Time to plan! Tired Garden Newsletter - March 1, 2008

Good day everyone. While working on the site the other day and thinking about what to write about next, I decided to check on any new users. While doing that, I noticed that my newsletter now has subscribers. First off, I'd like to thank you all for being the first subscribers. This is also my first newsletter of any sort, so I am sure it will improve over time. Feel free to send me any advice you might have, and any ideas for articles to write. Just hit reply and tell me your thoughts.

Start Planning!

If you have not yet started planning this years spring garden, now is the time to do so. Spring will be sprung shortly and you do not want to be scrambling to get your garden planned out at the last minute. Sure you can just go out and start planting things wherever you want, but if you want a garden that looks nice and well planned, it takes some time to plan it out.

To start, make a sketch of your garden. Use a tape measure and measure out everything. Put in what is currently there. Put in the trees, your house, your dog house, your drive way. Everything in your yard. If you are only working on a small section of your yard this year, it is still good to have the entire plan sketched out so that you will be able to meld everything together over the years.

Now that you have it sketched out, draw in what you want to grow. I like to number each area on the large map and then draw maps of the smaller areas. I add numbers to areas on this map too. I then keep a list of what I planted where. That list will tell me that in the smaller map number 1, area 1, there is planted .... This way I can go out to the garden and say "This sunflower is the Cherry Rose". This makes it a lot easier to remember what something is when I go to collect seeds, or am having a conversation with my neighbors, or want to tell which seedling is a weed and which is my Organic Early Summer Crookneck Squash when I am not sure where I planted that squash.

Remember, it is best to plan early and plan often!

Glimpse of the future of the Tired Garden

As my loyal subscribers I will give you a little insight into what I plan with the site. That also means that you can give your input as to what you will find useful! If you have any input, just reply to this message, and tell me what you think. Your thoughts could help to shape the future of this site.

Server: We just moved to a new web hosting service, HostMonster. This means that instead of having my computer on 24 hours a day, using my electricity, it is housed on another computer that houses many other web sites. Not as much power is used over all. This meets our sustainability mission. It also means that I don't have to maintain it, and it will hopefully be less prone to downtime. This meets our keep the users happy mission.

Blog: I'm starting to write a blog. I've not been very good about blogging in the past, but I hope to do better this time around. I hope you enjoy it!

Tires: I am working a lot on the Tired Garden Test Beds this year. Last year it was just a few tires. This year there are about 30 big ones, and 15 smaller ones planned. Plus some other plants as well. While I am doing that, I will be writing up many more articles on gardening in tires. I'll also be taking video and making how to videos that will be posted on my YouTube and MySpace accounts. Feel free to add me as a friend on both sites! There will also be articles and videos on other gardening topics.

Gourds: I am very interested in gourds at the moment. It started with a flurry of gourd related requests on the plant swap group I belong to. Now I'm hooked. My newest article is an overview of gourds. I'm now working on revising it with other materials I have obtained, and am working on an article on musical instruments made from gourds. There are so many beautiful instruments. I will then start writing up articles on individual gourd species. Get some gourd seeds and join in the fun! I'll be planting apple gourds and birdhouse gourds. I'm also considering planting some luffa gourds.

Updates: I'm not very happy with some of the articles I currently have. The worm bin article is pretty bad. I will be editing these and adding more information, correcting errors and whatnot.