Gardening Resolutions 2011

This will be our second year gardening, and we don't want to bite off too much. Here are a few goals we hope to accomplish in 2011.

1. Order seeds from seed catalog
This is supposed to be one of the fun parts, and adds diversity you can't get at the grocery store. The biggest challenge in this will be not to diversify too much! Last year we tried a little bit of everything, and we want to grow more of what worked this year. So the seed catalogs will be to select diverse varieties of what we know we can grow well (greens, tomatoes, etc) and to pick out a few really random items.

2. Defeat the kraken
We didn't do everything we needed to to prevent the return of the Japanese beetles this year, so we know they're coming. Thankfully we finally found a resource for pesticide free diatanacous earth, so that should help once they come out, and it might also help with squash beetles. We've also discussed putting in some bird netting for the strawberries.

3. Play with worms
Really this is about composting. My parents bought us a gift certificate to a local worm company, and while it completely grosses me out, I'm intrigued by the idea of creating our own rich composting soil. (Is that what they do? Haha, guess we'll be learning).

4. Find a new tree to replace palmetto
We should have done this in November but things got a little crazy with family visiting and our normal jobs. We had a beautiful palmetto tree that didn't really survive the winters in the upstate, so Nathaniel took it down. We are thinking of what tree to replace it with, and hopefully will put it in before the summer comes.

5. Put down stones between raised beds
We have always thought of our garden as something that would happen gradually, built on year after year. Last year was busy with building raised beds, planning out the space, planning out the planting, and starting this blog. This year we at least want to get bricks or stones down in between the beds. We'll need to kill the grass and put down sand to make everything even, but the worst part will be transporting the stones from the store to home, ouch. :)

What exciting plans do you have for your garden for 2011?

Jenny has also made cooking resolutions and baking resolutions for 2011.