Spring Veggies In!

I saw online that today's weather was supposed to be gorgeous, so yesterday the kids and I stopped by SYG, our favorite (maybe only?) local nursery and bought onion sets, seed potatoes, and some new carrot, pea, and beet seeds. Oh, and some violas and pansies, just because.

The morning didn't start off very promising, but I was determined to get this done, and it wasn't raining, so we put on some layers and went for it. So glad I did! 

It was hardly windy at all and continued to warm up through the day, as promised.

As a result, middle terrace is completely planted with our spring veggies!

Cross that off the "to do before baby" list!

 On the left: peas

I've got the stakes up, as you can see. I still need to add twine or netting for a trellis.

I've got netting somewhere, I just didn't take the time to find it today. Planting was first priority!

I was going to do an "L" shape for the trellis, but with the curve of the bed, the triangle made more sense. So there are actually peas planted on all 3 sides, and in the middle of the triangle.

Here's what I put in:

"Super Snappy" (seed 3-4 yrs old): 65 days

"Little Marvel Pea" (seed purchased yesterday): 62 days

--bushy vine w/ heavy pod set

--shelling

"Sugar Daddy" (seed 3-4 yrs old): 74 days

--resistant to powdery mildew and pea leaf roll virus

Not sure what percentage of the older seed will germinate. If I've got some big bare spots, I've got more I can put in--plus I found a few more seed packets in my gardening bag from last year that didn't make it back to the official seed box. Oops!

Middle: potatoes

So, I did the square foot gardening method (digging a hole), rather than the make a hill method. Just because that's what I'm more familiar with. I think this middle terrace is the biggest; even so, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I could fit in. I bought 5 1/2 lbs of seeds potatoes and it worked out just right for the 12 holes. The kids were helping me pick them out, and so we ended up with a couple of surprises: a red variety, and a purple variety that I didn't get the names of. 

Going from left to right, vertical rows: 

Row 1: Yukon Gold

Row 2: Yukon Gold

Row 3: top 2 russet, bottom (closest to blocks) a red variety

Row 4: top 2 russet, bottom a purple variety

Right side: onions

Again, I was surprised at how many onions fit into this space. I bought 2 bags that each had 80 sets in them, and when I got home I thought I would have WAY too many. I used up all but 1/2 of one bag.

So the left side, close to the potatoes: 'White Ebenezer'--good for cooking (it says)

right side, closer to the walkway: 'Yellow Stuttgarter'--good for slicing and storage

I've never heard of either variety. I should have probably grabbed some 'Walla Walla Sweet', but oh well. Maybe next year. We'll see how these do, and how we like them. We'll have plenty!

Along the front of the whole bed I planted 2 rows of carrots.

The left side of the bed is 'Scarlet Nantes': 65 days, sprouts in 7-21 days, 6" bright orange carrots

Right side is 'Tendersweet': 70 days, sprouts in 15-25 days, up to 10" carrots 

I'll have a lot of thinning to do on the carrots, as I had my little helpers sprinkling seeds along with me.

I did not end up planting any beets. I was going to put them by the peas, but with the change in trellis shape, didn't have the room. I'm sure there will be room on one of the other levels if I want to put some in later. I'm not going to worry about it for now, though.

We didn't even water them, since it's supposed to rain the rest of the week.

Most importantly, it's DONE! It can rain for the next 2 weeks if it wants to!

I'm hoping that by the time we need to plant the warm weather stuff, I'll be recovered enough to get out and do that, too. Baby should be a little over a month old by that point, so if I can fit it in between feedings and naps, we'll be good to go.

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.

Garden Box Updates

Box 1

Just realized the cucumbers I planted are a bush variety, instead of a vine.  Oops.

Split up the two cantaloupe, putting one in each box.

Box 3

In the place of the 2 okra plants that got nibbled, I planted sweet basil, greek oregano, and thyme.

Beans going strong. 2 of the 4 nasturtiums up.

Box 4

Looking good!

Garden Boxes

We've had thunderstorms all week, but there was one day that was just hot and humid with no rain.  It was a Wednesday, and even though I had vowed to get all my tomato plants from the Farmer's Market this year, I didn't want to wait until Thursday or Saturday to do it. Jason was home and kiddos were taken care of, so I just went to Ace Hardware and Wickman's nursery, bought all my plants and seeds, and came home and got them in the ground.  I'm glad I did!  It has rained pretty steadily ever since.

