Garden Evaluation: peas, potatoes, onions, carrots

Middle Terrace: Spring Veggies

Peas: middle left


Planted: April 3
Varieties: Super Snappy, Sugar Daddy, and Little Marvel

Yield: Not enough for a meal, but plenty for eating fresh. Of course, that could be because my little ones went out to pick and eat peas daily--sometimes twice a day. So I'm satisfied. I'm actually thinking of planting more next year so they can pick as many as their little hearts desire.
     It just so happened that some of them dried on the vine, as well, so I also harvested some pea seeds to plant next year.

Pests, Problems, Diseases: Some had a disease, I think, because only a few peas would develop in the pod and they looked a bit withered, but not sure what that was. Most did fine.

Finished: end of August--probably more like middle of August, really, but the kiddos would find a few here and there through end of August.

Comments: These did great! I think the majority of what came up was Little Marvel, the shelling pea. There were a few with edible pods, but they were few and far between. Maybe I will do both next year, with a little better separation or labelling, so the kiddos know which is which. They kept trying to eat the tough shelling pods and having to spit them out.

Also, they took down the supports, pretty much. So I may need to try wood stakes with string next year, so it can be a bit more sturdy. Thinking of putting these in on the top terrace next year.

Potatoes: middle, middle

Planted: April 3

Variety: Yukon Gold, russet, plus 1 red and 1 purple variety

Yield: Maybe 10-15 pounds? Enough that we needed to process them (frozen) so they wouldn't go bad.

Pests, Problems, Diseases: Some of the tops died off way earlier than the others; not sure why. At least one of the hills didn't grow any potatoes at all. We dug up the original seed potato pieces in the fall. I think they had too much competition from the carrots, perhaps.

Finished: end of September (frost)

Comments: I like planting potatoes. Harvesting them is even more fun! Jacob helped me with the "treasure hunt" this year. I wouldn't mind planting more of these next year, too. As long as we have the freezer space for them, they are great food storage. We eat them so much, that I'm not at all worried about using them up. Russets were fine, but I think Yukon Golds were my favorites, as far as flavor/texture.

Carrots: middle, all along the front

Planted: April 3

Varieties: Scarlet Nantes (short, fat) and Tendersweet (long, skinny)

Yield: Lots! We ended up with 10 quarts frozen, I think. Plus several to eat fresh.
Pests, Problems, Diseases: Nothing too bad. We left some in the garden too long and they got huge and split. Also, some of the huge ones appeared to have been eaten by bugs (although maybe that was just the insides of the carrot coming apart?)

Finished: August 29
Comments: These were great fun this year! We picked some of the biggest, longest carrots I have ever seen! Another bonus with carrots: they can be eaten at any stage. So when Jacob would pull some up "to see if they were ready" we just washed them off and ate them. Thanks to my little planting helpers, we had tons of carrots packed very closely together. I ended up thinning them a couple of different times.

I have never had carrots do this well, so that was satisfying. I liked having them all along the front of the bed, too, since I had to keep working on them (thinning, mostly) throughout the summer. It was convenient to have them right there. I think I will repeat that plan in next year's garden.

Both varieties had good flavor--sweet and not bitter. Of the two, I liked the Scarlet Nantes best, because they were so chunky it was easy to pull them up out of the ground, and easy to peel them, even for the kiddos. Tendersweets tended to break off when I was trying to pull them up, so then I would have to dig far down and grab onto the broken part.

Onions: middle right


Planted: April 3

Varieties: White Ebenezer, Yellow Stuttgarter

Yield: About 1 big orange basket-full.
Pests, Problems, Diseases: None noticed.

Finished: end of September (frost)

Comments: Several of my onions flowered this year; I don't know if that was good or not. When I was cutting them up, the ones that did had a really tough inner core that had to come out. I wasn't very sure when to harvest them, actually. So I need to read up on that some more.

Also, none of them got very big. Most were about tennis-ball sized or smaller. When we cut them up, they were strong! I used the food processor to dice them for freezing. Even double bagged, they made my whole freezer smell like onions. They add a lot of flavor to soups and such, but wow! Not for any kind of uncooked recipe.

It has been very handy to have them in my freezer, along with the potatoes and carrots. Since we don't have any kind of cold storage setup, I have been happy with that alternative.