Some new and even more ingenious plot to eradicate the cucumber beetles.

Not to spend all spring making new flower beds.

Not to buy any new daylilies, either.

Do better at succession plantings so I don't have three kinds of beans coming in all at once and then nothing for weeks in mid summer.

Growing TRUE pole beans! All that I planted ,even though they said pole beans were bush beans! I found one sorry little climber and tried to push it toward the pole, but it got swallowed up!
Salvage the gopher bed and build one more.
Start building raised boxes for dwarf fruit trees.
Have ALL flowers in the garden be edible (except for morning glories, unless they're edible! But I think if I eat them, everything in the yard might be edible!LOL)
Figure out a better potato bin (I just have volunteers right now)
Get the fountain running. Actually, that is a goal for this weekend! Found a used one, wasn't working. They said they have a handyman coming to look at it. Went by, it's working great! Bought it, trucked it home, set it up......doesn't work!!!!! Pissed off, but trying everything before we go complain to them.
I'm sure I'll think of more! Nancy

Next year, I will keep up with trimming the diseased tomato leaves. Last year I was pretty diligent and had a great crop. This year, I slacked off some and have a nasty case of septoria. Still getting tomatoes, but it won't be quite like last year, I'm afraid.

I wlll be more careful not to cook my transplants under Remay. I thought they'd like the warmth after being set out. Within three days, I had cooked a good number of my peppers and eggplants down to soil level. They mostly came back and have been robust, but it was touch and go there for a while.

Next year, I will buy even more okra plants. This year I doubled the number to 8, but 4 of the plants obviously had suffered some kind of stress at the nursery because they are still tiny and not producing.

I really have to think hard about planting Opalkas next year. I had so much BER, it was insane. I pulled and chucked every fruit with the black spot....probably a few dozen because I read some where that they don't taste right. Well, I have eaten a few since with very minor BER and they aren't so bad. The are also super meaty. Wow! So, I had sworn them off, but now I'm not so sure.

Build a chicken moat.

Interplant petunias, marigolds, nastursiums, and tansy w/ the tomatoes, squash, and cukes to help w/ squash bug control

Change up the varieties I plant that are more drought tolerant and less tastey to said squash bugs.

Provide trellis for the vines.

Start earler in the season, (expecting another hot dry long summer)

Attempt winter sowing.

I should write it all down, but I know I won't!

I am going to also NOT spend the first part of the year building 12 raised beds like I did this year. Maybe it will give me more time to think about what I plant next instead.

I am going to grow less tomato plants as they are WAY too tall in beds that are already 16" off the ground.

I will keep the trellises I have installed because I think they worked well, but try to find a way to change the location of some of them. I did end up rather 'crowded' going in between rows toward the end of this year.

I will grow less starts. I had so many that even though I gave some away, I ended up sticking some extras into places where they got too crowded as a result. If I start less, I won't be tempted. I....um....hope.

I will find a better place to put my purple sweet potato vines next year so that they don't take over the inside of an entire raised bed greenhouse. Even though I love them, I could have grown peppers very well in that place instead.

There's lots more, but I could go on and on and on.

Angie (Thinking maybe a journal is NOT such a bad idea)

I'm going to use every inch of my fence to grow shellout beans.
I've promised myself I'll produce enough for real, practical winter calories, rather than a couple of meals.

Next year's ambition is modest: a better pea trellis. Using brush was fun but labor-intensive and not very attractive.

Longer-term:

• Build a shed for tools and power equipment.
• Start some seeds indoors. This year, I direct-seeded nearly everything, and even those that germinated got off to a slow start in spring.
• Experiment with season extension using cold frames, heating cables, and low tunnels.
• Do more preserving, especially freezing and root-cellar storage.

I've got new raised beds ready to install in my front yard for my big veggie garden plans :)

Also- didn't plant a singe flower this year- maybe throw in a few perennials now, before it gets too late!

1. Grow more cabbage.
2. Tomatoes all in the raised bed and peppers only in the east garden. Got some of both in both places; tomatoes love the raised bed, peppers - not so much, and vice versa.
3. Figure out a way once and for all to keep the chickens out of my herb garden (there's an Arborvite at one corner that makes putting up a fully-enclosing fence next to impossible, but I WILL find a way!!!)
4. Hold my breath, stamp my feet, throw a hissy fit, whatever it takes to get DH to let me have a compost tumbler!!!

Edie

start earlier!

Start more - more things, more varieties of things,

get in with succession planting.....

do more biointensive/get more from smaller spacing....

Try companionship planting. Read about it years ago in Mother Earth News and never did it! Start the garden on time. Plant flowers in the garden to attract pollinators. Put a birdbath near the garden to attract birds to eat the bugs! Till the soil and let it rest at least 3 weeks before planting. Solarize the soil in the summer to kill weeds and bugs. Plant more things I like to eat. Most of the stuff in the garden now is for hubby's palette.

Kassaundra, be careful about planting nastursium IN the garden area! They reseed and WILL take over your garden!
Same with morning glories! Nancy

Nancyjane I think it depends what kind of nasturtiums because I haven't seen any seeds from mine. I planted a "jewel mix" and was hoping to collect some seeds and so far there's nothing.

* Be more diligent in pruning the tomatoes so they aren't all over the place by August
* Be smarter with succession planting of beans
* Figure out why my peppers are so pathetic and grow a nice crop of them
* Figure out how to keep the powdery mildew at bay (yeah, right... :))
* Finish the flower bed in the front of the house
* Plant the flower bed in the back of the house
* Clear the shrub bed on the east of the house
* Plant the clematis on the east of the house

Thanks for the warning nancyjane. It can't be worse then the runner grass I currently am at war w/!!! lol At least I can eat it, unlike the runner grass. Seriously I will be aware of that.

I need to add keeping a garden journal to my list. There were a couple of other things but I can't remember them right now.

Second the "new and even more ingenious plot to eradicate the cucumber beetles" and add squash bugs and borers to the list.

Second or third the notion of better secession planting. I did do some of that with my beans this year, but could do better.

Learn how not to let better let viral disease go rampant among tomatoes and peppers. I did spray fungicide but stopped for 2 weeks and the tomato viruses took over. I need to practice better cleaning of tools so as not to pass it on... as well as not touching ALL the plants once I touch infected ones.

Don't plant scallions and then plant beans in front of them so they get no light!

I'm sure there's more...

Plant more :-)

nancyjane, my favorite pole bean is Spanish Musica, from Rene's Garden, not far from you. Just be prepared that they grow 15' so have a long enough trellis ready.

not sure what my plans are for next year. If we can save up enough to build a retaining wall and level the side yard, I might actually be able to grow veggies in the ground/raised beds instead of earth boxes!

A good, solid structure for my tomatoes. No more of this piddling around with stakes and ties. A bit of a change up in the varieties of tomatoes I grow. More beets for certain. Different peppers that I am going to start MUCH earlier. Enough pickling cucumber plants to not have to mess around gathering and keeping enough fruit for one pint per week. Basically if I get the double plot in the community garden that I am hoping for it`s going to be more of most everything.

FIND my notebook that I was going to "journal"in, at least to keep notes all in one place!
I end up with stickey notes all over the place with notes no one understands so they end up getting thrown away! LOL.
At least if I keep a notebook near the computer, I'll have an idea of the gobbltygook I scribbled, and maybe sort it all out one cold February day! (yea, right!) Nancy