Box 1 

 Back row, against the trellis: 2 cucumbers, my Green Zebra tomato plant, a cantaloupe.

In front is a zucchini hill, a stray potato plant growing from last year's potato patch (oops, guess I missed one!), and on the far right are 2 Golden California Wonder bell peppers.  The front right corner is planted with nasturtiums.

Box 2

I decided to put most of my tomatoes in the same box this year and minimize other plants to give them a little more room.  Back row against the trellis: Sun Sugar cherry tomato, Jubilee (yellow, low-acid) tomato, Mr Stripey (red with orange stripes, 56 days to maturity) tomato, and displaced one square up, another Sun Sugar.  The lone tomato in the front middle is a Champion variety.  Far right, in front of the tomato, is 1 okra plant, and once again, the front right corner is planted with nasturtium seeds.

Box 3

This one probably has the most variety.  Back row, left to right, against the trellis: 1 lima bean (from a PAT activity that we took Jacob to--he planted it in a cup and it actually grew "big and tall," so now it gets a chance in the garden.  I don't even like lima beans, but I digress...) In the same square, I planted a scarlet runner bean.  Next square over is a cantaloupe (officially needs 2 squares against the trellis.)  Far right square has bush beans planted.

Next row up, 2 squares of okra, 2 squares of bush beans.  Next row: 1 okra, 2 Better Bell peppers, 1 square bush beans.  Front row: nasturtiums, then 3 squares of Sweet Pimento bell peppers.

I figured the okra and peppers would be stout enough to stand up against the bush beans' attempts at garden takeover.

Spring veggies, with Becca's leg in view as well. :)

Potatoes are getting big and bushy.  Already, my onions seem bigger than they ever got last year.  The beet tops are looking healthy, and the peas have started climbing the trellis.  I planted a couple of annual flower vines, don't remember the name offhand, interspersed with the peas.  If they grow they should be pretty--orange star-shaped flowers with green centers. And I discovered that this one type of peculiar-looking weed I've been pulling up from this bed has been TOMATO plants growing from last year's crop that must have fallen in the soil!  Awesome! I had just planted all my tomatoes, and it struck me how similar these leaves looked.  So I smelled them, and sure enough, tomato.  Not sure which variety.  There's one tall one in the peas that I'm going to attempt to transplant elsewhere, I think.

Here's hoping we get to sample some of the fruits of these labors before we move.

Front beds, flowers, and spring vegetables

I thought it odd that I left such a big bare space between these hostas.  Then this week, this little baby hosta popped up.  Oh yeah!  It was a piece that had broken off one of the others during transplanting and I decided to put it in its own space. I hope it keeps growing and catches up with these others....otherwise, it will look kind of funny.

Things are starting to look a bit crowded here.  It's great that everything is growing so well.  Not sure how to fix it at this point--or if I should even bother, considering the move.

These hostas are huge!  They loved the rain this past week.

If I decide to take cuttings with me to Washington, these would definitely be candidates.

I put all the peony pictures in a separate post, but these salvia are also about to bloom and looking beautiful.  I love the dark purple stems.

Last but not least, my spring veggies are doing great!  The rain has been good for them, too.

Peas starting to climb--I may interplant some annual climbing flowers, since so many didn't germinate.

Potatoes looking healthy and big, beets coming along, and the onions finally are tall and stopped flopping over.

It's amazing what a little rain will do!

Spring Vegetables

Everything's coming up!

Peas are in back, next to the trellis.

It's time to add dirt to the potato hills.

The beets are coming--I'm not sure when to thin them, as some are pretty close together.

Onions are growing, too. 

Yes, it needs to be watered again.  I've been getting out 2-3 times a week, but it may need it even more frequently.  It just hasn't rained much yet this spring.

Spring Planting Prep

I'm getting ready to put in the cold-weather vegetables. It turns out we will be here through the end of July, so I am going to go ahead and plant potatoes, onions, and peas again. I would also like to try carrots and beets in the later spring.

Box 1: All potatoes--2 varieties
Yukon Gold + ?

