This year my garden was actually all built from the beginning of the season.
It was amazing!
Overall, it was a decent year for the garden.
Like usual, some things were winners and some...not so much.
We'll talk about that as we go.
youngest son's plot, mid-June
The biggest change was allowing my kiddos to have space for gardens of their own.
Although it cut into some of my prime real estate (especially since I gave them the spots on the bottom terrace), it was great fun to see their little plots prospering through the summer.
They seemed to enjoy picking their own veggies and flowers, too.
I also tried pea sticks! And pole beans on bamboo supports.
So, for a little recap:
I got the spring veggies put in late April (4-23), and planted potatoes (including a random sweet potato that was growing leaves in my potato bin), peas, swiss chard, beets, and spinach.
Onions went in about a month later.
Summer veggies were planted earlier than usual, by May 24.
We put in tomatoes, thyme, basil, marigolds, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, mini pumpkins, and three colors of beans. Also, some zinnias.
Challenges and Successes:
Bring on the Heat
Cukes and zucchini loved the hot weather!
We had hot weather come early this year. Where usually it's stays fairly cool until July (temps in the 60's and 70's), it was already blazing hot by mid-June.
All of the spring veggies, with the exception of the potatoes, really suffered from the heat.
Peas did the worst: they were spindly, and didn't even start producing until mid-July. When they did, it was a few pitiful (but delicious) handfuls. They simply wilted!
Beets did better than last year, but still not great. We had some grow bigger this year than before, and had enough for some meals inside, as well as some for making canned pickled beets.
The kids got some spinach and swiss chard from their plots. Mine were only about 3 inches high when they bolted, so I yanked them out and replanted with beans.
Also due to the heat, the basil went to seed way early, before I could get out there to harvest it for drying. Surprisingly, the sweet potato didn't do as well as I thought it would, even with the high temps.
On the plus side: With the heat we had a great year for cucumbers and zucchini, as the picture above can attest. Also, every time I pulled out struggling spring vegetables, I replanted with beans. The beans did great! We harvested enough to eat at meals, and even were able to freeze several quart bags worth.
The marigolds apparently couldn't get enough of the heat either, as they were vibrantly bushy and gorgeous all summer long, as well.
The Great Cosmos Takeover
Yup, this is about right.
Be afraid, little pumpkin vine, be very afraid.
So, I had all of these volunteer cosmos come up, bless their feathery little hearts.
They pretty much took over the middle terrace. They crowded and shaded the poor pumpkin vines, so that our production was very low: 2 small pumpkins, and about 3 minis.
On the plus side: they were so darn beautiful, that I just sighed happily every time I saw them. What pumpkins? Perhaps next year they could be transplanted to the cutting garden early on...
Poor Soil in the Top Bed
tomatoes, basil, marigolds
I'm blaming it on the newer soil in the top bed, where we planted the tomatoes, basil, and marigolds. When I rototilled in the spring, the layer of clay soil was much closer to the surface than in the other beds. The tomatoes didn't grow very tall, and the fruit was quite small, as well.
Extra compost and rototilling probably need to go onto the top bed next spring.
On the plus side: we did have enough tomatoes to eat fresh, once they started producing
Not enough for salsa or other kinds of processing, though.
Trellises and Staking
Okay, let's talk about trellises and staking for a moment. I had all kinds of variety going on with that this year, some much more successful than others.
I loved the pea sticks. Far easier than stakes and string, and bonus! the aspens shoots I used really were dead, so I did not end up with an aspen grove in my vegetable patch. Also, they just looked pretty darn cool.
The stakes and netting for the cucumbers worked okay. There were so many vines, that many of them still ended up running along the ground, but I guess at least some were growing vertically.
The bamboo poles for the pole beans were a bust. The beans had absolutely zero interest in climbing them, even when I tried to wrap them [gently] around. I should have just used twine and tied them to it a couple of times, perhaps. Anyway, unsupported, the beans proceeded to take over the tomato cages nearby and make a big tangled mess on the ground. Not awesome.
Speaking of tomato cages, they worked fine this year, though it was due to all the plants being so small, rather than any innate goodness.
The smaller tomato cages were also helpful around the pepper plants we grew.
Win some, lose some.
Best and Worst
Best:
Onions!
My reluctance was overcome by this success! Having planted them further apart (more like 6 inches), they grew into big beautiful slicing onions with little to no effort on my part. Even the cosmo jungle didn't seem to effect them. Win!
Beans--they sprang up happily wherever I plunked them in, which this year was in any open space I could find.
Cucumbers also did quite well this year, with consistent production for a couple of months.
Honorable mention: bell peppers
I have never had success with peppers turned red before frost, except for this year. The kids' plants did the best, and we harvested some sweet red peppers to eat fresh.
Middle of the road:
Carrots. We got enough to process some for winter, but I kept feeling like for as much seed as we put out there, we should have had a whole lot more carrots to show for it. We did the 'Rainbow Blend' again this year, and mostly got yellows and oranges.
Oregano. About what it has been the past several years--we dried about a quart and a half from the trimmings.
Potatoes. Seemed healthy, didn't harvest as much as I expected. Hardly any Yukon Golds, which are my favorite kind. Again, maybe the hot summer to blame?
Worst:
Peas (as mentioned above). Hardly any harvest.
Spinach. Bolted way early.
Pumpkins (blame it on the cosmos, as discussed)
Sweet potato--we ended up with fingers, not potatoes, though they sure tasted good roasted in the oven.
What I want to change for next year:
1. Get the spring vegetables in end of March, beginning of April. It's usually super wet around that time, but find a dry spell somewhere in there, rototill, and get to work! I think my spring stuff would have done fine, had they been already producing in June, rather than still getting going.
2. Perhaps not let the volunteer cosmos (if there are some again) take over the whole world. Transplant most down to the cutting garden.
3. Heavily amend top bed. [I wonder how onions would do up there?...]
4. Perhaps try for corn or lettuce. No pole beans or swiss chard. More onions and tomatoes. Perhaps more cucumbers for pickling.
