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Ozark Lady
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Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 5:28 pm
Location: NW Arkansas, USA zone 7A elevation 1561 feet

Wish books are arriving!

I am daily getting new gardening catalogs in the mail. I love it!
Oh but so many choices... and only so much space, dollars, and energy!
So, what secret forumla do you use to select what you would like to order to add to your garden?
Or do you just pick what you like the sound of and sort it all out later?
I tend to fall in the latter category, if I like the sound of it, I order it and figure out what to do with it later, hopefully, or not.

I carefully draw up the existing garden and plan it all out, then I draw up the projected new areas. Then come planting time... I can't find them, or they just don't work and I end up with a hodge-podge garden... again!

What is your battle plan for dealing with impulse buying and seed starting, versus actually following through on your carefully laid plans?

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rainbowgardener
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Hi Ozark Lady! Glad to see you back, you haven't been around here much lately!

I'm sure the seed catalogs are extra tempting for you... I have much more limitations on me because I have so little place to put things. For you, with keeping on opening up new space, the possibilities get endless... :)

I impose some discipline on myself just by setting a budget limit. This year it was $50, not spending more than $50 on seeds. (I did keep to that, if you don't count that S&H was extra :) ). I also never buy seeds without some idea of where I would put the plants.

Some people are better at planning and sticking to plans than others, but I doubt there's been a garden in the history of the world that came out looking exactly as planned... that's part of the joy of it. Personally I love "hodge podge" gardens like yours and Applestar's, everything all jumbled together and growing wild, like nature intended it.

(off the topic of seeds, but what it made me think of: My next door neighbors have a couple forsythia shrubs that they keep pruned into little meatballs. Every year when they do that it grieves me; forsythias are glorious in their natural vase shape.)

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Ozark Lady
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Posts: 1862
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 5:28 pm
Location: NW Arkansas, USA zone 7A elevation 1561 feet

I have been checking the forums, just couldn't think of anything to say. I think that I use all my alloted words up and come November and December I get quiet? :lol: Maybe a form of hibernation?

But, just like the smell of spring starts waking bears up, the arrival of gardening catalogs wakes this old sleepy bear. Somehow, online catalogs just don't have the same effect on me! I just don't dream over them, like I do the ones that smell of ink and diesel.

This year's garden is twice the size of last year... lots to plan out! But, how do you plan a no-till area that is not in beds, nor rows? We laid, bits of tree limbs down as guides to sort of have rows last year... so should I just make believe there are grids there?

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Wouldn't you still dig out paths, mounding the soil from the paths on top of the planting areas? You're going to need access, and no point in leaving good topsoil where you are going to walk around? I imagine you could pile organic matter on the paths throughout the year to breakdown and add to the soil for next year.

Advantage here is that you could make the growing areas any size or shape you want -- even spiral, double spiral, or mandala keyhole design. You could experiment until you have a really functional design, then allow them to become permanent no-till beds if you want.

P.S. I think I've been less verbose lately, too. :wink:
Now if Gixxerific and Duh-Vinci would come back, we'll have some lively discussions going. 8)

Dixana
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Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:58 pm
Location: zone 4

I planned everything out last year, and everything went to heck anyway and everything got stuffed where ever, too close together, too many of the same type of plants next to each other, etc, etc.
But guess what? It was one of my highest yielding years ever. My neighbors hid when they saw me coming :lol: Guess you can only give away so much squash and tomatoes...
I'm sort of planning this year, but really only what I want to grow so I know what other seeds I need. I already have some of my lettuce, tomatoes (though I need to replace my black tomatoes :roll: ), onion, beets, and beans. I'm not 100% sure what else I want/need aside from some other lettuces.

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Ozark Lady
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Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 5:28 pm
Location: NW Arkansas, USA zone 7A elevation 1561 feet

Last year kind of fizzled out for me. Only the very early crops (pre-drought) and the tomatoes and tobacco even survived last year.

I was back to hitting the Farmers Markets.

But, I did learn alot in my seed starting, some was great.... like celery is simple to grow at least to transplant size... and some was not great... like how to keep labels so that you can actually read them, after they get wet!

And the drought taught me, I can prevent blossom end rot, by watering twice a day during drought times.

And so my early crops will be greatly increased this year. I plan to only take tomatoes, peppers and tobacco all the way through the season, but I also plan to have a second season...

So, some crops I will be looking for short season ones... to fit my new projected schedule.



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