Box 2: 4 squares peas--Super Snappy + use up the rest of others
4 squares onion
3 squares beets
3 squares carrots
2 squares flowers

To get ready to plant:
1. Pooper scoop!
2. Rake up leaves from boxes that haven't decomposed and add to compost pile.
3. Add dirt & compost as needed to fill up boxes.
4. Replace string for measuring squares, as needed.
5. Purchase potatoes, onion sets, check number of seeds and buy if needed.
6. Plant potatoes, onions, and peas some time around March 17!

Garden Evaluation: bush beans, beets, carrots

Box 1, revisited: Fall crops
bush beans, beets, carrots, (+ annual sunflower and zinnias)
planted July 17

Bush Beans: 3 sq. x 9/sq
Variety: Blue Lake Bush
Yield: Plenty for eating fresh
Pests, problems, diseases: none, since they were planted after the Japanese beetles had mostly gone away.
Finished: beginning of September
Comments: Good flavor! I was impressed with the yield for the number of plants put in. Also, for planting them at the end of summer, they did great! We harvested several meals' worth before the end of the season. With the warm planting weather, they grew really fast. They did overrun the other fall crops, though. Would need to plan that differently next time.

Carrots: 2 sq x 16?/sq
Variety: Short 'n Sweet
Yield: nothing
Pests, problems, diseases: bush beans crowded them out
Finished: n/a
Comments: these came up ok, but I didn't thin them out. I don't think it would have made much difference, in the end, if I had. The bush beans were so vigorous that they completely took over the space. Will have to give these a try in a different setting next time.
Beets: 2 sq. x 16?/ sq
Variety: Detroit Dark Red
Yield: none

Pests, problems, diseases: bush bean takeover

Finished: n/a

Comments: as with the carrots, these put up little shoots, but then were completely overrun by bush beans. Maybe next time I'll put these and the carrots in their own box and see how they do.

Garden Evaluation: squash, cucumbers, peppers

Box 3: zucchini, cucumbers, cayenne peppers, tomatoes (see earlier post)

planted May 16

Zucchini: 1 hill / 9 sq. ft x 3-4 seeds per hill

Variety: Elite Hybrid

Yield: enough to eat fresh and enough to make several batches of zucchini bread

Pests, Problems, Diseases: powdery mildew

This disease came on pretty strong toward the end of the summer, cutting back yield quite significantly in August/September. Almost all of the big leaves had to be removed at some point. What remained was still vigorous enough to produce a few more squashes, but not nearly what we had been getting. You can see the whiteness of the leaves on the last picture for this box, below. Not sure if they just weren't getting the air circulation needed with the tomatoes crowding in the box, or what.

Finished: end of August

Comments: One hill gave us all we wanted for eating fresh and baking. I did a post earlier in the summer about it being a space hog, but to recap: finding a variety that would climb the trellis would be a definite plus, leaving more space for other veggies in the box itself.

Cucumbers: 2 sq. x 4/sq. (one square in the corner of each box, next to the trellis)

Variety: Don't remember, and didn't write it down. But I need to try a new one next time, so I hope I will recognize it by the description!

Yield: Enough to eat fresh and some to give away, while they lasted.

Pests, problems, diseases: of the 4 plants per square, at least 1 in each box wilted away completely before its time. Not sure if it was lack of nutrients in the soil from all the other veggies crowding in, or what.

Plus, not really a problem per se, but growing them up the trellis produced several that were deformed, as they would grow through the netting and then get tangled up in it as they got bigger. A couple of them had to be cut off the trellis in a few pieces.

Finished: end of July--they finished rather abruptly, which surprised me. I had just given some away feeling confident I would have more within the week, only to find they were done.

Comments: This variety produced foot-long cucumbers with a good flavor. I want to try a different variety next time--it was huge or nothing with these. Maybe one square with a different variety of slicers that would grow to a more medium size, and one square of the variety especially for pickling. I was hoping to do some pickles with the ones from this summer, but they were not ready for picking until they were extra-long, and I let that intimidate me.

