Gardening: Reflecting On A Weird Year In The Garden And Preparing For The Next

The holidays are over and the gardening year is over. It's time to reflect on the past year in the garden and wait for spring to come.

This past gardening season was crazy to say the least. Erratic cycles of cold and hot weather disrupt the growth cycle and cause a lot of frustration, especially when tomatoes don't ripen until late September. It makes me a little bitter that I have to wait another month to eat my first bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.

The spring was so cold and wet that when it was time to plant our warm season crops, the soil temperature was still around 40 degrees, too low for plant growth. As a result, when we got to the middle of July and we got the warm nights we need to grow tomatoes, cucumbers and other warm vegetables, the plants weren't ready to flower. Almost overnight, the cold weather was replaced by warm temperatures that lasted until early September. Most of the plants stopped growing completely within six weeks because it was warm enough. The heat made it difficult to hold enough water in the garden and there were many victims.

Our warm season crops begin to bear fruit in early September, so we are able to start harvesting in late September/early October. I finally got a BLT and picked the last tomatoes at the end of October.

October is unusually warm and frost-free, so leaves are falling. Although it was nice, we didn't get much fall color.

When winter arrives in the first week of November, the leaves of many trees freeze and remain until the wind blows them away or they finally fall in the next spring. This does not harm the trees, but it means that they take more snow, which is very heavy on the branches that break.

So here we are. Snow was on the ground for two months, and two more are waiting until spring. It's a time for gardeners to take a break and read, watch movies, and enjoy other home-based hobbies while turning to tempting emails and our favorite nursery catalogs.

By the end of January, the house fever kicks in and I'll be ready to start planting seeds for spring and setting garden goals for the year.

First, I will try some of the new and unusual varieties of plants and flowers presented by the All America Selection Group. Second, since we've had two hot Augusts in a row, I'm going to try to move heat-tolerant tomatoes further south to see if they hold up better in the hot summer.

And yes, I will be telling you all these gardening adventures, so stay tuned.