2013 had some hits and misses for me and since i am home today for MLK, i find myself thinking spring and doing some research. 2014 will be my 3rd year growing in 4'x4' boxes. i expanded to a total of 16 boxes, with a deer fence around 8 boxes and the fruit trees. I really like growing this way. i got better at choosing the right seeds and spacing, i amended the soil more and researched, researched, researched between 2012/2013, using the forums a lot!

my hits were beets, carrots, asparagus, cabbage, pie pumpkins and jalepeno peppers. who knew you could grow sweet potatoes in MN?!. I am so glad i planted them.

the misses were onions(too small)/leeks/shallots, peppers(lost my first planting to frost and fruit was small and mis-shaped from 2nd planting), eggplant(did not fruit), celery(small) and potatoes(likely planted too close together and small).

squash did well until powdery mildew set in; as did tomatoes until tomato blight (??). garlic mostly rotted in the ground. corn was a huge failure and i think broccoli, cauliflower and I are not a match made in heaven.

i tried and found out i like parsnips and currently have some overwintering as i heard they are sweet tasting in early sping. not a fan of kohlrabi but i may have let them get to big. brussel spouts, well we love them in our household but how the heck do you harvest them and when? i am wondering if the fall rain made them look not so good.

apples trees and a cherry tree were planted in fall 2012 but no fruit in 2013. i planted 3 blueberry bushes and hopeful that 2014 will give me fruit. i gave away my everbearing strawberries. they just were not worth the effort.

whats interesing is that the hits and misses are basically a flip flop from 2012. mother nature being a big factor. while i am not a true SFG garderner, there are definately things that work this way for me and some things i won't do again. i did not have sucess interplanting, early crops with late crops, crops too close together, or something. it just worried me the entire season, and i don't need the added stress.

i won't plant blue potatoes again, not a hh favorite. and maybe not leeks or shallots unless i can really figure out how to grow them. garllic is currently planted in a non square plot in sandy soil. if they all grow i will have more garlic than i know what to do with - i hope i get that lucky! i will try rutabegas this year as i found out i like them. i also have plans to put in raspberry bushes. i also like kale, spinach and other leafy greens but get way more than we can eat being a hh of 2. oh yeah, herbs. i want to try them for the very first time.

i also tried wintersowing last year with my only sucess, being squash. i am going to try it again this year. i also want to try indoor seed starting for tomatoes, celery, eggplant, onions and peppers. i am hopeful that starting onion seeds will give me bigger onions. 2 years in a row with small onions is just not good! Can anyone offer advice on bigger onions from seeds???

and new tomato cages that hubby has promised to build :-)

Sorry for the long post. I appreciate all the postings on this forums. The advice i have found out here has been invaluable. I hope eveyone is having a wonderful, restfull winter. Best wishes,

Jodi