Cayenne Peppers: 1 sq. x 1/sq.
Variety: Cayenne, Long Thin
Yield: Several little peppers, about the size of my pinky finger.
Pests, problems, diseases: Just overcrowding by tomatoes and squash. Once they grew above the tomato vines they started producing.
Finished: end of season
Comments: I used some of these in the salsa I made this year, and some in other dishes. As mentioned above, they didn't really start producing until August or so, as the tomatoes weren't letting them have any space. Used our old tomato cages to hold them up which seemed to work well (again, it would work better if they weren't also supporting stray tomato vines!) For hot peppers, we like these. I might be tempted to try jalapenos at some point...we'll see.

Box 4: yellow crookneck squash, bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes (see earlier post)

Yellow crookneck squash: 1 hill/9 sq. ft x 3 plants per hill

Variety: no special name, just yellow crookneck

Yield: for as big as the plant got, yield was a bit disappointing. We got an occasional squash from the plant--one or two every couple of weeks maybe.

Pests, problems, diseases: Lack of water? An earlier post mentions that after a week of rain there were several little squash growing, where we hadn't harvested any for a few weeks up to that point. I did water faithfully this summer, but perhaps the squash needed more than they got.

These also had powdery mildew problems, though not as bad as the zucchini.

Finished: end of August

Comments: as with the zucchini, I would like to find a climbing variety to free-up some space in the box. I would like to try a straight yellow squash, also, rather than the crookneck. The neck was always really tender, but the bulbous part would start to get mushy by the time they were big enough to pick.

Bell peppers: 1/sq. x 3 sq.

Variety: Banana Supreme, and The big Early

Yield: finally toward the end of the summer we harvested a handful of banana peppers. It wasn't until mid-to-late August that we got any bell peppers. We probably harvested 4 or 5 total of the regular bell.

Pests, problems, diseases: overcrowding by the tomatoes kept these from producing as much as they could have. They flowered regularly through the summer, but it wasn't until fall, when the plants were tall enough to peek out above the tomato vines that we got any peppers coming.

Finished: end of season

Comments: more space for these! Good flavor, but really no time to ripen from green as they didn't produce any peppers until August/early September. I bet I could be more successful with these next time, as the garden box layout will be planned differently to give them a bit more room.

Garden Evaluation: corn, beans, herbs

Box 2: variety

sweet corn, pole beans, basil, garlic, flowers

Planted: May 16

Corn: 3 sq x 4/sq.

Variety: 'Peaches and Cream'

Yield: 7 full-size ears, 1-2 little ones--enough for one meal

Pests, Problems, Diseases: We didn't have problems here, which I guess is unusual. Not sure if the dog kept the animal pests away, or we just got lucky. Really no trouble with bugs either. They did seem to need more support of some kind--they fell over in a strong wind and never seemed to go back up straight again.
Finished: mid-August
Comments: I'm not sure I'm sold on growing corn just yet--particularly in a square-foot garden. They did grow big and tall, and tasted good for that one meal. There's the problem, though. With a yield of 1 ear per stalk for the most part, you really have to grow a lot if you want it to feed your family. We do like corn on the cob, and would eat frozen corn if there was enough to process. However, you can get fresh corn at the Farmer's Market for cheap--3 for a $1.00 or something, in season. Or if we lived closer, Mom and Dad F. give it away! I could see it as a good choice for a kid's garden box: easy to plant, it grows satisfyingly tall, and yield would not be as important in that case.

Pole Beans: 2 sq. x 9/sq.
Variety: 'Blue Lake Pole Stringless' I actually liked the flavor of the bush beans better. If I try these again, I think I would do a different variety.

Yield: substantial amount, after the beetles left

Pests, Problems, Diseases: Japanese beetles! We didn't have any harvest at all until end of August/beginning of September, because it took that long for the vines to recover after the devastation of the beetle attacks.

Comments: These were supposed to be space savers because they grew up the trellis. They tried to take over the world! At one point I couldn't reach the beans to pick them because they had grown up the sunflowers and were way above my head. They literally wrapped around the sunflowers that were growing next to them and took them down! They also reached across the gap between the boxes and started twining around the tomato vines.

These seemed tougher and less flavorful than the bush beans, but I don't know if that was because I it took me longer to pick them or what.

With their unstoppable growth potential, I could see these being another good choice for a child's garden box, or make a stick tepee and let the vines go wild, and your little ones would have a shady hide-out.

Basil: 2 sq. x 1 plant/sq

Variety: 1 from Lisa, variety unknown, 1 'Spicy Globe Basil' (I mistakenly bought it thinking it was oregano--oops.

