New Years is always a good time to think about change. For me, change is always ongoing, but sometimes a New Years boost can help make it work. In my garden, I resolve to know and respect my limitations, better than before. If something is too much work for too little reward, then it's time to remove that from my work list. That's even if it's a valuable plant, or if I've already invested a lot of time and effort into it, or if it has sentimental value. Next year, I resolve to automate more of the watering via more drip irrigation, and to get the lines re-installed and repaired before dry season starts. I resolve to sit and enjoy the garden better. Just sit and soak up the sights, and sounds, and scents.
Daniel Great to hear your taking time for yourself , accepting your limitations and enjoy your beautiful breath taking garden. Something special will always be available once we sit down and smell the roses.
I will never again cut off the footies from my daughters pantyhose when she isn’t home in order to use them to cover my apples to repel maggots. It’s embarrassing to be seen with my daughter whose nylons come down only to her ankles.
I will not fall for the pretty pictures and grandiloquent descriptions in seed catalogs and over buy and then over plant. It will take at least a day to break that resolution!
Marlin— Hahahaha I hear that. Well, you deserve a better than usual gardening year in 2025. Aww, go on then— just go right on over the top.
I'm going to try and be more practical with my veggie garden plantings this year. I've always planted around 50 varieties tomatoes because I love home grown tomatoes and I'm always looking for a better one. Now that I'm the only one eating them in our house, I have to learn to plant less and preserve less as well. I will have to learn to plant a smaller amount of everything I like and plant a bigger variety of crops. Also I need to make note of what I need and don't need to preserve this year and plant accordingly. I will no longer need to make zucchini relish for example, so less zucchini and more onions as I always use the onions up quickly. I also resolve not to hoard perennials or make any new flower beds this year! I had to make 2 new gardens last fall just to plant the perennials that I had collected all season -despite my thoughts of downsizing my home garden workload. That could be a hard resolution, as I still have some perennials that I heeled into the veggie garden for winter holding. Ugh, its a vicious circle haha
Chuckle Netty— that is a big ask: downsizing. Having said that, I am a perdect example that in the end….some day….finally this plan can be realised. We have an allotment of 260m2. Half of that space is for flowers and fruit trees, the other half is for veg and the rest of the fruit. From this small amount of room we freeze in and preserve enough to feed ourselves for an entire year…annnnd give to friends, neighbours and family……annnnnd the Food Bank. So miss, as you can see— it is possible. You guys have so many different sorts of toms. Normally I just have two or three. This coming year will be different with the trials. I hope that showing you this, you will realise that your self-imposed goal is possible and only requires your wonderful brain to sort out the necessary, the trials and the new experiments. You got this, mate.
Netty and Sjoerd, in the past two or three years, I decommissioned three large vegetable-growing beds and have removed around ten fruit trees. The fruit trees, to be honest, were not good varieties. Some of that decommissioning meant re-grading soil that had been used for potato trenches or just sunk due to organic matter losses from hardening. This fall and winter, more fruit trees are going. In many cases, they were varieties that I wanted to try, but didn't do well. So they are no great loss. There will be more space in my fenced garden next year, due to removing more fruit trees. I still have plenty, and they are good performing varieties for me. Some of that space will be squashes, which I have difficulty protecting from deer. With the additional space in the fenced garden, .i hope they do a lot better. I'm looking at a Burpee catalog, which is sorely testing my resolve. They have varieties of tomatoes and peppers which they claim can be directly seeded instead of starting ahead. Also a super-compact summer squash. I've been looking at the catalog for three days, trying to decide if I should order those. @Netty, 50 varieties is a lot of tomatoes! Last year I had 12 varieties of fresh-eating tomatoes. Next year, I want to reduce that to 4 or 5 varieties. P.S. I threw away that Burpee catalog without buying anything. The deciding factor was, they can't send onion sets or plants to Washington State. And I don't need the tomatoes, which are tall-growing as far as I can tell.
I throw away catalogs all the time . Then I search online catalogs. I think I need to join a support group.
Not a resolution as such....but it might help me make one next year. I won't be able to do as many of my early in the year tasks.....seed sowing will be definitely cut down as I won't be able to make visits to my nursery area for a while. So I will be very interested to see how our garden will look this year without the familiar summer bedding gap fillers. Who knows ? I may be able to reduce the amount I do by realising that they are not really needed. Hmmm not too sure though.
Tuesday @Sjoerd ... Feel like I ditching a good friend that has stood by me ( literally ) for all my life for a new model. ,
