As the garden catalogs continue to flood my mailbox, I cannot help but imagine
that I live in a yard with excellent sun, perfectly rich soil with no rocks and
a lawn that everyone admires. I also imagine growing nearly every vegetable
that is available, even if my family will not eat it because that is not the
most important issue ~ if I can grow it, I should be able to, right?

Reality hits me way too often this time of year. I need to get my feet on the ground and begin to plan for this year's gardening activities.

A number of years ago I decided that I needed to curtail my annual garden investments in tools, seeds and plants so that the vegetable garden did not turn into my own personal hole-in-the-ground-I-dump-money into. I set a dollar limit each year to manage my purchasing. This keeps me in line or else I will be growing veggies just because I can, I will overshop at the garden centers for tools and buy all kinds of stuff on a whim that does not grow in my shady yard!

This year, I have a couple of goals for my vegetable garden category: 1) gather and spread fresh manure to create a loose, rich, fertile soil for my plants this
growing season; 2) expand my knowledge of “companion gardening” [for example: dill plants grown near eggplants will keep eggplant flea beetles away ~
really!]; 3) start my seeds earlier this year so that I can use my cool weather
fabric rather than letting the mice chew on it in my garage again this year; 4)
plant more tomatoes; 5) track my activities and progress in a journal better
and 6) buy a bigger freezer (though this might be beyond the budget this year!).

Resolutions in the home garden/lawn category: 1) enhance the quality of my soil…again…with products like Leafgro (organic leaf compost) and other organic compost and top soil; 2) control my smallish patch of Japanese stilt grass with a corn gluten mix 2 times this year instead of only once; 3) create more unity in my flower beds by rearranging my bulbs and perennials so I don’t have patches after the flowers are gone and 4) coordinate a plant exchange for our local residents
come April/May ~ more details to follow on this goal.

So, what are some goals for your gardens this year? What can you do differently to have a better growing season? This is going to be fun and productive ~ so get ready!!!