Yield: Great potential yield, if we had done something with them

Pests, Problems, Diseases: none

Comments: The Globe Basil did awesome. It grew almost 18 inches tall, and was very healthy, green, and bushy. We just didn't do anything with it. If I had cut and dried it, we probably could have had enough basil for the whole winter. I need to do better with the herbs next time around. It smelled good every time we were over there working with the other plants.

The little plant from Lisa did okay as well, but same problem. Just didn't use it.

Garlic: 1 square

Variety: unknown, gift from Lisa

Yield: nothing--the tops died about a month after they were planted, and I didn't dig them up.

Pests, Problems, Diseases: none

Comments: Maybe they will come back next year? We probably should have just used the cloves that we got from Lisa instead of replanting them.

Sunflowers: 2 sq. x 1/sq

Variety: 'Evening Sun'

Yield: Several large, pretty flowers on each plant. I didn't attempt to get any seeds from them.

Pests, Problems, Diseases: The pole beans! Growing these two together was a bad idea. As mentioned earlier, the beans twined all the way up the stalk, and eventually caused the sunflowers to bow down under the weight, breaking the stalk.

Comments: These got to be so tall! It was awesome! At least 7-9 feet--high above our 6-foot fence. The flowers were pretty, but the colors seemed kind of faded. I think I would prefer the brilliant yellow next time. The birds seemed to enjoy them.

Nasturtiums: 1 sq x 4/sq

Variety: 'Jewel'

Yield: n/a (although edible, I didn't try to eat them!)

Comments: Grew these from seed. They took a long time to get going, but once they did, they produced bright orange flowers throughout the fall months, adding lovely splashes of color to the box. I didn't get any good pictures of them in their full glory, but I quite enjoyed them at the end of the summer.

Garden Evaluation: peas, onions, potatoes

Box 1: Early Spring Veggies
Peas, onions, potatoes
Planted: March 27

Peas: 4 squares x 8/sq.

Varieties: 'Sugar Daddy' (stringless pods) and 'Super Snappy' (edible pods w/ huge peas)
Of the two, I actually preferred the Super Snappy--the pods were thick, sweet, and crunchy.

Yield: About 75% came up. Plenty for eating fresh, enough to use in a recipe now and then.

Pests, Problems, Diseases: None to speak of

Finished: July 23: harvested the last and pulled up the plants.

Comments:

Since we will only be here until the end of June next year, this would be a good crop to plant. We'll get to keep most of the harvest, and it will look good in the box for selling.


Onions: 6 squares x 16/sq. + 2-3 squares in box 2, maybe 5-6/sq., from Lisa.

Varieties: um...don't remember, some yellow and some white. Also, some I bought individually (they were already about green onion size) and I got one bunch of the tiny ones.

Yield: at least one orange basket-full, most golf-ball size, a few tennis-ball sized. We used them up in a 2-3 weeks.

Pests, Problems, Diseases: None

Finished: end of July
Comments:
I've since heard that this was a bad year for onions. I don't know, but none of mine got to be really big for slicing. Also, they were all extra strong flavor, when I thought home-grown were usually more mild.

Very easy crop to grow.

Next time I want to plant more, all of them the kind to grow into big slicers. Green onions are cheap to buy, and you can get the quantities you want without taking up a lot of garden space
(or having to continually replant). Also, the big onions could be stored for fall/winter use if we had more than we could eat in the summer.
I'll have to admit, I didn't do anything with the ones from Lisa. They are supposed to be hardy, so maybe they'll come back on their own next year and we'll harvest some.

Potatoes: 6 squares x 4-5/sq. + some in a bucket
Variety: Yukon Gold--tasty
Yield: This much (see picture), plus 7 or 8 more, plus one huge one today! (10/31)

Pests/Problems/Diseases: none except dog jumping on them.
Finished: end of July
Comments: Potatoes are fun to grow! Harvesting them is like digging for buried treasure--you never know how many or what size will come up, with no sign of the seed potato pieces you planted. The plants themselves got to be 3 1/2 feet tall, and were beautifully green and bushy until they got smashed by Diamond. We had to harvest these early this year due to afore-mentioned smashing. We eat so many potatoes, that I wouldn't mind planting an entire 4x4 box (or even more) of just potatoes. Especially since they also store well for winter use.
Potatoes in the bucket didn't do nearly as well on any front. Top-growth was scrawny and diseased-looking, and harvest was very small. They probably needed a lot more water than they got. So unless there's a really good reason to do otherwise, all potatoes will go in the ground from now on.
Probably won't plant next summer, as we won't get any of the harvest.

