2020 derailed all our plans. Allllll the plans. How about you? Were your plans changed? I feel like this year just didn’t really even happened. It feels like we just went through all this past year in a blur without the traditional milestones and the things we do throughout the year happening like they always have. Does that make sense to anyone else? We enjoyed our family time more, and still had lots of fun, but it was sure a different year. This year we have some good goals for 2021.
We were so hopeful that this past year we could begin our garden at our new location and try and make lots of progress towards growing many pounds of produce ourselves. Unfortunately, due to circumstances outside of our control, between COVID and the lack of available contractors because of the housing boom we have had, we were unable to get our property graded and our lawn and sprinklers put in last year. This made it so we were unable to establish a permanent garden. The machinery would have had to go all around the areas I was thinking for a garden spot and destroyed it.
A Bright Spot…
I did manage to get a sun map made and found several spots which receive at least 6 hours of sunlight per day (we are in the forest and pretty well surrounded by big trees here so sunlight is a precious commodity!) The latest find is that the largest sunny spot is also one of the lowest points in the yard. The plan now is to have the sprinklers installed in the spring and add some dirt to the garden area to raise the soil there just a bit. This should hopefully make it so the water will not puddle up right there and bog it down. The other option is to embrace the natural slopes and put a little fountain or mini pond in that area. We are still considering what would work best.
Soggy Garden Beds
It was difficult last year to be satisfied with just a few tomatoes and peppers (I made a temporary garden bed in a sunny forest spot), but now that the things have been completed so they are able to put in the sprinkler system and the yard, we should be able to get going on the garden when spring rolls around. We are far enough north that our planting season doesn’t really start until mid-May. But this month, we might decide to start some flowers and pepper plants under some grow lights.
Restarting in 2021
Last year was an untraditional, strangely timeless year for our family. So we are hitting re-do on 2021. Can’t wait to see what we will be able to accomplish this year in the garden and around the new house. It will likely take time to build up our dirt and get some sort of fence up to keep out the deer and animals, but I am excited to get started.
Hope that you are all keeping warm and cozy and browsing through those seed catalogs. Some seed varieties are already selling out online, so get your orders in now! Here are some links to good websites that should provide some fun browsing. Happy planning!
https://www.botanicalinterests.com/
https://www.highmowingseeds.com/
Here is a good one for northern growers that I have found to be reliable. https://tripledivideseeds.com/