Terra Nova Garden Plans for the New Year

Well, here we are already into February of the new year. My mind is roaring with garden thoughts and ideas for this garden year. Some are a continuation of projects from last year and others are new ideas. Regardless, there are always more ideas, desires, and wishes than time to make them happen. Many things will be put into practice this year from what I learned last year.

The first couple weeks of January were actually relatively mild with temperatures above freezing almost every day. Alas, it was not be for very long. Storm Jonas came along and brought about eight inches of snow but it was slow enough not to cause too much slow down of the city where I live. Two weeks later, however, along came Kayla. That snow was heavy, wet, and crippled the city even though it was only five inches. School was cancelled for two days. I never had that luxury when I was in school. Yeah, we aren’t going there. Of course the grandson living with me hooted, hollered, and did a funky dance when he heard the good news especially on the second day. Life is now back to normal. The groundhog didn’t see his shadow so Winter is supposed to be over but old Phil’s record has not been the best for predicting the end of Winter so I guess we will just wait and see. Well enough of that. Let’s get on with gardening.

I planted these buckets about a month ago just to see if I could grow some greens during the Winter months. On the left are radishes and on the right are lettuce plants. I did a dumb thing and planted an entire package of seeds in each bucket. I think each seed germinated twice. I’ve thinned out the plants several times and still they are continuing to fill up the buckets. A long time blogger friend just promoted a book on growing Winter greens. I was doing just that and didn’t even know it. It’s not about growing plants to maturity but just sprouting greens in soil instead of in a jar. These that you see here are ready for harvest. Nice. I’ll be starting the onions and cabbage seeds next week.

I have big plans for Terra Nova Gardens this year. With multiple protection layers around the sweet corn area, I just might be sinking my teeth into a juicy ear of sweet by August. The last four years the deer and raccoons have devastated the corn patch down to the last kernel. I just have a few holes to plug in the finished fence and it should be relatively secure. If nothing else gets completed this year the sweet corn fortress will. I’ve worked on the big fence for three years and finally finished it this last year. I talked about the sweet corn fortress in the last post. If you missed it click here to see it.

I have been scanning the apartment dumpsters this Winter to acquire more tear out carpet for weed control. I’ve found enough to cover another 32 X 32 foot area which will become the vine plants this year. The carpet will be laid out with two foot planting strips uncovered every 10 feet. I suspect there will be about three of those that are 28 feet long. As the vines grow, the carpet will be rolled up exposing more soil surface. Vines need soil to root their nodules along the vine length. Hopefully, I can keep the vine borers at bay and perhaps get some pumpkins, watermelons, and squash for harvest.

The fourth section of the garden will just be covered by carpet to keep the weeds down this year. Future plans for three more raised beds, an 8 X 8 foot storage shed, and a cold frame are for this area but that will have to be for another year.