Gardening from 2015 to 2016

Back on  Jan 1st I wrote a list of things I wanted to achieve in 2015.  With one day to go I thought I'd better revisit the list and see how I did ...

Success - I did:

• Source a quince tree
• Grow some fruit bushes from cuttings to expand my fruit bed
• Grow ornamental chillies and melon pear for the first time
• Grew more beans for drying
• Initially keep up with the weeding

I sort of succeeded but ...

• I have yet to actually plant the quince tree
• I have yet to transplant the fruit cuttings
• My melon pear produced no fruit but I am going to try and overwinter it to see if it'll so anything next year
• My weeding failed from mid August after I hurt  my back but was good up to then.

I failed totally

• To create a paved area in front on the polytunnel
• To prune the fruit trees
• To actually grow cauliflowers worth eating.

I reckon that's about a 50% success rate!

Garden Plans for 2016

• Create that paved area!
• Admit I can't grow caulis and grow other things instead.  This year our Christmas crackers didn't contain the usual mini nail clippers and golf tees but something far more useful - packs of seeds.  I may have lost both the crackers I pulled but I made sure I gathered up all the seed packets!  I also bought several packets of new (to me) chillies when I was at The Eden Project in October and I am about to go online to source some different pumpkin varieties.  Has anyone any other suggestions of new things I should try?
• Plant the quince tree, fruit bushes and prune the fruit trees
• Make a new strawberry patch, growing them through weed suppressing fabric.
• Dig out the 1/3 of the autumn raspberries that never fruit well
• Make better use of my comfrey plants - use the leaves to make liquid plant food and/or mulch.
• Write for Living France magazine! (More of this one later ... )
• Succeed in growing more than about the 5 parsnips I grew this year - I have a cunning plan to achieve this - more of that later too!

Every year I pray everything I sow or plant will do well but after the number of years I have been gardening I do know that a few things will fail or do badly each year but here's hoping 2016 has more successes than failures.  What I can say though is that our garden here at Eco-Gites never fails to cheer me.  It provides us with much of our fresh produce even if it does mean I never have perfect finger nails!

Finally, for a touch of end of year indulgence, here are my favourite pictures from my gardening blogs of 2105.  I hope you like them too.

From my Mum's Exmoor garden

The Amazing Weeping Beech at Bayeux

Fairies dancing in our Passion Flower

Colour in my piggy planter

A work in progress

Mobile manure producers

Why I do it.

I hope you had a successful gardening year and here's wishing you the very best of green fingers for 2106.