Gardening Goals for 2015

I actually quite like January. It’s one of those fresh and bright months full of potential. I already put all the Christmas decorations away and it feels good to start the new month with everything back in its place and looking newly dusted.

It’s the same in my garden. All the leafy messiness of Autumn has been cleared up and relocated to the leaf pile. The frost has dried up the mud and everything seems to be staying in its place for once. There are tiny, hard points sticking out of the ground where the tulips bulbs are, the Camelia buds are green but bulging, the Witch hazel has scatty little burnt orange twists erupting from its base and there are tiny specks of yellow on the tips of the Forsythia.

There’s lots happening, albeit very s-l-o-w-l-y.

There’s a good month to go before I’ll be required to actually do anything in the garden so there’s time to come up with a few gardening goals for 2015. Here’s my list.

  1. Plant up another one or two beds in the kitchen garden in patterns, like last year.
  2. Take photos of my Rose bushes in bloom and try to find out what they are. I have about 10 Roses planted by the previous owner. I know that some are climbers, I think one is a Hybrid Tea and one a Moss rose but the rest are shrub Roses of what origin I know not.
  3. Measure up and make some removable shading for the greenhouse.
  4. Plant an Apricot tree. I’ve always wanted to grow one and I have a spot on a sunny south-facing fence where I think I can train a fan. It’s got Apricot written all over it.
  5. Write more – not just on my blog but for magazines and other websites.
  6. Learn about an aspect of gardening that I don’t know much about, like oh, I don’t know – Ferns, or Alpines, or bud grafting!
  7. Sharpen my tools more. Because, (ducks head in shame) I really don’t ever do that.
  8. Volunteer at the Rose garden.
  9. Harvest a Lemon. I have had a Lemon tree for two years now. Almost killed it once but never actually harvested an edible Lemon from it. It’s a goal.
  10. Try a fruit I’ve never tasted before. Last year it was Plumelo, the year before it was Medlar and this year…

So, come on, what are your goals for your 2015 garden?

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5 Comments on “Gardening Goals for 2015”

  1. Liking your new look, mtp. Looking forward to reading about your escapades in 2015. Happy New Year!

  2. I too aspired to an apricot tree. When I moved to Corvallis, Oregon 8 years ago I was told by extension people and fellow master gardeners, that apricots and our very rainy spring just didn’t mix. That I might get a few fruits “one year out of ten” because blooming and pollination happened too early and it would be too cool for fruit to set. So if you find a variety that will overcome these obstacles I would be very interested to know what it is.
    I also tried lemons and until this year I would get 2 or 3 lemons on my potted tree that I kept most of the year in the greenhouse. But last year I
    decided to make a vigorous effort and either succeed or give up on lemons. A year ago October I cut the tree back severely to get rid of scale- which I find to be a big problem over the winter in the greenhouse. I moved the tree out of the greenhouse in early April and left it out until Thanksgiving. I fed it regularly and also treated for a bit of chlorosis with a chealated iron product. I harvested 56 lemons off one 3 foot tree and that was after heavily thinning twice. So I find lemons to be a rather fussy plant in this climate, but oh so worth it when the lemon curd is made!
    Good luck.

    • Thanks for the tips Carla. I will certainly try that with my Lemon tree. You can never have too many Lemons! As for the Apricot I too have heard horror stories about them. But I have a fairly successful Peach tree trained as a fan on a similar south-facing fence. I’m hoping that an Apricot will have the same requirements. We’ll see.

  3. Have one :)
    If I’m lucky, the house will be done and I’ll be able to have some fall veggies.
    Love the new site!