Garden 2007 To Do List

In my earlier post about what I should be blogging about in February, I came up with a list of "new" things that I plan to do this year in the vegetable garden to hopefully make the harvest better. I wanted to post the list again since I will be referring back to it in the coming weeks.

The original list:

• I will use companion planting strategies.
• I will grow Horseradish to keep Blister Beetles Away.
• I will build a tall fence around my corn to keep critters out.
• I will use vertical gardening techniques to grow crops on the fence.
• I will use raised beds and square foot garden beds.
• I will use the Florida Stake and Weave for most of my tomatoes.
• I will try to have early tomatoes ripe by July 1st!
• I will grow many new heirloom tomatoes!
• I will use more composting techniques including "worm composting".
• I will try for giant pumpkins.
• I will try some new vegetables and fruits that I haven't grown before.

Now for a few more items that need to be addressed BEFORE the outdoor season:

• I need to write a comprehensive list of the vegetable and flower varieties I will grow this year.
• I need to map out the placement in the garden of each plant on graph paper.
• I need to write out the calendar schedule of when I will start each vegetable indoors, and when I will plant each outside.
• I need to finish building my double-decker grow light stand.
• I need to manage all of the seed starting under the lights.
• I need to create the NEW outside beds.
• I need to build all trellises and plant supports in advance.
• I hope to make a working cold frame for hardening off the plants.

I realize that my list is pretty big. I will try to write posts addressing each thing on the list to either report that I accomplished an item, or explain my ideas. Later in the season I will report back on each item to see how I did. As I write a new post, I will update this post by making each item on the list a link to the corresponding post.

This post will become "home base" for monitoring and reporting my "to do list" progress.

Doing all of this may be more for me than for you the reader. Possibly we will learn some things together.

Happy Gardening 2007!