Tomatoes: Thoughts & Plans

I made and canned spaghetti sauce this weekend. About the same amount of work as doing salsa, but with fewer types of vegetables added in, the yield amounted to 3 quarts. It is work I enjoy, for the most part, because the end result is so rewarding: preserving the harvest so it doesn't go to waste, and having delicious home-canned food in the pantry. However, taking a whole day to can tomatoes for 3 quarts of tomato sauce seems like a lot of effort for not very much payback.

Here's what I've decided would make it better and more efficient:

1. Find a friend! This would go so much faster with 2 people doing it! Obviously, the cooking and hot-water bath times would remain the same, but the prep time would be cut way down. And perhaps we could even get a second batch going while the first was cooking, or something.
I think I need to move closer to mom, so we can be canning buddies. :) I just know she would be up for it.

2. Do more than one batch at a time, which leads to...

3. Grow more tomatoes of different varieties.
One thing I have found out about us this year is that we don't eat very many fresh tomatoes: 2-3 full-size per week, if we're in a salad or sandwich mode. However, we do eat tacos and/or spaghetti at least once a week it seems. So we would use home-canned salsa and spaghetti sauce if it was available.
Both times I made salsa, I ended up buying at least 5 pounds more tomatoes from the Farmer's Market in order to have enough to make up the recipe. I probably should have done the same for the spaghetti sauce. So the yield from our 4 Better Boy plants-somewhere between 40 and 50 tomatoes so far--is far too many to eat fresh, but still not quite enough to can.
Also, the roma or paste tomatoes are supposed to be better for canning, which makes sense, because they have meatier walls and fewer seeds, equalling less juice to boil down. However, they are smaller, so it would take more of them. Not sure if they are determinate or not.

Bottom line: Next time plant 4-8 roma, preferably with different harvesting times, to use primarily for canning. Plant 1-2 "Better Boy" or similar indeterminate variety for eating fresh and to supplement yields for canning. Perhaps 1-2 experimental types would also be fun--yellow, or green zebras--to add some variety.

Plans for cherry tomatoes:

I have not been as good about giving these away or finding recipes to use them in. The thought of skinning them all made adding them to salsa recipes a little daunting, but perhaps there would be an efficient way to do this--if so, that would be awesome.

Once again, we prefer the "Sun Sugar" yellow-orange variety to the classic red "Sweet 100." With just one plant of each variety, we have still had way more cherry tomatoes than we can eat fresh. The "Sun Sugar" hasn't yielded nearly as many as the "Sweet 100" this year, so for cherry tomatoes, I want to try planting 2 Sun Sugars next year (or similar variety) and not plant the red ones at all.

That adds up to a whole lot of tomatoes!
Square-foot garden translation:

I've already decided that it would be better to give the tomatoes the 9-squares each away from the trellis, and put a tall sturdy cage around them, rather than trying to contain them in one square each and train them up a trellis. The containment and training components just didn't happen.

However, with 4x4 beds, that means only 1 tomato plant per bed. This needs more thought, because that would still take most of the available space in just tomatoes, when the other space-hogs, like squash, would need their own room.

Jungle Garden Update

This is the first picture of my corn patch. As you can see, it's pushing 7 feet tall! The only plants taller right now are the sunflowers, which you can see behind the corn. The beans have been making a comeback since the Japanese beetle's have disappeared, but still no beans to pick yet!

The bushy plants around the base of the corn and beans are basil, oregano, and nasturtiums.

I planted the nasturtiums from seed and have seen one bloom so far. They may be one to either start indoors early, or purchase the plant.

Somewhere in there I might have some garlic and onions growing, but I'm not counting on it.

The beans and cherry tomatoes are getting friendly! They are growing together across the boxes. It makes a nice little tunnel for the likes of Jacob. I have to duck to get through.

Zucchini still going strong. We harvested 4 large ones this week! Jason made zucchini bread, and I made zucchini soup, and we still gave some away.

