Garden Evaluation: Tomatoes

Box 2: Tomatoes + Green Zebras from Box 1 (okra will be on another post)
Planted May 12
small plants purchased from hardware stores and nursery

5 varieties: 'Sun Sugar' (orange/yellow cherry tomato), 'Mr. Stripey' (red w/ orange stripes), 'Jubilee' (yellow, low-acid), 'Champion' (red slicer), and 'Green Zebra.'

These were just starting to come on when we moved. Leann said that by the end of August, she was having to give tomatoes away, because they were producing more than her family could eat.
They seemed to do much better in their own box, without having to compete with squash and everything else for space and sunlight.  We need some bigger, taller, stronger tomato cages.  The 3-4 foot tall cone shaped ones we had were very quickly outgrown, and even our 5-foot tall trellis wasn't enough.

Mr. Stripey I didn't see much of before the move.  Leann told me they had fantastic flavor, but there weren't very many of them.

Jubilee, again, didn't see any of these before the move.

Champion was an experiment to see how it compared to 'Better Boy' from last summer. At least prior to the move, yield was much less with Champion.   

The 2 Sun Sugar plants were extra vigorous and needed extra support beyond trellis and tomato cage. Delicious flavor.

Green Zebras seemed prolific, but I was never sure when to pick them, so I ended up leaving almost all of them for Leann to pick.  I don't think we tasted them even.

Secret Garden tomatoes!

This was the thrill of my garden planting!  All these "weeds" popping up in every box turned out to be tomato plants.  All season long last year when a cherry tomato was rotten or something, I often would just toss into the box for compost next year. Little did I know so many would grow in the spring! I literally must have pulled out close to a hundred plants.  They even grew their very own tomato jungle behind one of the boxes, between the box and the fence--in hard-packed, dog-run ground.  Don't know how they even survived back there, let alone grew back in the spring.

I let the one growing with my peas continue on.  It was a strange mix of the 2 cherry tomato varieties from the year before: 'Sweet 100' and 'Sun Sugar.'  The tomatoes were kind of a pink-ish color, with flavor more like the red cherry tomatoes than the orange.

Garden Evaluation: potatoes, peas, beets, onions

Attempts at Evaluating from Afar

Since I was not there for the end of the season, I'm not going to try to do the extensive evaluation I did last year.  Just a few general comments from what I can remember, plus some of what Leann told me.

Box 4: spring veggies: potatoes, peas, beets, onions
planted: March 31

Potatoes: 'Yukon Gold'
It seems like I planted one other variety too, possibly just a russet, but I don't remember. Our harvest was all Yukon Gold. Like last year, these were done by early July. Maybe with such a quick growing time, they would be a good bet for our Washington garden next summer. They got nice and bushy, as you can see below.

Peas: 'Super Snappy'
Didn't have as many germinate as I had hoped. I don't think I soaked them overnight before planting this year.  I'll have to go back to that next year. Once they grew, didn't have as big a yield either.  I planted 4 squares worth, so 32.  I maybe got half that growing. I'm wondering if it was the other variety that gave us the big yield last year.  Next year we'll plant more than one variety again.
Jacob and I enjoyed picking and eating them fresh. Big peas and crunchy, sweet pods.

Beets: don't remember variety
I need to figure out when to thin them.  They were tasty, but small. We liked the beet greens steamed, as well (tasted like spinach.) Could see us doing more of these next summer.  They were good for some variety on the table.

 All those greens with teeny-tiny beets at the bottom.

These were a little better-sized, probably because I had picked some already, thus thinning them out.

Onions: yellow
Got a few. I didn't plant as closely as square foot recommended, but I probably could have. Not true slicer size, but seemed a mellower flavor than last year.

Fall colors

 The golden leaves of this aspen in our backyard thrill me every time I look at them.  Especially side-by-side with the almost lime green and rust orange of these trees (below), plus the deep green of the pine tree here.

It has been a long time since we've had beautiful trees on our property.  

And a bonus that our neighbors have such beauty peeking over the fence on all sides.

Goodbye

Goodbye 3 trees!

