My garden plan for 2012 will be based on the disaster that was 2011!

January is approaching and as the cold of the winter months begins in earnest, I find this period of time is a great opportunity to sit down in my easy chair and make my plans for what I'd like to do in 2012. Like many plans we make, sometimes it's best to look backwards before moving forwards.

In this case, I wanted to review some of the challenges I faced in the spring and summer of 2011 to help me make some changes that might improve my harvests. Last year was not all I had hoped it would be as one crop after another failed for various reasons. Following is a list of some of them:

Too much moisture early on in the spring!

As a warmer than normal spring progressed in southwest Missouri in 2011, I had made a great start on plants like romaine lettuce, radishes and carrots. They had sprouted and, though still small, were looking good. Suddenly, towards the end of April, the rains came and came and came. All told, a narrow band of real estate from about the Arkansas border north, up to Ozark, got upwards of thirty inches of rain when fifteen would have been more the norm for the three month period Mar-May. That much rain, in such a short period of time really set back the plants that didn't outright drown!

It got hot hot hot!

After the flood, came the heat of summer which was also way above normal. The month's of June through August averaged over four degrees above normal with many days topping the hundred degree mark. All that heat when combined with average moisture helped to create a bumper crop of hungry bugs!

When bugs attack!

2011 saw three waves of bugs in my garden area and that's not counting the locusts that made hearing difficult! The first wave occurred in June with the appearance of the Japanese beetle, a bug with an appetite for just about every veggie and flower. Then came the cucumber beetles followed swiftly by the squash bugs that finished off whatever crops the other bugs had missed.

By mid July, I had retreated into air conditioned comfort and contented myself with watching the carnage through a window that over-looked the back yard. Outside I could just make out the audible crunching sounds of thousands of insects who were busy reducing my plants to stems and twigs.

After a bad year like that, I plan to make some changes in the 2012 garden that will be posted later in January. Happy gardening!