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Setting Intentions

January 23rd, 2017

As I’m looking through seed and plant catalogs, I’m thinking about what my intentions are for the garden this coming year. What do I want to accomplish? What can I improve? Where do changes need to be made? What are my goals with and in the garden?
mulching with pulled plants
One thing keeps coming up when I think through things: implementation. As I’ve lived here over the past four summers, I’ve been coming up with ideas and plans in my mind. The edible gardens have been expanded to their full size.  Now it’s time to implement plans for hedges, perennial beds, gravel patios, rock walls, asparagus beds, blueberry hedges, raspberry beds, etc.
blueberries
The good thing is that these things will all be easier for me to postpone for a year if the need arises (read this post if you’re not sure what I’m talking about). My vegetable growing efforts will be a bit more conservative and my implementation of hardscape and permanent plantings will be my focus. It should go nicely with my shifting schedule. I’m hoping I can get a lot of things checked off my list. One of the benefits of my intentions this year is that it should give my garden better structure and an underlying foundation to build on in the future.

What are your intentions for your garden this year?

7 Comments to “Setting Intentions”
  1. Nebraska Dave on January 23, 2017 at 10:03 am

    Susy, my intentions for this year mimic yours. I will be working on the garden structure and will be expanding into the third area of the garden. I am hoping to build at least two or three more raised beds, improve and expand the chicken wire and electrical fencing to double the size it is now, and continue develping the natural spring for irrigation. Well, and continue to build brick paths in the formal garden area. Many projects and never enough time to get them are completed. But then there’s always next year.

    Have a great hardscape planning day.

    Nebraska Dave
    Urban Farmer
    dbentz24@gmail.com

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  2. Misti on January 23, 2017 at 3:21 pm

    It seems like just yesterday that y’all moved to Maine! Four summers, wow! We’re about to hit five at our place.

    Reply to Misti's comment

  3. tommy on January 24, 2017 at 3:55 pm

    out of curiosity–when you lay out the line of green waste in your picture above and let it compost, do you also cover it with any dirt, or do you just leave it open to compost away over the next season?
    Thanks

    Reply to tommy's comment

    • Susy on January 24, 2017 at 4:09 pm

      I often will keep adding more to it to make a large compost pile in the garden.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  4. Whit on January 29, 2017 at 4:58 am

    Susy, I just read your post from Oct, and wanted to say how sorry I am to hear about your mom. It was a joy meeting you both at Heronwood a few years ago, and I wish you and your family as much time together as possible. May the good days outnumber the not so good ones. Will be thinking of you all very often, especially your beautiful mom.

    Reply to Whit's comment

    • Susy on January 30, 2017 at 9:40 am

      Thanks so much!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  5. Teresa on January 30, 2017 at 4:58 pm

    I hadn’t seen the October post about your mom–I’m so sorry.

    To answer the question, my intention is to figure out ways to make the garden more drought-tolerant. The water table’s still awfully low here.

    Reply to Teresa's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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