Master Gardener for October 12
PLANNING AHEAD FOR NEXT SEASON
As autumn’s frosty nights signal the end of this year’s growing season, and we gather in the last of the harvest, it’s time to take note of how our gardening efforts worked out. As one of our Extension educators put it in a recent zoom meeting, “when the seed catalogs come out in January, we’re idealists – but right now, we’re realists.” Before we have a few months’ gardening holiday, doing a bit of pre-planning and preparation will go a long way toward making next year’s garden spectacular. Here are a few things I do!
If you don’t already have a gardening journal, this is a great time to start one. I find it really helpful to list the garden projects I took on this year with a note or two about how it worked out and if I want to do it again. Planting the tomatoes in two-foot x two-foot x four-foot high “towers” that I constructed from scrap lumber that had been sitting around in my shed for years worked great. Filled with soil with the tomato planted on top, I didn’t need to stake or trellis the tomato plants and just let them cascade over the sides. It was super easy to pick the fruits. The leaves stayed off the soil, and I had no disease issues. However, trellising winter squash vines on an unused clothesline was a no-go. Definitely didn’t meet my expectations! Take a moment to reminisce about your gardening year and jot down some notes.
I also plan to go through my seed collection and discard any seed varieties that just don’t appeal, as well as seeds that are more than a few years old. That marigold variety that looked so cute on the seed packet, that grew into a huge plant with a few tiny flowers? That one is going in the trash. The heirloom lettuce that looked and tasted amazing? I’ll write a note on the packet to definitely plant it again! As a side note, I like to write the year the seeds came out on the packet in big, black numerals so I don’t have to go searching for it.
Regarding seeds, every year Master Gardeners from around the state participate in seed trials in which we grow and evaluate several varieties of various vegetables, flowers and herbs. When you’re perusing those seed catalogs and trying to decide which varieties to try, have a look at the seed trial results, which you can find at https://sites.google.com/umn.edu/mnmastergardenerseedtrial/seed-trial-results?authuser=0
The results are based on how well the variety grew and how it tasted. Since seed companies vary the varieties they offer from year to year, you might have to google the name of the variety to find which company is carrying it in 2027.
Here’s another thing I do that has worked well for vegetable garden planning purposes. On an 11” x 17” piece of graph paper, plot out your garden space to scale, drawing in any structures like trellises or raised beds that stay put. Get this laminated. Use a white board marker to draw in where you want various plants to go. If you change your mind before next season, simply erase what you have and put in your new ideas. Alternately, you can cut out pieces of graph paper representing the length and width of your row or space where you intend to plant a particular vegetable to tape to your layout in the appropriate area. Now, at the end of the season, you have a record what you planted where. You can plan next year’s crop rotation easily by moving pieces to a new location (or re-writing the name in the new location).
Before a hard freeze is also a good time to visit your perennial flower beds to note anything you want to move to a new location in the spring. My asters are overshadowed by the showy goldenrod, which grew much taller than expected! So, I’ll be moving the asters into a more prominent position next year. If you’ve got any “end of season” questions, our hotline is available until the end of the month!
The Beltrami County Master Gardeners operate a “Hotline” for gardeners who have questions from March 1 through October 31. Please call 218-444-7916 and leave a message with your name, phone number and a short description of your question or problem. Your call will be returned as soon as possible.