Gardening Resolutions for 2015

We are both into creating and reviewing our resolutions and since several of our personal resolutions have to do with gardening and sharing about gardening (to post a new blog entry each week, to keep posting on our Youtube channel, etc) we thought about making gardening specific resolutions this year. Also, when looking back at what we had accomplished last year (another ritual Holly loves to go through this time of year) we noticed that many of the accomplishments were gardening related. If you would like to see a post about our 2014 garden accomplishments, let us know in the comments.

So here are or Gardening Resolutions for 2015. We will keep you updated on our progress.

1. Document better. We want to do a better job of documenting what we are doing in the garden. We have a lovely garden journal from Moleskine but don't use it enough. Holly used to work in a research lab and kept meticulous notes about her experiments. We want to do something similar with our garden experiments.

2. More planning. When we first started our garden we read several landscape design and gardening books (Gardening Books) and wanted to plan everything out ahead of time. Well, that just seemed so daunting and we didn't really know enough about plants that grew in Florida or our particular site to make any good decisions. So the plan went out the window and we just tried stuff. Our current habit is to plant things in 2 or more places and see where it does better. We also try starting things in pots and in the ground and see how the seeds fair. We have learned a lot from these methods and so we think we can incorporate a bit of planning now.

3. Get the soil tested. Our sister got us a Soil Test Kit for Christmas last year and we have used it to understand the basics of the soil but we need to go further and get more information. We plan to visit our local extension office and see what they have to offer.

4. Automate watering. Up to now we have been hand watering everything with hoses. We like how precise this it but it does take a lot of time. In 2015 we will get our in ground sprinkler system working and tweaked to work the way we need it to. It is a simple lawn sprinkler system so we are not sure how well it will work for our beds and trees.

5. Use a rain barrel and gravity feed watering. If we are really ambitious we will get the sprinkler connected to a rain barrel as well so we can conserve water from our well.

6.  Plant with the seasons. We are new to gardening in Florida and we have gotten quite a bit wrong in the first year. We planted tomatoes too late in spring and they didn't produce due to the heat. We planted other things at totally the wrong time and lost a carambola tree to the cold. But we are learning and hope to get less wrong in 2015.

7. Better composting. We have had a haphazard compost pile for a year now and it is working pretty well but we have the feeling we could be getting much more compost if we worked at it. Building a 2 or 3 bin composting station is a big "to do" on our list.

8. Try worm composting. One way to kick our composting into high gear might be to start worm composting. We know a little about it but have to learn more and actually try putting it into practice. We have a very good source that is in Apopka called Our Vital Earth. We have met with the proprietors of Our Vital Earth and  are assured we can do as they do in their own garage, which in FL is a HOT garage!

9. Use garden bounty creatively. We are growing a lot of unusual plants and we can be so much more creative with how we use them. Take the turmeric for instance. Currently we have added it to a smoothie. That's all! There are many more ways to use fresh turmeric and it is so healthy.

10. More companion planting and permaculture. We admit to knowing very little about these concepts and yet they are so fascinating. Being in zone 9B we can (we think) grow some perennial vegetables. Scarlet runner beans and Malibar spinach are our first attempts. So what do we plant with them? What do we plant under the fruit trees so we can stop weeding? Hopefully in 2015 will get some answers.

Please let us know in the comments what resolutions you have made this year.
If our resolutions aren't enough inspiration, here are some that inspired us: Other gardening resolutions you might find interesting:

10 Gardening Resolutions for the New Year (2009)

Gardening Resolutions on Apartment Therapy

2010 New Year’s Gardening Resolutions for My Florida Garden