Advice and Lessons from 2008

Like many others, I find myself reflecting back on 2008 during these last few days of December.

I had a lot of fun in 2008, much of it already recounted in my annual Christmas letter posted a few days ago.

I learned a lot, too.

My lessons started out in January, with some advice on gardening from the garden fairies here in my garden. I wonder if they will have more advice in 2009? I expect they will, and fairly soon, as they don’t have much else to do in January but give out advice.

Back in February, I recounted the lessons I learned from my Dad about growing tomatoes. I will always a be a ‘staker’ when it comes to tomatoes, but in 2009, I plan to see how the other half does it, by planting one bush variety of tomatoes and caging them.

In April, I left my garden, got on a plane, flew to Austin, Texas, and after three action-packed days spent with wonderful gardeners in and around beautiful gardens, I brought back a notebook full of new ideas for my own garden. I hope to bring back just as many ideas when I meet up with other garden bloggers in Chicago in 2009.

Then in May, I learned the gardening lessons from the hoes. I don’t care what anyone else says about hoes, these basic gardening tools really get to the root of the matter, when it comes to gardening and life. I plan to do a lot of hoeing in 2009.

In June, I learned the lessons of the peas. I can apply these to most anything I plant and be successful. And to think I just share them with everyone for free! I think applying these lessons to my planting in 2009 will make it my best garden ever, or at least that’s my plan!

All I learned about life, I learned from the weeds in July. Well, it’s not all I learned about life, but these are good lessons to apply in 2009.

I’m looking forward to the New Year, and I hope you are, too.

For all of us, may 2009 be our best year yet in the garden and may the lessons be easy to learn, but teach us a lot.