Making Improvements

 My garden did quite well this year. I think it could have been much better if I had used my head a little more. I have been a farmer for most of my life but I didn't use that knowledge when it came to my garden. If I had gotten a soil test done at the extension service, I would have known that my garden needed lime. I always did soil testing on the farm, why didn't I even think about it for my garden? When planting crops on the farm,  seed spacing and row spacing was always considered to prevent overpopulating. I planted some things in my garden way to close. This caused lower production, smaller vegetables, and in some cases, latter blooming caused by lack of sunshine. I also made some other silly mistakes. I say silly because I know better. The soil here is somewhat heavy. Root vegetables do well in loose soil. All I had to do was take my hoe and loosen the soil every once in a while. Just like cultivating a corn field, it will slow down the weeds and loosen the ground so the roots can grow. I did this in the garden, just not often enough. My biggest mistake was planting things to close together which made it hard for me to work in between the plants. This also created a problem for sunlight to get to all the plants. The taller plants shaded the smaller ones reducing yields. I know better, just never thought about it when I was planting. Another big mistake was during the dry spell in June and July. I needed to water the garden every night and sometimes in the morning too. The problem came because I have village water here. With the hot and humid weather, the water authority increased the amount of chlorine they were using. Vegetables don't do well with a lot of chlorine. I need to make a rain water collection system and install a filter on my household water system..
  The most important thing that I learned from this year's gardening experience was THINK!!  Don't take things for granted, pay attention to the plants. These plants know how to survive in nature. With the right help these plants not only feed themselves, but they will feed us too. I need to put my experience to use and not ignore what I know to be the proper way to do it.