What will you be doing differently next year?

[TomatoDon]

The deer and coons wiped me out this year. I also planted too many tomatoes, stopping at around 2,400. The deer ad coons destroyed over half of those before they were q foot tall...just mowed them down. They nibbled every remaining plant, so 100% of my farm grown plants were damaged in some way by deer and coons.

I also planted over 400 in 25 gallon containers in my back yard and they did fine until the summer heated them up too much, then that was a disaster, too.

So, for next year, I have to get some good plans together to stop the deer and coons, I'm cutting back to around 500 or less plants, and I am growing all of them in big planting holes, lots of organic matter, 24" diameter CRW cages, and will be growing like a gardener again, not a commercial tomato farmer.

Going to put some raised beds back in my back yard like I used to have and hope to grow around 200 there, which should be free of deer and coons. I'll probably have a few relatively small plots scattered around at the farm so if I have any problems they won't be concentrated in one field. I'm an animal lover, but my most practical option is an electric fence, so I will go as light as I can with that unless I can figure out an economical way to have some motion activated water sprinklers to turn on if and when the varmints come in.

Best of luck to everyone in the coming year, and Merry Christmas to all of you.