Memorial weekend means planting here in Maine. That being said, I am a week late because I was busy IN MEXICO. The garden was postponed a weekend, and required a lot of work. Almost all of the garden is in place now – but boy oh boy have I learned some stuff since last year.

Last year I gave a couple updates on my garden in a Steph’s Garden Series 2023 and a lot of it was me sharing the journey and tips I learned to make it cheaper and more accessible. Which is super important to us at Shit’s Not That Difficult! Something else that is super important for us is learning and growing!!

Steph’s Garden Series 2024 is going to have a lot of learning and trying to help other people learn from my mistakes. Or laugh at them. Here are some of my notable things I learned from my garden last year.

Sunflowers

Firstly, listening to the planting distance on sunflowers! I just scattered them and they were FRUITFUL. I had so many sunflowers, and they were beautiful but definitely overcrowded. Also, they were so tall and started bending over my chicken-wire fence, and covering some of my garden from the sun.

Also, they attracted aphids and Japanese beetles to the garden. As most people with a garden know, aphids are the devil and can ruin even the most productive garden given time. And don’t even get me started on Japanese beetles – we were infested! Luckily a mixture of Neem Oil and dish soap sprays were able to keep them at bay, but it required a lot of maintenance. Moral of the story, I would not mix my sunflowers with my garden again because they attracted too many bugs.

Finally, they dropped so many sunflower seeds and my spring garden was full of sunflower seedlings – which is pretty cool honestly. Unfortunately, I needed that space for the vegetables and had to pull them.

3 Sister Gardening

I still like the idea of The Three Sisters planting method and can definitely see it’s benefits. However, I think I need to master the skill of corn prior to trying it again. 2023 was my first year of growing corn and it went pretty well considering all the rain and how it wasn’t warm enough to plant the seeds until mid-June. However, I did not have corn that was ready to harvest come fall.

Also, when I try this method again, I will do it in a stand alone bed/give it more room. The squash outgrew the area I gave it because I was not use to growing it in “rows”. Usually I grow a squash in a patch, and it has plenty of room to grow on top of each other. Trying to have a walkway into the Three Sister Planting section became a huge hassle I would just prefer to avoid in the future.

Overall, Three Sisters Planting does seem like a great option to refresh the soil and grow mutually beneficial plants; however, I just need to do it better.

Pumpkins

Pumpkins are still the bane of my existence. I was able to grow 1 pumpkin last year, and I loved it dearly. Luckily, last years pumpkin failures was more a weather issue than anything. The 2023 El Nino wreaked havoc on gardens all throughout Maine, including mine.

My pumpkin plant simply was not making any female flowers to be pollinated because it was so rainy. Which sucks – but now I know! This year my pumpkins will be loaded with sun and if it rains too much, I will cover them the best I can.

Tomato trellis

The tomato trellis I made last year was a huge success! Using the string and clip method, I was able to grow 6-8ft tomato plants that gave me so many tomatoes even into October. Turns out the tomatoes love the rain and truly did not care about the problems all the other plants faced.

However, using something sturdier and more weather resistant would most likely be the better option, even if it is a bit more expensive. This year I need to buy more wood/rebuild them because they are starting to fall-apart. The construction I used is more of a 2 year solution, which isn’t necessarily my style. I love me some longevity.

Fall prep

Finally, I would prep the garden better during the fall to make my spring easier. I want to put a lay of cardboard on the soil after my final harvest and cover the cardboard up in compost. The cardboard layer is in hope of limiting weed growth and the compost layer is to add more nutrients into the garden after the growing season.

Comment and tell me about you 2024 garden – Steph

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