I did harvest our first peppers this week--no pictures. 2 little cayenne peppers the size of my pinky fingers, and 1 banana pepper. I don't think the bell peppers are getting the sunlight or space they need to produce. They have flowered several times, but I have yet to see any peppers growing on them. Admittedly, it is hard to see through the tomato jungle.

I guess the crookneck squash, above, just needed more water. Since it has rained so much this week, several little squash have started growing. We haven't harvested any for a couple of weeks now.

We harvested 2 more foot-long cucumbers this week, along with several more cherry tomatoes of both varieties, and even a couple of the slicing tomatoes. Loving this stage of the garden!

The lovely white bucket is the compost bucket for garden clippings.

Renovations

Box 1, Round 2

As my husband so astutely observed, I'm more of a planter than a weeder. So after the peas, potatoes, and onions were gone, I spent a little of my flower money on these bright annuals to take up some space, and planted beets in the space that was left. Much better option than bare ground, which would then fill with weeds.

Notes of interest:

The zinnias have already attracted at least 2 different kinds of butterflies! They would be a good choice for filler in my big flower beds next spring.

The sunflowers are looking great because it has just rained twice in the last couple of days, but they were really drooping before that. Another reminder NOT to plant anything in July, unless you plan to pour water on it every day. I figured they would do okay in the vegetable box, because I water those at least 2x per week. Thank goodness for this rain!

Look how awesome the beans are doing! Also, I didn't get a close enough shot to be able to tell, but the carrots and the beets have just come up. We'll see how this goes--it is my first attempt at doing fall crops.

Wow! that was fast!

I can't believe these bush beans have already sprouted! Jacob and I planted them last Friday and they're already 3 inches tall. Maybe we will get some beans this year...

Potato Harvest

"Yukon Gold" variety (with a few onions thrown in)

Another unforseen effect of going on vacation: we returned to our potato plants brown and crispy. No hope of redemption. So I decided to dig up whatever potatoes we had before they rotted in the ground. Look what I found!

Potato harvesting is fun! It's like a treasure hunt: sticking your spade into the soil, not knowing what you will bring up. Jacob helped me put each one in the basket, saying "Tato, tato."

I planted 6 squares of potatoes this year, with 4-5 pieces of the seed potatoes per square. This is the harvest from 5 of the 6 squares. I'm so pleased! I'm sure we would have gotten more of the big size if they had been able to grow until frost. As it is, so far we have enjoyed our new potatoes mashed, and in soup.

I've got one more potato plant that seems to be hanging in there, so I decided to try and keep it going for awhile longer.

Vegetable Jungle

This being my first try at square-foot gardening, I didn't know what to expect. I think I'm growing a vegetable jungle! These pictures were taken 2 weeks ago and everything has grown taller and bushier since then.

The tomatoes have reached the top of the trellis and are still growing up and out. They are beginning to come together between boxes. Even the marigolds pictured here have almost doubled in mass. One of the cucumber vines (back-right going up the trellis) died while we were on vacation.

These cages are actually supporting the pepper plants, which you can't see at all in this picture, due to the tomatoes crowding in.

Yellow crookneck squash going for broke. (Today the garden box, tomorrow the world!) Interesting: when we got back from vacation last week, 1 of the 3 yellow squash plants above had died completely. Perhaps it was not able to compete with the other two for nutrients.

What I would change next time:

1--Separate the tomatoes from the squash, or run the squash up the trellis and let the tomatoes have more room.

According to the square-foot method, tomatoes only need one square foot if they're the indeterminate type and you train them up the trellis. Otherwise they need 9 per plant and a good strong cage. Squash need either 2 squares next to the trellis if they are climbers, or 9 squares per plant.

I'm no good at tomato trellis training, as it turns out. So I think I would be better off with the tomatoes in their own 9-square space with a little breathing room. Which means I will need bigger boxes or more of them to grow all the tomatoes I would want.

These squash could fill up one whole 4x4 box all by themselves at the rate they're going. I would just as soon have them growing up a trellis. However, I didn't find any of the climbing varieties for sale, either seeds or plants at the my local garden centers. So I suppose I would need to order seeds from a catalog for that. I like both squash and zucchini so I want them in my garden, but wow are they space-hogs!