*sigh* tomatoes, beans, and squash
Mint leaves ready to dry
Archive for September, 2011
29 Sep
You Grow Your Own Food? Harvest 9/26/11
Look, tomatoes, beans, and squash....and marigold seed heads
24 Sep
You Grow Your Own Food? almost end of season summary
Gardening is setting yourself up for failure. Not all plants do well each year. It goes in waves, what you got a ton of last year may not even give you a crop this year and vice-verse. Gardening is also constant learning. Seeing what works best in your area. Watering, fertilizing, when you start the plants, how you start the plants. It may look like I kicked butt in the garden this year, but I did not have success in everything. In fact I’d say most was failures but the successful crops offset the failures. I really need more space to grow all I want. And I need more time. The weeds got the better of me yet again. The squash took over the beds and the aisles so I couldn’t get into the garden as easily as I wanted. I’d love to get drip irrigation in to prevent all the powdery mildew I get from top watering, but it is cost prohibitive for now. Slugs were horrible once again. Unseen bugs really hit beans and some of my squashes pretty bad.
Here are the plants I grew this year and how they did:
Tomatoes
The tomato seedlings got mixed up this year so I wasn’t always sure which plants I was planting in my garden or if I even kept all of the types I wanted.
Cherry-only a few plants that did well
Black Cherry-lots of plants, most of our tomato crop
Pink Stuffer-two plants, a few tomatoes
Bonny Best-not sure, got a number of red tomatoes
Yellow-a few plants a decent amount of tomatoes
Sweet Olive-a couple plants, a decent amount of tomatoes
Debararo-a couple plants, a few tomatoes
Red Grape-two plants, a lot of tomatoes
Eva Purple Ball-no plants
Red-not sure, got a number of red tomatoes
Summer Squash
I lost control of a couple of the monster squash and the other squash suffered for it. Then the powdery mildew and the vine borer. But we still got a lot of squash. Too many winter squash, not enough summer squash.
Pattypan- a few plants made it, a handful of squash
Tromboncino- a few plants a lot of squash
Costata Romanesca- few plants, a handful of squash
Coosa-plants just disappeared, no squash
Eight Ball- a few plants, a decent amount of squash
Caserta Zuke- a lot of plants, a decent amount of squash
Horn of Plenty-a couple plants, no squash made it
Winter Squash
See above about squash.
Luffa- plants disappeared.
Green Striped Cushaw-plants disappeared.
Sweet Meat- a number of plants, a decent amount of squash
Jack-o-lantern- a few plants, a decent amount of squash
Baby Bear Pumpkin-a few plants, a couple squash
Table Ace Acorn-a few plants, a few squash
Butternut-a few plants, a few big squash
Delicata- a few plants, a few small squash
Melons
Never had much luck with melons, mostly novelty planting.
Cantaloupe (seeds saved from farmer’s market melon)-plants disappeared
Sugar Baby Watermelon-one plant made it and produced a bite sized watermelon
Honeydew (seeds saved from market melon)-plants disappeared
Greens
Most greens did really well. Still can’t get spinach to grow which is a shame, as we want tons of that.
Salad Blend-lots
Cabbage-lots made it but bugs got to them
Salad Bowl Lettuce-lots
Buttercrunch-lots
Bibb-lots
Iceburg-none made it
Outredgeous-lots and lots
New Red Fire-lots
Tatsoi-none made it
Giant Noble Spinach-none made it
Bloomsdale Long Spinach-none made it
Simpson Elite-lots
Cucumbers
Cucumbers did really well until it got hot. Made 28 quarts of pickles final count I think.
Burpless-lots
National Pickling-lots
Miniature White-none made it
Genuine Slicer-lots
Homemade Pickles-lots
Beans/Peas
Peas did great. Pole beans did great, bush beans not so great. The bush beans went into new lasagna beds and I don’t think there was enough nitrogen for them. I will use innoculant from now on I think. Usually the second year for lasagna beds do much better. I learned that pole beans do not quit but also do not like metal poles. I’ll have to get some good bamboo for next year.
Random (seeds saved from beans grown too long last year)-didn’t plant these.
Contender green-miniscule crop
Brittle Wax-never saw
Shell Pea-huge crop
Mammoth Sugar Pea-huge crop
EZ Pick green-never saw
Purple Trionfono-huge crop
Pencil Pod wax-miniscule crop
Yard Long-small crop
Rattlesnake Beans-huge crop
Other
Asparagus (seeds saved from flowering asparagus)-looks like they did ok.
Mary Washington-looks like they did ok
Raveena Eggplant-plant disappeared
Amaranth (seeds saved from last year’s crop)-pretty decent crop, plants not as big as usual but a number came up.
Kolibri Kohlrabi-decent crop
Kohlrabi-white vienna-decent crop
Cayenne Pepper-plants disappeared
Fordhook Chard-never saw
Redbor Kale-small crop
Henna-never germinated
Winter Keeper Beets-small crop
Celeriac-never saw
Carrots
Bad year yet again for me with carrots. The weeds overtook the beds, I couldn’t keep up. There may be some carrots out there to harvest yet, but not nearly enough.
Tendersweet-TBD
Navarino-TBD
Salsify-never saw
Parisian Carrot-TBD
Fakir Parsley-never saw
crème Delite-TBD
Corn
Lousy crop. Got a bunch of stalks but tiny ears, not even harvest-able.
Xtra Tender
Frisky
Brocade
Herbs
Cilantro Caribe- disappeared
Coriander- disappeared
Vulgare Dill- tiny crop
Italian Basil- never got big, but got harvests
Minette Basil- never got big, but got harvests
Basilico Basil- never got big, but got harvests
Stevia (seeds saved from current plant)-none germinated, but main plant came back really well
Flowers
Marigold-lots and lots of seeds saved
Zinnia- small pots, did ok
Bluebells-small bed
Wildflower Mix- got some really neat looking plants
Lupinus mixture- a number of lupines came up
Lavender Vera-looks like I have an established bed, we’ll see next year.
Fall Garden
Peas going strong
Kohlrabi looks to be doing well
Turnips should give us a crop
Might get cabbage if bugs keep out of it
Beets look well
Might get some kale if the bugs leave it alone
11 Sep
You Grow Your Own Food? Squash processing night.
Squash cubes and roasted.
Peeled and ready for processing
Processed, ready for measuring and storage
In bag for freezing
28 cups of squash ready for cookies, cakes, and pies
And of course squash means toasted squash seeds!!!!
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