Peaceful Forest Homestead 2011 Garden Plans

Raised beds in the back yard under the white stuff!

This year's garden is long gone. But it was a good gardening year for us and one of the best we've had in all the years we lived here. Could be I am more experienced now. The worst thing that happened this year was the Late Blight hit my tomatoes for the second year in a row. I told about it in this post, Late Blight Destroys My Tomatoes Again! This coming year I am planning on giving my garden a rest from tomatoes. I will buy them from the farmer's market this year. 

The funny thing is that both years I have done what they tell you to do. I pull up all the plants and take them to the land fill. But I still got the blight this year. My father on the other hand, had the blight last year and did not take his dead plants to the land fill. He just threw them in his brush pile. This year he had good tomatoes and never got the blight. It made me sick as my tomato plants were beautiful.

I did manage to get a lot of cherry tomatoes and we ate the fresh all through the late summer and fall. I did not plant these and they grew in my raised bed that the year before had grown garlic. So at least we had some for salads.

Raised beds under the snow in the side yard.

This coming year's garden is already in the planning stage. I started lots of my seeds in the house last year, even the ones I don't usually start inside. I was thankful I did that as I got a real good head start on the garden. The zucchini, yellow summer squash fed us all summer. The winter squash fed us all through the fall and now we are using the ones I canned like the Hopi Pale Grey Squash and pumpkin.

I am checking on my seeds since all the catalogs are now arriving daily. The main thing I need to do this year is to purchase some blueberry bushes. I have wild ones all around me but they are a very small berry. I want the big ones with larger yields. Strawberries are another thing I'd like to work on. I had trouble with my first strawberry bed as they were in a circle and they just kept putting down roots and it became a big mess. I pulled them up and took them out of there. I need to research how best to do them. My father grows them in regular garden rows. He doesn't use raised beds at all.

I am making a list and will make good use of every inch of my raised beds and gardening areas. The plants we grow must be foods we really love and will eat. If I plant anything new, it will be only a few plants to see if it is something I want to invest my garden space in. I guess you could say I am eager to get into the gardening mode again. It is a lot of work, but the enjoyable kind. What about you? Are you planning your garden already? What changes are you making this year?

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Updated 2018