The sometimes magical, sometimes annoying thing about your garden is how much it changes. Things look very different in early summer than they do in November, to the point that it’s impossible to remember exactly where everything was when you start planning and planting next season’s garden. That’s why it’s essential to have a place to keep your notes from season to season, so you can keep track of every detail of your outdoor space.
Do this one simple thing NOW for success in your garden next year!
I’ve planted hundreds of bulbs and grown more perennials than I can count, but every year there are gaps in the garden. This can happen for any number of reasons: a plant doesn’t come back one year, or the garden changes on its own somehow, or I just didn’t plan for a specific corner when planting. For whatever reason, I try to walk by my house every few weeks and look at it as others would, and then document any notes in my little garden notebook. For example, I’ve worked so hard on bulbs in one area of my garden that it’s left an adjacent area looking bare. I first noticed this last year, and this year I added a few pops of color to balance it out. Even the areas with lots of color had a few gaps that bulbs didn’t fit into, and I’ve been documenting them to fill in again this fall.
The holes become more obvious at different times: in the fall I see spots that can be filled in next year so that the place doesn’t look so dead; and in early spring I see which spots are the first to germinate in the sun and plan to plant the snapdragons there. The thing is, if you asked me to remember all this when I had to plant, I wouldn’t.
I have two garden trellis that I have been struggling with for three years, trying to find the perfect vegetable to cover them with in the summer. This year I grew gourds nearby that took up half my garden. I want to remember that they will work on the trellis next year, so I made a note. I made a note that the idea of growing green beans in the middle of a raised bed was really poorly thought out, since no one can get to them to pick them, and I don’t want to repeat that mistake. I noted that I need to rethink the trellis for my sauce tomatoes, and that I need to move the bush beans next year, and that the African marigolds need their own frame. Each of these observations is pretty small in itself, but they add up, and I will enjoy my garden a lot more next year if I remember them and don’t make the same mistakes again.
