Vegetable garden, v2010

Here are some things I'm trying this year, based on my reading about square foot gardening (SFG hereafter) and, to a much lesser extent, permaculture:

• better timing of starting seedlings, transplanting, and planting seeds. I made a calendar with our zone's first and last frost dates, and a running tally of how far away we are from each date. This, combined with a spreadsheet that lists planting times and seed-to-seedling projections, suggests a timeline that should improve my yield.
  
• more frugal use of seeds through reduction. SFG teaches not to oversow and thin later, but instead intentionally seed the number of plants you want.
• more frugal use of seeds through preservation. Keep the seeds not sown above in a vacuum and in the fridge.
  
• more frugal use of seeds through propagation. I've grown small lemon and grapefruit trees from seeds saved after eating the fruit and it was a lot of fun. I saved some apple, pear, bell pepper and jalepeno seeds to try out this year. They are probably hybrid and will not yield as expected, but no harm no foul.
• More vertical growing for tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, etc. They will be in the northernmost position in order to avoid blocking sunlight.
• lining the bed with a newspaper mulch to block weed sprouts, retain moisture, and increase carbon over time. I used a 3-4 sheet thickness, and covered with some partially decomposed leaf matter.
  
• Increased use of heritage/heriloom cultivars to increase biodiversity and increase the chance of seed scavenging.
  
• separation of similar plants to discourage pest feasting
• better planning for light preferences of the plants. Now that I've been here for 2yrs I have a better feel for how the light moves around the arable land.
  

Dreams for the future:

• some hens and chicken tractor.
• increase garden area (reduce grassed area)