In the Garden: Harvesting tips from fellow gardeners

A short while ago, I was reflecting on how much of the gardening understanding I have received above the many years has appear from other gardeners. With that in thoughts, I asked my Facebook followers to share their guidelines for success. I was rewarded with an abundance of excellent tips that I’d like to pass along.

I’m a record-maker but Marjorie in Maine has a terrific strategy for whittling absent at projects: “I publish a to-do checklist for the backyard garden and date it. Every day, I reread the record, go to the backyard and do at minimum two matters from the list to scratch off, even while I may well do many other things.”

Sandra Rech from Indiana has gardening down to a science. “I measured our garden, figured out how numerous toes concerning rows and how quite a few feet in between crops. Then I built a chart of our backyard, with minor packing containers to represent rows and the place needed for every single plant. The chart is saved on my laptop or computer, so I can overview the earlier year’s garden, prepare the recent year’s backyard, rotate crops, etcetera. If we want to try something new, we have to figure out where to set it on the chart.”

Kimberley Seitz of Coeur d’Alene is aware the benefit of maintaining notes. “I hold a yard journal, which includes the standard info of what I planted this yr, the timelines, and results as nicely as any variables such as weather conditions, insects, etc. I also continue to keep a functioning checklist of products I want to plant subsequent yr. When setting up my backyard, I start with that record and know particularly how a lot of of each type I want, or if there are new vegetation, exactly where I want to place them. I also created a yearlong calendar that exhibits all my gardening chores by month and place them in my Google calendar with reminders. Given that they are annual occasions, I really don’t have to just take time repeating the record of them following 12 months and I will get reminded.”

A handful of people outlined the forms of containers they use for lugging materials all around the yard. “I use an aged steel, upright browsing cart that I got at a flea marketplace to roll about my potting soil or what ever else I could need in the garden,” shared Vickie Graves Jones in Arkansas.

“I use a folding wagon as my backyard cart,” Christine Piper from Chicago claimed. “I can suit two tubs for debris and applications, or haul plants, luggage of soil, tubs of mulch, etcetera., then effortlessly keep it for the upcoming career.”

As Frankie Ayer Harbuck of South Carolina, posted, “I carry most of my instruments in a tiny bucket as I walk by means of the backyard garden. If I clip or dig a weed, I have the bucket to place the clippings in.”

Rural gardener Mary Wells shared the next: “I ditched wheelbarrows and wagons for a farm sled. There are not any tires to go flat, it functions in snow for firewood and I can attach it to a using mower if the load is as well weighty.”

Karen Whitehead, who gardens in Greenacres, is generally prepared as soon as she heads outdoors. “I continue to keep my clippers in a holster proper at my back doorway,” she stated. “When I go away the dwelling, my clippers are clipped on my jeans and always prepared for deadheading and clean up.”

Isn’t it enjoyable to master useful ideas from others?

Susan Mulvihill is author of “The Vegetable Yard Challenge Solver Handbook” and “The Vegetable Backyard garden Pest Handbook.” She can be achieved at [email protected]. Check out this week’s video at youtube.com/susansinthegarden.