Garden 2014

I have been thinking a lot about next season's garden. Things I am doing differently than this season...
1) use something stronger for trellises than the vegetable netting they sell at the store
2) find a way to protect seedlings from the chickens since they fly over the fence now - probably bird netting after the row covers aren't needed
3) learn more about pruning so I'll produce more food instead of greenery - it's so hard for me to thin, I hate cutting off something that's alive!
4) take my time with a proper acclimation of started seeds - I lost a lot of tomatoes for rushing this step this year
5) try square foot gardening so things are more organized and efficient
6) do more research on what needs shade and sun
7) organize myself better for when to start what seeds and where

I have been thinking a lot about trellis systems. I ordered my seeds a couple days ago and I tried to get as many vine versions as I could find since they will take up a lot less space than the bush variety.

I got a contact that is offering some metal sheets like this... I'm going to pick some up this week. I hope to use it for some good trellises


I spent a long time on my plan. It's hard to work in sunny/shady locations with crop rotations. Luckily our whole garden gets sun just some spots get more than others.

Here's my plan. Sorry it's a little hard to see. It is dark right now when I took the picture. I think I will also put some hoops over the tomato garden so I can put the seedlings out sooner. I'm wondering if I don't have to acclimate them as much if they are in the hoop since they won't get direct sun or wind.

I'll post pics as I build the trellises.
Right now the top and bottom boxes on the right side (the bottom one isn't shown in my plan because DD wants it for her stuff) is our compost dumps. We dump all table and garden scraps in those and the chickens turn it and fertilize it. They are both about half full. Then yesterday when I cleaned out the coop I dumped their shavings between the other beds. We did this a few months ago too. So I've got quite a bit of organic material in the beds but they need some dirt. That's the next step!