Garden Evaluation: Tomatoes, herbs, cucumbers, zucchini

Bottom Terrace

Rosemary, Oregano, Basil: bottom left

Planted: rosemary/basil (May 28), oregano (wintered over from last year--YEAH!)

Variety: Rosmarinus 'Roman Beauty', Basil 'Superbo'--classic Italian basil

Yield: Plenty for all of our cooking needs.

Pests, Problems, Diseases: None that I noticed.

Finished: basil is done; here's hoping rosemary and oregano make it on through another winter.

Comments: Bees absolutely loved the oregano. Once I let it flower, it was covered with bees every time I went out there. Early summer I cut it back by half and it grew back more full and bushy.

Rosemary tripled in size over the summer. I hope it lasts until next year! Basil did very well. Maybe if I get a dehydrator I will think about drying some herbs next year. (Although, if we get a hot dry spell again like we had this year, I could do it outside probably.)

I like the idea of having that be my "herb corner." It was handy to pick from when cooking, since they were all in the same place, on the bottom within easy reach. Hopefully the garden expansion project next spring won't uproot them all.

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Marigolds: interspersed throughout bottom bed

Planted from purchased starts.

Comments: I decided to plant them between the tomatoes, thinking they would get enough to sun to grow and be pretty. Nope. The ones out in front did awesome and looked really pretty. The ones between were scrawny and you couldn't see them anyway, once the tomatoes got going. So I moved them over to where the cucumbers and zucchini were supposed to be, in an attempt to fill in the bare side of the terrace. Marginally successful. Next time I need to put them in front or on the sides.

Tomatoes: bottom middle

Planted: May 28

Varieties: Brandwine (heirloom), Early Girl, Oregon Spring, 2 Sungolds

Yield: Good amount for fresh eating, plus some to supplement salsa making.

Pests, Problems, Diseases: Didn't notice pests. I had to keep them watered through the dry spell.

Finished: end of September (frost)

Comments: The Early Girl vine gave us a tomato at the end of July, which was awesome. I think having the cages to keep them up off the ground made them ripen earlier (since the sun could get to them.) I'm not sure if it was Brandywine or Early Girl, but one of them in the back produced about 3 humongous tomatoes, and that was it. I'm starting to think it was the Brandywine. They may have been awesome, but we ended up throwing them away, because they were cracked and started to go bad before we could use them. So, not sure I would do Brandywine again.

I liked the 'Oregon Spring' variety. Although it was supposed to be determinate, it continued to produce tomatoes until frost, just not as many as it did that first time. They reminded me of the 'Cougar Reds'--smaller, heart-shaped, good flavor.

'Sungolds' gave us just the right amount of cherry tomatoes for snacking on. I think the 2 plants was just right.

I think we had the right amount of plants for fresh eating this year. If we're going to make salsa again next year, we will need to plant at least twice as many to get enough ripe at all at once. Although, we found out that they freeze really well!

Cucumbers: bottom right

Planted: May 28

Variety: Bush Pickle

Yield: about 6 cukes. Total.

Pests, Problems, Diseases: These plants were quite sickly this year. Not sure if it was putting them in the same place as the cucumbers last year, or what.  We had 2 hills, 3 per hill. Of those, maybe 2 plants made it, and yield was way low. Maybe next year I'll move them up to the middle terrace and see if they do any better.

Finished: end of September (frost)

Comments: (See problems/diseases, above.) I liked the size of the cucumbers we did harvest, there just weren't very many of them. I may try a different variety next year, though, since I've pretty much decided that we don't eat enough pickles to make it worth it to can them. So maybe a slicing variety that grows a little longer would be good.

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Zucchini: bottom right

Planted: May 28 (1st try), June 27 (2nd try)

Variety: Fordhook

Yield: ZILCH!

Pests, Problems, Diseases: Um...they didn't grow.

Finished: before they got started.

Comments: Usually zucchini has garden take-over plans, but this year I couldn't even get them to come up! Not sure what the problem was. I planted the first time with maybe 2-year old seed. Nothing. So I bought new seed and planted again. Still nary a leaf to show above ground. Did something eat them? Was it the soil? I really couldn't say. So last year we were swimming in zucchini and this year we had nada.