March Challenge for Garden Angels

**forestdale** · 03-14-2005, 03:43 PM

Every month during the growing season I'm going to set  a challenge for all our gardeners.  All the challenges will be something to do with you and your garden and I want you to report to the thread when you accept and complete your challenge.

The challenge for March is:

Identify your goals for your garden this growing season.  The goals should be something that you feel is achievable because at the end of the season I'll ask everyone if they succeeded with the goals they set.

For me,  my goal is to provide as much food as I can for my family. All my food will be produce organically.  I'm going to keep a notebook with what I spend and how much I harvest.  At the end of the growing season - which is November for me, I'll tally up and see how well I did.

OK garden angels, who's next?  

**Rowanberry** · 03-14-2005, 03:49 PM

I will.

My first goal this year is simply to grow enough tomatoes and make sauce for 1 pizza each week. My kids love it so much and if I can make that sauce and freeze it that would be a great help for my stockpile. ( October last cook and freeze)

the second goal is to grow potatoes, french beans, onions and salad stuff and reduce grocery bill.

I promise to keep a note of what I have produced each week and the average cost of buying it in the shops so I iknow exactly how much I have earnt and saved that way.

Any helpful suggestions you can make, please let me know.

**forestdale** · 03-14-2005, 08:08 PM

still waiting for more gardeners.

**Mom23boys** · 03-14-2005, 08:39 PM

We are planting a garden this year! I have been working on the plans most of today!! I am excited!!

My goal is to provide as much produce for my family as I can. To be able to can and pickle what we grow to help reduce our grocery budget.

**jlxian** · 03-14-2005, 08:42 PM

This is a good idea, Rhonda.

Goal for this season -- to produce the majority of my flower and vegetable plants from seed. I have already bought onion sets, rhubarb, raspbery, asparagus, and strawberry plants, but I think they would be too hard to grow from seed ... am I right?

Completion date -- for flowers -- June

For vegetables -- late May.
I should know by then if I have succeeded in producing most of my plants myself.

I also want to grow as much food as I can for my family. I'm not sure how dedicated I can be to keep track of everything that is harvested -- but I will try!

Is this what you had in mind Rhonda?

**TanyaMT** · 03-14-2005, 08:45 PM

My goals are:

- Apples pruned and monitored to maximize size of fruit this year (I had too many tiny ones last year due to lack of good pruning).
- Any excess apples made into applesauce and canned promptly.
- New raised bed with tomatos plus other veggies, depending on size of the bed (TBD, with DH's input since he is bulding it!)
- Herbs weeded, pruned and refreshed (some periannals), filled in with some annuals.
- Work on walkway (some progress but probably won't finish) in back yard.
- Apricot and lemon trees pruned within this month, and trees pruned around them to get more sunlight to them.

**forestdale** · 03-14-2005, 11:03 PM

Okay, we have a nice core group of gardeners who are willing to take up the challenge. It looks like we all want to produce frugal food so I suggest we take notes on what we buy in the way of seeds, potting soil, manures, mulch, straw etc. We'll work out later how much it cost us to produce our food and how much it cost us to start. It will be an interesting experiment.

I'd like to invite each of you to start a thread that will be your gardening diary. Choose a name such as Rowenberry's/Michelle's/Jean's/Tanya's Blog/Diary/Journal and document your journey through this year's growing season. You can record the date of planting seeds, planting out, your weather conditions, what you plant and how well they produce etc.

You decide whether to invite people to write in your journal, either way it will make an excellent record to print out and keep for next year. If you print them out every year you'll have a fabulous recorded history of your garden.

Jean, yes, it's exactly what I had in mind. They are great goals. Regarding the strawberries, they are usually grown from runners. You should buy virus-free runners from your garden supply store, they'll produce for 3 or 4 years. Strawberries grown from seed generally don't reproduce well, unless they're the smaller alpine strawberry. My advice is to buy, barter or swap certified virus-free strawberry runners.

**rebecca** · 03-15-2005, 04:24 AM

Don't really have the yard to have a vegetable garden. Just plant flowers.

**britbunny** · 03-15-2005, 05:34 AM

Better late that never, here are my goals:

To have a container herb and chilli garden (I have some herbs already but I would like more).

To build raised beds to finish off our courtyard look.

To rescue the funny looking fuschia and rose bushes we already have.

To find homes for the various plants we have in pots just now.

to spend time in the yard this year (I spend last year hiding from my horrendous neighbours and their kids)

not to do with plants but... to paint the garden walls.

These are pretty small goals, but I think they are the most imoprtant for now. Maybe later in the year if things are going well I might add to them, but who knows.

**baxjul** · 03-15-2005, 06:36 AM

I want to grow lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and peppers. To save on the grocery bill.

**Darlene** · 03-15-2005, 08:18 AM

Goal #1 is to be a better weeder. I hate hate hate weeding.

#2 I'd also like to identify & map out what's what in my flower beds.

#3 Try to plant more variety in my veggie garden. Hard to do with a co-gardener who is set in his ways & would grow enough swiss chard to choke an army.

**Dedlered** · 03-15-2005, 10:17 AM

My goals are to get my little bit of veggies and herbs going, which will only be tomatoes and peppers. Tomatoes are so expensive and we love them so much, I have to grow my own. It's still too cold here to plant as of yet.
Next will be my flowers, we have just bought a house and there are some beds set up but I need to plant some bulbs

**Sara Noel** · 03-15-2005, 11:11 AM

Here are some printable garden journal pages.

http://www.homesteadgarden.com/journal.shtml

**jlxian** · 03-15-2005, 11:52 AM

Originally posted by forestdale

I'd like to invite each of you to start a thread that will be your gardening diary. Choose a name such as Rowenberry's/Michelle's/Jean's/Tanya's Blog/Diary/Journal and document your journey through this year's growing season. You can record the date of planting seeds, planting out, your weather conditions, what you plant and how well they produce etc.

You decide whether to invite people to write in your journal, either way it will make an excellent record to print out and keep for next year. If you print them out every year you'll have a fabulous recorded history of your garden.

I've got a start on this at least -- I'm keeping a garden journal with the dates and names of things I've planted, but I haven't been recording prices of what I've bought. Before it gets too far along in the season, I will do that!

**DaisyLady** · 03-15-2005, 12:03 PM

Well, of course I am in on this!!

My goal for this season is to set up my new square foot garden beds. I plan to have 4 4'square beds this year. I will add a couple every year but for now I want to make sure that I can handle that much. I also want to prune and spray (organically of course) my apple trees.