Reviewing Your Garden Year for a Better Next Season

And just like that, the gardening season is over. Or mostly over, depending on if you still have some hardy greens standing or some lettuces and herbs in a cold frame. Even if you still have some crops going, maybe it’s you that is done for the season. Take a rest. You deserve it.

But before you kick off your garden clogs, it’s worth your time to conduct a thoughtful review of the growing season that just ended. Grab a cup of tea, take a seat at a window where you can oversee your garden and spend some time assessing the year that was. What worked? What didn’t work? What did you absolutely love and what you could live without? Determining these things now can make the difference between repeating some mistakes year after year or making steady progress toward building a thriving and resilient garden.

Think of it like this: It’s your garden’s annual performance review, and you’re both the boss and the employee. You’ve got lessons to learn from both sides of the table.

 

Observe and Document

It may be too late in the season to say this, but keeping a garden journal makes the whole season-in-review process that much easier. It’s hard to rely on memory for what you planted and when, what weather conditions you experienced and what pests emerged.

If you haven’t been keeping a garden journal, the first note you should make for next year is “Buy a garden journal.” Journals don’t have to be fancy. Simply jot notes in a notebook (if you can find one with water-resistant paper, go for it). Or tap notes into a note-taking app on your phone. The perk with the latter suggestion is you can easily include photos along with your notes. Some folks use a simple spreadsheet. Whichever note-taking manner you use, the key is consistency. Record what you planted, when, what kind of soil or mix you used, possible weather conditions during the season, and so on. Whatever you can observe and seems important, write it down.

Not all notes about the gardening season need to be gathered after doing something. Quietly observing your space will allow nature to show you what’s going on. Throughout your growing season, make it a point to stroll around the gardens with open-eyed attention.

If you haven’t used a garden journal this season, all is not lost. Gather whatever information you can. Scroll through your photos on your phone—images are great at triggering memories. Maybe you posted photos of your garden’s progress to social media and included some information there. Review any plant tags or receipts you’ve kept. Sit and sift long enough and you’ll be able to piece together your gardening activity across the season. You may start to notice patterns that’ll help you refine your gardening for next year.

 

Start with What Worked

Celebrate your successes by listing what worked well for you during the season. Some of the questions to ask yourself could be:

·      What thrived?

·      What looked absolutely beautiful despite the weather or lack of your attention?

·      What crop gave you the biggest return for the amount of work you put in?

·      What plants lured pollinators to your yard and kept them happy and buzzing?

·      What soil mixes or amendments made your plants thrive better this year compared to last year?

Write down whatever comes up along with contributing factors you can remember, such as sun exposure, soil amendments, rain and watering frequency, and other environmental factors. Understanding what worked well and why will help you replicate that again next year.

 

Learn from What Didn’t

All gardeners have flops, even the experienced ones. It could be plants that just do nothing, or pests that mowed down your seedlings, or a new variety that didn’t live up to expectations. Instead of seeing flops as failures, consider them to be experiments that taught you something valuable.

Things to look at and learn from could include:

·      Container plants that dried out too quickly: Maybe adjust your potting mix next season, or is it time to set up an automatic drip watering system?

·      Diseased crops: Were they spaced too closely this season? Did you replant the crop in the same space as last year? Could a different variety that is bred for disease resistance be a better idea for next year?

·      Pest damage: Did your flea beetles devastate your emerging kale seedlings? Maybe start those seeds indoors to let them grow bigger and more resilient to pest damage before planting outside.  

If the garden was generally lackluster, maybe it was your soil. Consider getting a soil test now to help you boost your soil’s health for next season. As we said in our October blog post, amending your soil in fall can work wonders in improving it for spring planting.

  

From Insights to Action

Once you’ve documented your wins, losses, and observations, use them to guide next year’s garden decisions. Maybe you should shift your vegetable beds, try more resilient varieties, or plant more pollinator-friendly plants. Maybe it’s time to consider how predatory insects could benefit your garden. Now you’ll know to do some research on that over the winter.

If you notice consistent challenges to the garden itself, such as poor drainage or low fertility, now’s the time to enrich your garden soil with organic matter over winter. Top-dressing beds with our Biochar Blend or Planting Mix Compost Blend or using an organic cover crop mix helps build long-term soil health, ensuring your plants start strong next season.

Don’t forget that you are a factor in your garden’s success, too. What was your own experience like this year? Did you enjoy what you grew? Was your garden manageable, or did it feel like one big chore? Sometimes “what worked” is as much about your enjoyment as it is about your harvest. Have fun charting your garden path for next year! You deserve it.

 

By Ellen Wells