melons and berries. Not everyone loves Swiss Chard. Not every day, anyway.
- Plant onions deeper, but not too deep. This year, I planted some deep for table onions and didn't use them all, so they're not much bigger than when I planted them. I also planted some shallow for storing, but the dogs and chickens dug them up, so they didn't grow too well, either. And plant MORE onions. One can never have too many onions
- I really, really want some deep beds.
- Plant Cilantro later than you think you should, like the first week of July. And then plant another planting two weeks later, and then again.
- Plant garlic.
- Make hills for pumpkins and melons in the patch. The grass grew too tall around some of them, and they didn't survive.
The photos below of the greenhouse displays are from the greenhouse where I work. My boss asked me to arrange the fall items in the retail area, and this is my work in progress. It doesn't come across as well in photos as it does in person. I actually like the way they look, and it was a lot of fun making them.
Bo awaits out by the fire, so here I go! Keep those garden photos coming!
