2025 Edible Gardening Goals

Saturday, January 18, 2025

So I looked back on my 2024 gardening goals to see how I did and what I want to strive for the 2025 gardening season for my edible and decorative garden.

 My 2024 goals were to have a plan, make it beautiful, maximize the production, attract pollinators, try new things and be proactive on pests.  I think I did decent against my goals.  My biggest regrets on last year's garden is my tomato harvest was too large again last year and my plan for the voles was not a great success.

I think the 6 goals are the same I want this year with some tweaks like maximizing production but not over producing.  I start most of my summer veggies from seed so this year, I will donate the tomato plants I don't need to my Master Gardener group for their sale.  Below are my updated goals.

Goal 1:  Have a plan.  I started planning at the end of the season what I needed to plant for the next season so I wouldn't plant too much, a variety that didn't do well, or forgetting a variety that I wanted to try.  I wrote it all down this past fall and put together my 2025 plan so I am good there. My 2025 Edible Garden Plan  What I need to make sure I have a good plan for is the lay out of the new garden beds, the perennials and placement since that is what will provide the color and structure for years to come.  I also want to be sure to have perennials like herbs that are fragrant surrounding the garden bed as deer and vole deterrent.  How to keep the deer away  I have draws out the shape of the bed along with the measurements and started putting them on the lay out to see how many and where they will all go.

Goal 2:  Make it beautiful.  My flower beds are dual purpose, production of edibles, fragrance and decorative.  Many flowers are edible, too.  Flowers that are edible  As I finalize the perennial lay out, I will make sure I have all season color throughout the beds and add in annuals to keep blooms going. I have a list of blue perennial flowers that I will try to start from seed and integrate as my husband loves blue flowers.  I tend to the bright fun colors that are mainly annuals so I can fill in around his perennials.   

Goal 3:  Maximize the production of edibles.  Continue succession planting.  Want continuous harvests? Succession planting!  Be more ruthless in pulling out what is past its prime to make room for the next round/season of edibles.  Continue to learn how to use my new pop up, walk-in greenhouse to garden year round.  Planting schedule for edibles in an unheated portable greenhouse  Continue to try different types of fertilizer to see what works best in my garden.  Continue to do soil testing and work to get pH at the optimum level for edibles, 6.5-7.5.  For my first round of edibles I start from seed, take any extras to our Master Gardeners plant sale.  The next step in garden production and your nutrition-soil minerals

Goal 4:  Attract pollinators.  As I chose the perennials, annuals and edibles, I will keep an eye to how helpful they are in providing food and habitat for pollinators.  All my pots with edibles include flowers.  Decorative container gardening for edibles  I'll be sure to have the water bath and keep the landing spot I added last year for both birds and insects.  I'm planning on adding a bee hive this spring.

Goal 5:  Try new things.  I am always seeing new varieties to try so that is not a hard thing to do.  It's more about improving all aspects of the garden.  I will continue to look for ways to improve productivity and deter pests naturally, like planting Dragon's Radish next to sprouting broccoli to deter caterpillars.  Part of my garden plan will be making sure I have a strongly scented plant about every 6 feet to deter deer.  This can be marigolds or herbs.  I also need to try new things to keep the voles out of my garden beds.  I tried using coffee grounds around the beds to deter them which seems to help some but not enough.  I have switched to using blood meal for nitrogen in the garden beds as voles stay away from blood scent.  I moved my pots of edible greens that I cover with a portable greenhouse to the concrete pad so they can't tunnel up underneath the pots over the winter.  Lastly, I have a list of vole deterring plants that I will be sure to plant all around my beds.

I'm also going to add potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions to this year's garden plan to try to reduce how much of these I buy at the store.  I'm choosing varieties that are good for storage.    

Goal 6:  Be proactive.  I live in the country so no matter how well your garden plan is for deer defense, they are going to get really hungry come spring and again in the fall.  I want to be more proactive this year in keeping my deer deterrents refreshed before they get hungry enough that herbs don't keep them out of the garden.