2022 - Plans and hopes.

I did shut my garden down, mostly. I failed miserably at keeping it tidy.

I annexed the climbing frame which housed trombas excellently. I fluffed the planned successions sowing of beans, cucs and sweetcorn. I ran out of room for 2nd lot of beans and the sweetcorn all came at once. Far too many cucs. I never moved the flowers. 5 out of 10 for effort, could do better. That's been a mantra all through my life but I'm happy enough with it. Plans for next year on the other thread.

I've read back what I'd written and it turns out I did all of it except for growing shallots. Still time to plant some now I suppose.

Grow fewer bush cherry tomatoes, 6 plants produced so much fruit we couldn't keep up. Grew 3 this year, 4 would probably be enough.

Only grow greenhouse tomatoes to one stem, overcrowding is a recipe for mould. Still got mould but later in the season, on fewer plants and the yield wasn't affected. 

Grow some blight resistant plum tomatoes outdoors as meals taste so much better with homegrown tomatoes instead of tinned. Tremendous success, Nagina/Crimson Plum F1 yielded just under 30kg from 9 plants in a 4 x 4 ft raised bed. No blight until late in October, but it wasn't a bad year for blight anyway.

Six compact chilli plants on a sunny windowsill provide more than enough fruit for a year. The only chillies in the greenhouse will be jalapenos, everything else will be sweet peppers. Flower drop is a problem indoors due to lack of airflow and humidity. Still a decent crop though and more than enough for a year.

Grow more garlic as we go through it so quickly. The Iberian Wight was badly hit by rust so a lot of the bulbs were small, but together with the Solent Wight we should have enough to last until Spring.

Grow less kale and collards, more calabrese and kohlrabi. Now growing the kale/collards much closer together for baby leaves which frees up space for other brassicas. Picking leaves regularly doesn't allow pest like whitefly and mealy cabbage aphid to build up big numbers.

Parsley and coriander in the ground, they go to seed too quickly in pots. Parsley grows much better in the ground, the root system is so dense I find it hard to keep watered in pots. Coriander goes to seed quite quickly anyway, especially in a summer like this, so frequent sowings are necessary. Coriander flowers attract lots of insects like hoverflies and a small type of bee.

Plant tomatoes on the other side of the greenhouse so they don't cast so much shade. This worked quite well, but the concrete base which the greenhouse sits on was protruding much too far in to the border in some places. I managed to chip away some by hand but an SDS drill with a chisel attachment took care of it in a few hours. The next issue is the roots of the big silver birch in next door's garden are coming in to the greenhouse under the concrete and in the middle of summer the tree sucks up all the moisture in the greenhouse soil leaving it like dust. 

Interplanting sweetcorn with squash works but the semi-bush squash got too tall and stopped the 2nd cobs on the sweetcorn from being pollinated. This year I probably planted the sweetcorn too close together and the cherry tomatoes in each corner of the bed swamped the bush squash.

Winter squash in containers, even 50 L ones, doesn't work very well. This year I grew maincrop containers in these big pots and it worked pretty well with each pot producing almost 5kg.

I am in the search for well rotted manure and if I find it, I'm laying all the veg beds before winter. - I found my endless supply of horse manure, just about every villager wants to give it away. I didn't lay all the beds though, because quickly I realised I have room for another greenhouse, and since we haven't got the summer house in place yet, the beds are going in as I need them. Still have access to all the horse manure I need, just not enough time to go and get it. I'm hoping to free up a day on a weekend sometime soon to get another load. I really do consider what beds I managed to get laid down this year was far, far above my expectations, and they've cropped really quite well considering the odd weather.

I am not sure how much I can grow, but loads, I'm sure - I'm starting to understand my space now, and yes... loads. LOADS. Yes, loads, and there will be more growing space, maybe even double next year.

I have definite plans of laying a path and I'm hoping to take Veggie's approach and scroungers them for free over the next year. - This path is still in my plans, but I need the summer house in place first, and rid of the old one. It will be a red brick path  I've not made a start on the path, because I need the summerhouse up, before I can lay a permanent path down the garden, in between the summerhouse and the gardening shed. My wooden arbour will go over it.

I'm also taking up a fair bit of concrete that is in the wrong place. - All done!!

Other than that, I'm planning to wait and see what comes up - nothing fun has come up other than some yellow primroses under a big bush of some kind. I'm gonna have to put all the fun in, I think  Definitely putting in all the fun! I think the number of beds will grow in the back garden, and a gradual redesign of the front garden. The octagonal raised bed in the middle of the front garden is nice, and things are growing well, and I may keep it. All the gravel surrounding it though.... that has to go. I want a massive border filling that space, preferably with a theme, but I'm not sure what yet. It'll distract from the boring look of the house. And ideally, I'd like to paint a mandala on the front of the house, but I doubt I'll get Jay to agree to that. And a silver birch - that needs to go somewhere.

Here's my starter list!
Clear all the grass that grows on the paths in the middle part of the garden - no more mowing. Control by raking/tumbleweeding.  About half done now.  -( All paths cleared of grass but the couch grass is still growing)
Move palletbox that sits in middle of grass onto a veg bed - to make mowing simpler. (Not done)
Finish making new veg bed & green manure it with old lettuce/chard/kale seeds overwinter. (Done)
Cut back brambles around the sides of garden.(Ongoing)
Plant rhubarb in a new area. (Part done)
Lower height of fruit trees and thin branches. (Part done - cut down 4 diseased plum trees which helps)
Cut down sweet chestnut tree in middle of garden - growing too big/shade - no sign of nuts and I don't really like the anyway! (Done but stump is sprouting)
Grow more flowers. (Did some)
Take more cuttings. (Took some)
Pull up Montbretia (never ending struggle). (Ongoing)
Reduce flowerpots stash- nobody needs this many.Got rid of some but lots more to go).

Most of these jobs need to be carried forward to 2023 - but the garden has opened up a bit now that the plum trees have gone which is a big improvement.