Dear Future Self

Dear Future Self circa May 2015,

Every year you say you are going to do this, but you never do.  It is seriously maybe 15 minutes of work  yet every year you forget what plants comes up where, what needs to be thinned and where to focus your efforts. For once would you please just take some notes so you are organized next year? So you can channel all that delightful Spring energy where it will really count?

Here are all your 2014 random ideas for your gardens next year…..mostly steeped in reality…and a few…well….

Plant more lettuce! June and July was great eating…but we could have used much much more! Remember Sept lettuce=bitter horrible russian roulette of lettuce eating…eat all of the lettuce before August. However, should you forget this…chickens apparently love horribly bitter lettuce greens….

Plant WAY more kale. Can’t believe all the things you can sneak it into, and we loved it! Buy more ‘kale plugs’ at Monona farmer’s market and don’t forget there are garlic heads at that end of the box. Don’t plant anything else there! Hope that lemon thyme comes back…boy that is good…

Create LARGE garden for all things viney at back of yard. To include squash and pumpkins. Should be great soil since compost piles were there for years.

Don’t co-mingle squash with anything other than pumpkins…it takes over everything! This is ONE squash plant that took over an entire 4′ box and went out of the box in every direction. Remember…it killed the kale?!?!

Immature butternut squashes are phenomenal in tempura and pan fried….just sayin…don’t forget this next year.

Plant more zinnias and try sunflowers already! Remember how great it was to have fresh cut flowers? That patch gets great sunlight! Remember to extend down the fencing too so the poor hostas that the chickens decimated may have a chance.

Think about fencing in a nice shady hosta garden in this spot of deadness. Would need a lot of dirt…and some sort of containment device for said dirt…and some sort of keepy outy device for chickens who want nothing more than to kill your ever lovin hostas. And for the love of all that is good, paint this furniture already!

Hey! Remember this? It used to be the only garden on the ranch. Now it sits mostly unloved. Clean it up already so you can thoughtfully forget about for a few more years.

Um, yeah every year you wonder if this hosta bed needs to be thinned out. Yes, yes it does. Get at it in the spring before they become this unyielding thicket.

Yes, those tiny little hostas aren’t getting any bigger….perhaps move them (yet again) to someplace they can be seen??

There is nothing pressing to do in this box so leave it alone. Walk away and go work on that hosta mess will you?