2023 - Plans & Hopes

Try to dig more growing beds.
Add supports to everything with nets to keep the stems straight.
Sow lots of small batches every couple of months to give a staggered cropping.
Not keen on dried flowers but I would like to grow more that can be used during the winter months - seed pods, grasses maybe. Research preserving.
Try to grow some perennials from seed - I have eucalyptus to start me off
# be ruthless - do not pot on 109 seedlings when I only need 56.

Having fenced off the end of the garden to keep the dogs off it, I want to make this part as productive as possible - aiming to eat something from the garden shop every day.
Also intend to eat more of what I grow instead of letting it go to waste.
This means more successional sowing - small batches more often.
To grow less small tomatoes and no big ones that take too long to ripen.
To try outdoor cucumbers as the indoor ones weren't very productive this year.
To grow more edible, ornamental plants - flowers with uses.
To empty the far pond and turn it into a fruit and veg bed.
Continue pulling up montbretia, vinca and grass and reducing areas that need mowing.

There'll be more.

To clear the ground beyond the fence to create more veg growing space.
To create mini-raised beds, dotted around the garden, using the wormery tiers that grew courgettes this year and slices of blue water butt. Hoping that these will be enough to stop the dogs from charging through them. Will use these for root crops and, maybe, wigwam structures for beans.

How long you got ?   
I’d like to start moving things into my new garden. Before that can happen I need to sort out fences (started), drainage (have the pipe and a rough idea where it’s going) & beds (the plan has been drawn up (repeatedly     ))
I also intend on growing a lot more veg again. I have missed it so much this year. I definitely want chillies, tomato, aubergine, courgette, squash/ pumpkin, sprouts, peas, kale, lettuce, beans and carrots. I will probably add more to this because I have no will power 
I’m going to be growing a lot more flowers for cutting . This will be a new venture for me.

Most of the fencing is now up . 
I will definitely be moving most if not all of the my stuff into the new garden .
I probably won’t be growing anywhere near as much veg as I’d planned/ hoped. Flowers is also getting re planned or even shelved.

I’m going to do a rerun of my first attempt at growing veggies on mull. Everything I attempted to grow this year will be in fish boxes. In the fenced tree area. Hopefully I’ll get a little temporary tunnel up for tomatoes, chillies & competition pumpkin   . I just happen to have a spare little tunnel.

I hope to get my @rse into gear and start doing something in the garden. It'll happen eventually but don't hold your breath

Last year's crops were mostly disappointing. For the outdoor stuff, I had stripped off the turf from lawn, forked it over, bit of fertilizer, planted. Nothing did very well. I think the soil was too thin. When I dug up the leeks earlier this month, I found that the roots had grown upwards from the base, along the stalk, instead of spreading out into the soil.

So over the last week, I have deep dug both veg beds after spreading a generous amount of pelleted chicken manure and granular fertilizer, then put some more chicken pellets on the top and finishing off with a good three-inch layer of home made compost. I'm hoping that this will give everything a good start.

Last year's carrots were infested with the carrot fly despite being covered in debris netting, so for this year I'm using enviromesh.

The grapevine in the greenhouse looked good last year until the fruit started to swell, but then it was overcome with mildew and all I got was raisins. So in 2023 I'm going to pay more attention to watering and keep a close eye open for mildew and red spider.

I don't think I've ever been better prepared for a season, so bring on Spring!

My plan is to sow stuff this weekend, so it'll germinate and be ready to pot on when I come back from Sweden (back mid March). I've sown nothing yet because of that trip - I'm just so worried they'll all die when I'm not here to look after them lol

I have a massive greenhouse now, so lots of peppers and tomatoes will be in the ground in there, and I'm setting up beds with pipe bows for the netting. I'll be darned if I'm going to feed the cabbage whites quite as well as I did last year lol

As this year is nearly done. How did everyone’s plans pan out? Did you achieve what you wanted? Did you completely change your plans?

I’m quite pleased with my first years achievements in my ever changing garden. I got a lot of what I wanted done. A lot didn’t happen but it will. I was quite pleased with my first veg and flower harvest.
Hoping to achieve and produce more next year   .

My plans are merely a variation  on last year. Move/ get rid of some  flower clumps to make room for penstemon and others I hope to grow from seed. Try successionsal sowing again of corn, courgettes and beans.  Reduce the number of toms in each gh border to 5 rather than 6. Devote one border of gh to cucumbers  (maybe).  Find room to grow all the favourite toms whilst still experimenting  with some new ones. Concentrate on  trombas and give up on winter squash they never thrive. There will be more as the season approaches.

1.  Did get some penstemons planted.
2.  Successional sowing wasn't that successful.  Second sowing of peas were a waste of space, I think it was too hot. Sweetcorn later sowings just catches up with each other. I ran out of room  for second planting of beans & courgettes.
3. Did reduce toms to 5 per border, worked well. Didn't devote one whole border to cucs. Nobody needs that many cucumbers.
4. Did grow some new and old favourite toms, this is continuing into next year and thereafter I expect. Found a few new ones that will become favourites. 
5. Grew 3 trombas and will grow even more next year, they're so versatile.

Having fenced off the end of the garden to keep the dogs off it, I want to make this part as productive as possible - aiming to eat something from the garden shop every day.
Also intend to eat more of what I grow instead of letting it go to waste.
This means more successional sowing - small batches more often.
To grow less small tomatoes and no big ones that take too long to ripen.
To try outdoor cucumbers as the indoor ones weren't very productive this year.
To grow more edible, ornamental plants - flowers with uses.
To empty the far pond and turn it into a fruit and veg bed.
Continue pulling up montbretia, vinca and grass and reducing areas that need mowing.

There'll be more.

To clear the ground beyond the fence to create more veg growing space.
To create mini-raised beds, dotted around the garden, using the wormery tiers that grew courgettes this year and slices of blue water butt. Hoping that these will be enough to stop the dogs from charging through them. Will use these for root crops and, maybe, wigwam structures for beans.

Still clearing the end of the garden!
Reduced the tomato plants I grew to one GH and that was enough.
Grew different types of Cucumber in the other GH to decide which suited me better - didn't grow any outdoors.
Emptied the pond and grew lots of courgettes in open bottomed pots. Will do the same next year (probably).
Still pulling up the invasive plants and reducing the grass,
Didn't do the "mini-beds" as I had enough to cope with behind the fence. 

Still more space to clear for next year and I want to get some bean frames in place earlier in the year, ready.