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12 Specific Garden Goals for 2012

This year I intend to stick to the two general principles outlined in my last post (click here to read about using REASON and SPENDING LESS.)

I also have set the following specific goals for the coming year:

  1. Set up an inexpensive, DIY grow light system in the basement.
  2. Start as many plants as possible from seed.  (goal – start 75% of what I grow – plants or flowers – from seed, leaving me a little wiggle room for perennial/bulb purchases.)
  3. Collect plastic jugs and do some winter sowing!
  4. Label and/or map out locations of all spring bulbs as they come up this year so that I know where they all are.
  5. Label and/or map out all areas where I plant seed or plant new bulbs.
  6. Keep the fig trees pruned to a smaller and more manageable size to cut back on shade.
  7. Find a free or inexpensive wheelbarrow.
  8. Build 3 large, long wooden planters to replace the clutter of lots of little pots on patio.  Deep enough to handle peppers, basil, beans, and maybe a tomato.
  9. Make a wooden compost bin to replace the wire bin (top of which has been repeatedly bent down by the feral kitties who were climbing into the compost to sleep and keep warm!  Smart kitties! They’re using their winter shelters now, but the wire bins are bent and a wooden one would look nicer as well as being sturdier.)
  10. Grow enough green beans and cucumbers to make my own pickles…last year I had to buy them.
  11. Try growing one vegetable I’ve never grown before.
  12. Save seeds at the end of the season!
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My 2 Basic Gardening Principles for 2012

I was thinking about the year ahead when I ran across this quote the other day on the personal website of Amy Finlay, knitter extraordinaire and the voice and hands behind the incredibly wonderful Knitting Help (Thank you, Amy! You’ve made me a much more confident and capable knitter!). This is Amy’s favorite quote, and it just may have become mine as well:

     “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have  come alive.”     

     ~Gil Baile

This really speaks to me right now, particularly since I’ve been thinking about this very thing with regard to finding work.

Gardening is certainly one thing that makes me come alive, and it’s something I hope to always include in my life.  This last year in the garden was truly trial and error.  This year I have a more specific set of goals that I hope will lead to an even more productive, enjoyable, and beautiful garden.  I so appreciate the connections to other gardeners through blogging, and I’ve gotten so many wonderful ideas, inspirations, and even seeds this way – thank you, fellow garden bloggers!

My two very BASIC goals are to spend less money and to exercise reason. Seriously.

Last year I definitely overdid it in the spending department.  I was excited to finally have a garden, and boy did I dig in (pardon the pun)…into my wallet, that is. Not okay.   (You can click here to read about about one of my episodes of “wild abandon at a plant sale” which resulted in waiting an extra four months to buy a bicycle because, yes, I spent all the money on plants.) This year rather than push the limits of how MUCH I can spend, I’m shooting for how LITTLE.

Reason.  As a human being, I am evidently graced with it, and yet I seemed to have locked it into a dark closet and ignored its pleas when the next pretty plant turned my head at a sale.  Not just with regard to cost either, but with regard to things like space, sunlight requirements, maintenance, and time.

This year I intend to exercise reason.  Questions I’ll ask this year include:

  • Do I have the SPACE to add this plant, and EXACTLY WHERE will I put it? (figure it out before purchasing, not after.)
  • Does my yard have enough sunlight for this plant?
  • Do I have the TIME to take care of this/another plant?
  • Am I willing to put in the extra time and effort that this plant might require, such as digging up tubers for winter storage?
  • Does the plant need frequent deadheading/fertilizing/staking/dividing or is it a prolific self-seeder?

I intend to stick to these principles this time around and I think both my garden, my pocketbook, and I will all be better off for it!