Veggie Garden Wrap-Up: 2011

Last weekend I closed up shop in the vegetable garden as an impending frost threatened. Now of course it's sunny and in the 70s all week.

Although I'm aggravated about the green beans and vine-ripened tomatoes that might have been, it was a good time to call it a season. Now as I'm reflecting on how vegetable growing went this year, I think the entire operation is summed up by one word: decent.


Decent, not great, not horrible. The tomato yield was good, and I really enjoyed both varieties, Amish Paste and Hungarian Heart (pictured above). The former is great for making sauce, and the latter has a good texture for slicing. I've also used it for homemade salsa, which has been delicious. The fungal leaf spot that swamped the plants late in the season was an unwelcome development, but it was controllable and, thanks to shall we say challenging weather conditions, not all that surprising.


(Super Chilis...mis-labeled in an earlier post.)

The hot peppers were equally decent. The yields weren't as great as last year, but last year was much drier. Some of the jalepenos turned out to be duds (no spiciness) which confused me to no end. But oh well, I've got some frozen Bulgarian Carrot Peppers for the winter months and Super Chili peppers drying to make homemade crushed red pepper.

Broccoli and green beans were decent...barely. Broccoli plants, I have learned, are humungous and only a small percentage of those enormous plants is the edible part. So in a small garden like mine, it's difficult to have enough room to grow the number of plants needed for a truly fulfilling harvest. This is disappointing because my family loves broccoli. But for that reason I'll keep growing it and harvesting what I can.

The Kentucky Wonder green beans were delicious, but these heirlooms are clearly not mildew resistant. They struggled with powdery mildew early on, and that really slowed down the yield even after I got it under control with my 1-to-3 milk/water solution. Next year I will probably try another variety.

My exceptions to the "decent" label are lettuce (fantastic), and carrots and bell peppers (terrible).

The cool, moist conditions early in the season were perfect for my four varieties of lettuce (Lolla Rossa, Tom Thumb, Rough D'Hiver, and Wine Country Mesclun [courtesy of Renee's Garden]). I had more lettuce than I knew what to do with by June, which is a problem I'm happy to have.

On the contrary, bell peppers were a bust yet again. Every year I've grown bell peppers they don't start producing until September, by which time there isn't enough sun to get them to ripen. I honestly think next year I will skip them altogether.

Almost more frustratingly, I only harvested a measly five carrots. I tried two different varieties and my multiple sowings just failed miserably. The first sowing produced my only harvest, and all subsequent sowings resulted in wimpy, weak seedlings that never matured, if they even sprouted at all. I think the excessive heat had something to do with the poor germination and growth, which leads me to another lesson I've learned...

...starting seeds indoors is the best way for me to get good harvests. Mid-season sowings of broccoli, lettuce, kale, and those carrots all petered out due to the vagaries of summer weather and my neglect. I really tried to keep seedlings watered, but it seems that only when they're growing in my living room in a self-watering seedling kit will they get the attention they need to thrive and reach maturity. These vegetables that can survive cooler early fall temperatures don't like to germinate in the heat of summer. Throw in crazy, pounding rains and it's a recipe for disaster. The only issue is, will I make time to start seeds again in the summer? I thought about it this year and didn't make it happen.


(The seed starting kit that made it all possible.)

So there it is! Vegetable growing in 2011 was...decent. I'm already pondering what varieties to grow next year, what to bring back from this year, and how to finally get a quality mulch for the vegetable bed.

How was vegetable gardening for you in this year of wild weather? Can you agree it was decent?

Long Time, No Blog

Well, I have been out of the loop lately! I missed Buffa10 and July Bloom Day, although I have enjoyed everyone else's posts on those topics. My reasons for this are work and life, but nevertheless the garden is carrying along quite well in our hot, sunny summer weather!

The Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium maculatum) is in full flower, and I'm happy to report others are enjoying it besides me.


The vegetable garden is a bit of a mixed bag. The tomatoes are growing splendidly at this point, no doubt encouraged by the weather.


I have only three--Amish Paste, Cherokee Purple and Black Krim--but all are bearing lots of as-yet-unripened fruit.


Cherokee Purple is winning the race for first tomato to ripen.

All the peppers are similarly thriving, such as these Thai chili peppers in the container 'o fire (which also includes a jalepeno and habanero).


But what's wrong with my squashes (and cucumbers) again?! All I have are these:


Lots of pretty flowers, but no squash (or zucchini or cucumbers). This cucumber vine is threatening to take over the whole bed, and I had to cut its tendrils off the tomatoes, yet no veggies!!


I have borage planted nearby to draw pollinators, and there's more near the tomatoes (which have obviously been pollinated). There are bees, wasps and flying bugs of all kinds around this garden constantly, so what's going on?

Right next door, the rain garden is coming into its own this year. The cardinal flowers (Lobelia cardinalis) are blooming brightly.


I have reconciled myself to the fact that I created a warm-color-scheme mess in this whole border, but that's just the way it's going to be. I have burgundy daylilies and these red and yellow ones

mixed with ice pink spireas (not pictured, as they are done blooming).

And in the rain garden, swamp milkweeds (Asclepias incarnata) and obedient plants (Physostegia virginiana) mix their pink blooms with the fiery red of the cardinal flowers.


It wasn't the most well thought out color scheme, but hey, all those hues are near each other on the color wheel, right? That's what I'll keep telling myself. The daylilies may get moved one day, but the rain garden plants have to stay where they are and they certainly are great for this purpose. They're absorbing our sudden and infrequent downpours and thriving beautifully, plus there have been monarchs galore around the milkweeds; I'm not about to lose all this ecological value over some shallow stylistic considerations. Once I realized that, I got very lazy about my plans to move the spireas, so pink and red this border may remain!

Of course now that I have the garden weeded and a second round of lettuce seeds just planted, I'll be leaving again for a 10-day jaunt late next week. What do you do when you're away from the garden? Is it acceptable to ask someone to water for you? And what's up with those squashes??