Goodbye junipers!

Goodbye cottoneasters!

Wow, that felt good, and I wasn't the one driving the tractor!  Without all this superfluous greenery there is now mental and physical space to contemplate change. Our current thoughts are one retaining wall all the way around in front, with grassy slope leading down to it and flowers/small shrubs planted in front.

Part of flower bed possibilities will depend on how far back from the street the wall is placed.  We had the utility companies come out and mark lines, and we've got electric and tv lines all along in front, parallel to the street.  So I wouldn't be able to plant anything right there, unless the wall was back far enough that roots wouldn't interfere with the lines. Not sure what else we would put right there, though.  Junipers?

Garden Terraces

 It was just too discouraging digging this out by hand, so Jason rented some big equipment.

3 terraces going up the hill: just need cleaning up a little, and keystone blocks put in.

Mountain Ash

...and Diamond.
This is on the far end of our garden boxes, right at the bottom of the slope.  If it grows to its full height, it will probably shade the garden.  Which means it should come out or be transplanted. But it has such pretty color, I'm thinking now perhaps it would be worth it to transplant it to the East side yard while it's still small enough to handle.

[10/2012: recently found out this is actually a staghorn sumac, so it probably won't grow too much taller.]

Side yards

West yard.

 Jason will probably chop down these 3 pine trees.  As you can see, he already chopped off most of the lower branches.  The only gate to the back is at the top of this incline.

East yard

 Surprise! One pretty blanket flower growing next to the house on this side. Random!

Not sure what these are, but there are several right along the fence on this side. Forsythia, maybe?

 East yard overview

Standing at the back fence, looking toward the street. Junipers, one little purple-leafed tree (dogwood?), more junipers.

Front Yard [sigh]

This part of our home needs so much work! 

We have talked about renting a backhoe and just starting over.

 This little patch of goodness unfortunately is hidden by the stairs, and under the eaves, so it doesn't get any rain and hardly any sun.

I plan to transplant all three of these elsewhere.

-- closeup of lavender --

I haven't decided where to put this yet. Perhaps once we get some retaining walls and flower beds put in it can go there.

 oakleaf hydrangea--beautiful color!

I'm going to move this one to the back flowerbed along the house.

It will be the star attraction, right in the middle.

I'm hoping with some water and morning sunlight it will actually grow to fill the space.

The birthday cake style of landscaping.

Bottom layer: junipers

Top layer: cotoneasters

It's flat on top, too.

There's even a spruce tree "candle" on top!

You know, I've never really cared for junipers all that much. 

Inheriting this many (they go all the way around the side) is a bit discouraging.

This is where we will probably need some rented heavy equipment to start digging things out--which will have to wait until spring with our more important back yard projects going on. 

 Rose bushes that will also be moved prior to the backhoe coming in. 

Most likely they will go somewhere in the back yard, as well.

Not sure what these little scraggly bushes are.  Probably not doing so well due to lack of water, like most else directly under the eaves.  I actually don't mind this evergreen; not sure what it is either.

The other half of this front little bed.

Backyard Progress

  Garden Spot

Doing some digging--straight into clay! Jason has had to use the pick-axe to break some of the dirt loose.

This will be the bottom level of our terraced garden, eventually to have keystone of some kind make a short wall all around it.  We put a hold on this digging project in favor of the shed--seeing as how it will be MUCH easier to work on the garden if we don't have to carry our tools back and forth to the garage each time.

The Shed

Jason hasn't had a whole lot of time to work on this project, but he has managed to get all the blocks in and levelled for the foundation.  Tuesday he built the floor, shown here. It's not nailed together yet.

As you can see, it will step down in the middle. We'll put two doors on it, one over where Diamond is,

and the other directly opposite on the bottom level.

Top level will be for equipment storage, mostly.

Bottom level will be a potting shed for me! Woohoo!

I've got a design drawn up with a potting bench, 2 windows, a pegboard for hand tools, and lots of shelving and cupboards.  Plus, Jason plans to put in skylights. 

I'm excited to see this taking shape!