What Would I Do Differently ...

... in the garden, that is. It's late July, so everything's reaching a pretty mature size, giving me a better idea of what I could have done differently from a planning/layout standpoint. I'm not unhappy about any of the choices I made, but all gardeners are constantly thinking about next year, right?

So, what would I have done differently?

• I love how well the tomato plants are doing, but they've sprawled all over everywhere and have been a little difficult to coax into place. So next year, maybe I'll plant them inside the trellis, instead of planting them outside and then trying to lash them to the trellis.
• A similar idea: I might do a little more pruning early on to make sure the main stem of each tomato plant is plenty strong -- I've lost a couple of branches in storms or wind.
• I'm also kind of wishing that I thought more about which bed I put the tomatoes in. I'd forgotten that you're not supposed to plant them in the same place two years in a row because rotating them helps prevent disease. But because all the other areas of the garden have perennials, there's not much room to add tomatoes to them next year. So that's something to ponder.
  
• Next year, I'm definitely trying some more vegetables. I love my tomatoes and all the herbs, and I'm waiting for my red peppers to ripen, but the Awesome NeighborsTM are already starting to see zucchinis and cucumbers, and I'm jealous. :)
• As I'd mentioned previously, I planted a number of sunflower seeds. I put them in the back bed (near the driveway), but when they emerged, their leaves were so huge that they didn't look good with some of the more delicate foliage in that area. So I moved them to some of the corners near the house. That's all well and good, but in transplanting the emerging plants, I also accidentally transplanted a couple of sunflower-sized weeds with remarkably sunflower-like leaves. (This was the day I got the heat exhaustion, so that's my excuse.) I realized my mistake and yanked the weeds up a bit later, but one goal for next year is not to mistake weeds for the real thing. Oy.

Here's one of the three spots where the sunflowers were moved.













And here's one of the weeds I accidentally transplanted in with them. It was only after these weird little buds formed that I realized what I'd done.

• This is something I'm trying yet this year: no gardening when it's too hot. It wasn't just me that needed lots of recovery time after I did all that transplanting on a 90-degree day -- some of the plants took weeks to bounce back. I pruned some of the annuals back really hard and gave them extra water, and they're finally starting to rebloom. So next year -- and for the remainder of this season -- I'll be much more cautious about doing any real gardening during or just before a hot spell.
• Then there's mulch. Up here, the rule of them is to mulch around June 15. The soil is warm enough by then, and a good layer of mulch really helps hold soil moisture and subdue weeds. Unfortunately, the garden sort of has to be "set" before I can mulch, and I'm still moving stuff around. I think I only have a little more rearranging to do, but until then, I can't mulch -- and that means I'm missing out on some of the weed-fighting and moisture-retention benefits of mulch. So the goal for next year: have everything in place by June 15.
  
• Finally, I think I'll spread things around a bit more next year, as opposed to having them as compartmentalized as they are now. For example, all the flowers and shrubs looking great in the corners right now, which makes the tomato beds look really boring, despite my having added some thyme as an ornamental groundcover in those areas. So next year, I think I'll include some smaller flowers (maybe Gaillardia?) around the base of the vegetable plants. I'd also like to spread out the alyssum a bit more. It's spilling beautifully over the bricks surrounding the beds, but I only planted them in patches. Next year, I think ring everything in alyssum.
  

So this winter, when I'm making a bunch of new gardening spreadsheets (I wish I were kidding), I'll have to look back at this post to remember what I need to do for 2008.

Oh, and the RSSIMHRN for today: nothing -- and I'm kind of enjoying the peace and quiet, actually. :)