New England December, 2018

It's now December 2nd!

How are all of you New Englander folks doing this December?

sanderson, December for me is the beginning of research and study season in my attempt to make a good gardener better or if things go bad to have the best reasonable guess or explanation as to where and how things went wrong. Dec., Jan., Feb., affords me the time to take a serious look at subjects and topics that I don't seem to have time for from March until Nov.

Dan, Do you keep a journal or notes? The first year I gardened (and it was using the SFG method) I kept a journal and it was fun to read it during the winter.

sanderson, if you are asking me if I keep gardening notes during the season, I try but the notes get fewer and farther between as the season progresses. I start my journal in Feb./Mar. with seed germination but the information thins as I continue to germinate seeds as I beginning potting up germinated seeds. My winter research ends up in binders of things printed off the internet or on flash drives if the information is contained in a pdf. Taking pictures helps in the recall of one year to another, great years with bountiful harvests as well as devastating years are easy to remember as though they happened last week.

My memory is as good as it ever was but the recall button doesn't work as well as it once did. I should do better at recording but I get caught in should I write down what I did or I should get more done. I always seem to have at least 10 more things to do. Even when I look as if I am sitting down doing nothing, I am busy composting. Every year half way through the gardening season I have a big blow out with my gardening secretary and promise to get myself a new one next spring but the same feller shows up and I give him another chance.

I hear ya!

Dan in Ct wrote:Taking pictures helps in the recall of one year to another, great years with bountiful harvests as well as devastating years are easy to remember as though they happened last week.

I use to take lots of photos, too.  They were posted here over the years.  

Dan, feel free to post your photos in the New England thread, too.  It's fun to go through the previous year and see what happened with everyone's gardens.

My December is about estate paperwork, as was November and September.  The hurdles are amazing, ugh!  Plus getting the house repaired/painted/updated/etc.   By this time next year I should be home free to focus on my gardens again.

CC

I have used my iPad Notes to archive my journey in SFG.  It is very useful, especially for dates, varieties, pests, etc.  I really like it!

CapeCoddess, here is a picture from 2010. It was a good year for tomatoes but in 2009 I lost 46 of 47 plants to late blight. Nothing compares to late blight, not the swiftness nor the total devastation. The last plant looked like a Charlie Brown tomato plant but it survived and gave me a few tomatoes in Sept. The other plants I lost the end of July, beginning of August, in a week to 10 days.

Nice!  I am already planning for 2019...

Scorpio Rising, I will try and use my smart phone to take gardening notes, thank you. I am going to set-up a demo garden with cinder blocks, landscape timbers and grow bags on the other side of the fence closer to the road as a way to garden for those with disabilities or older gardeners who don't genuflect as easily as they once did. I also use the timbers and block as a station to sell my extra seedlings. Tried for years to give them away for free with great difficulty. Sell them and I never have enough, only in America!

Dan in Ct wrote:Scorpio Rising, I will try and use my smart phone to take gardening notes, thank you. I am going to set-up a demo garden with cinder blocks, landscape timbers and grow bags on the other side of the fence closer to the road as a way to garden for those with disabilities or older gardeners who don't genuflect as easily as they once did. I also use the timbers and block as a station to sell my extra seedlings. Tried for years to give them away for free with great difficulty. Sell them and I never have enough, only in America!

You will love it!  Make it searchable, like I titled all mine SFG something, usually plans, the year (how it actually happened!) and lessons type of thing!  

That is a great idea for the less mobile folks, SFG is made for them (us?) lol!

Dan in Ct wrote:Tried for years to give them away for free with great difficulty. Sell them and I never have enough, only in America!

That's pretty funny, Dan!

CapeCoddess wrote:

Dan in Ct wrote:Tried for years to give them away for free with great difficulty. Sell them and I never have enough, only in America!

That's pretty funny, Dan!