Do you make resolutions? Set goals? I usually have a few things I set out to accomplish at the beginning of the year, but this time when I sat down to write a list of my gardening goals, I ended up with 18! I feel excited about every item on my list and hope that come January I will have crossed off every single one. To keep myself accountable, I decided to share all of them with you in a video (you’ll also find the list at the end of this post). What are your goals, resolutions, hopes for the coming season? And can you recommend any great cos lettuces, mustard greens, cherry tomatoes or butternut varieties that I should include in my trials?
Here’s the list:
1. Do a lettuce trial – I want to plant different varieties of mainly romaine/cos lettuces and compare texture and taste to hopefully find a few new favourites
2. Compare butternut squash varieties – I’m going to sow and compare the yield of butternut squash varieties suited to our short summers (Waltham, Harrier & Hunter) to see which one performs best
3. Cherry tomato for the greenhouse – last year we grew Black Cherry but this year I would like to try a few different varieties (Sungold?)
4. Plant a row of summer fruiting raspberries – I already have the plants and they should be planted ASAP!
5. Finish planting edible climbers around the pergola (and film a video about it!)
6. Graft a delicious apple variety from our friends’ garden
7. Try a polyculture for sowing around midsummer
8. Trial new mustard greens
9. Sow spinach earlier for hopefully a better harvest – I want to sow in February in modules instead of sowing directly in March (inspired by this video by Charles Dowding)
10. Grow 1 bed of annual cut flowers
11. Grow dahlias for their edible tubers – I have eaten dahlia flowers but not the tubers
12. Mulch around our mixed edible hedge
13. Grow what we eat! (and not get carried away with my experiments and grow vegetables that my family is not terribly thrilled about)
14. Keep better records – also AFTER our summer vacation!
15. Plant Bodinier’s beautyberry just for its beauty
16. Plant a hardy pomegranate – I have my eye on this one
17. Take a course in pruning restricted forms of fruit trees
18. Organise an OPEN DAY in June or July
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