I have kind of stopped posting here because Blogger updated and I can't figure out how to post photos. And in fact, I copied book covers from Amazon and they disappeared. So now I don't know how to blog properly anymore and I am too distracted and busy to stop and figure it out.
But the gardeners came today and cleaned up the garden for all and so I am very happy. They only come six times a year and it isn't quite often enough. I should be doing more but honestly I am new to gardening and I have so many other things going on and only a limited amount of energy. And my arthritic knees are really starting to hinder me.
After two years with this garden I now have a better idea of what I like:
Herbs - I want way more herbs. I need two giant St. John's Wort bushes to be moved so that I have access to the herbs. The way they are now I can not access them without having to haul myself up a wall that is about 1.5 feet high and my knees just don't want to do that.
Fruit trees/bushes - except fewer chokeberries and lots more blueberries and maybe raspberries. We had a disappointing yield for fruit this year except for the strawberries. I'm spending my winter figuring how to take care of fruit trees/bushes for better results. That's my winter homework assignment. Actually, I need to see what to do for the fall for them as well. The gardeners did some but I might want to go further to protect them from disease and make them more robust.
We are putting up a garden on the side of the house. We have to move much of it because it was accidentally on our neighbor's property. We got new neighbors and it turns out they want to fence in all of their yard. So we have to move trees anyway. So we are just going to redesign that area. I am excited. Going to try to plant paw paw trees for starts. Squeee!
For veggies - I am determined to figure out how to have greens all winter. I bought a cold frame to put in a raised bed. I plan to try to grow brassicas and beets there). I also am going to keep growing microgreens in the study window. I want to get grow lights and have a real indoor kitchen herb garden. I also want to try to grow lettuces and maybe cherry tomatoes indoors by a window with a grow light. I'm just going to experiment. I do seem to be growing carrots and potatoes successfully in the raised beds My sugar snap peas don't seem to be doing anything. Perhaps they need some fertilizer. Must see what to do about that.
I also am going to try to clean out the junk closet at the end of our mudroom and turn it into a cold storage room. I am going to experiment with trying to keep apples and winter squashes in cold storage there. I also want to start a prepper pantry.
So those are my thoughts for now!
