Note To Self

I don't keep a separate garden notebook and I know I won't be able to find a post-it note to myself by next April. So this will have to do. Maybe any other gardeners reading might benefit from my "notes" or at least get a laugh at my follies.

Yesterday as I was bent over my zucchini spraying my home-made organic bug killer with one hand and picking off adult squash bugs with the other hand, I thought of a list of things I need to do differently next year.

Note to self:

• Next year, lay black plastic or garden fabric over the ENTIRE garden. Poke holes for plants and then you can shave about 39,082 hours off of your weeding routine.
• Next year, don't plant peas or cabbage - or if you do, plant them much earlier. My cabbage are at a stand-still in this heat and my peas get dried out in the sun before they are ripe.
• Next year, plant a lot of corn. You know that's one thing you'll be able to eat and also preserve by freezing.
• Next year, bury jars (with sugary liquid in the bottoms) in the soil to trap crawling bugs like the worms currently devouring the cabbage leaves.
• Next year grown potatoes - preferably with Marisa's barrel system.
• Next year, install some serious vine supports for the squash so that picking off the bugs will be easier. Also, pick them off early - like in May before they lay a bazillion eggs.
• Next year, really do make lettuce boxes. Stagger the plantings by 14 days so you don't have a cubic yard of lettuce ripening all at once.
• Next year, don't bother growing eggplant, cucumbers, or peppers - it never works for you.
• Next year, plant more strawberries. Half the garden would be fine. Robbie loved to look for them every day....so make sure next year you don't buy the June-bearing kind, but the ever-bearing kind.
• Next year, grow mostly from seed - it's a lot cheaper!
• Next year, grow beans - with poles or lattice.
  

Sheesh, did I do anything right this year?

Well yea - I have tons of lettuce, onions, cherry tomatoes, squash (although they are fighting to survive right now) and the herbs are all doing terrific. My strawberries are sending out shooters all over so next year should yield a good crop.