I meant to blog so many times this summer, but man, babies certainly are demanding masters. We've turned a major corner with respect to sleep (no, not at night....sigh...), but now he is napping in the crib instead of on me, which is wonderful. While I didn't manage to blog this summer, we still did quite a bit of farming. The weeds really took advantage of the fact that I had little time to devote to garden upkeep, but many of our crops still thrived. In the interests of trying to ensure that I remember what worked and what didn't about this gardening season, here's my mini end-of-summer recap.
The good:
We had bumper crops of cucumbers, beans (apparently two sites of pole beans and a full bed of bush beans was excessive), swiss chard, sugar snap peas, carrots, scallions, leeks, shallots, herbs, peppers, eggplant, potatoes, lettuce, and broccoli. I learned how to can, and so this year we were able to preserve quite a bit. I've made a staggering amount of cucumber pickles and pickled green beans and relishes, and we've frozen broccoli and green beans as well. I may freeze some chard and more green beans. The bean yield has been so heavy that I've begun to actually get irritated with the plants for continuing to bear fruit through today. The dogs and I now have a game where I toss the overgrown green beans to them over the fence. Even Bullet is getting tired of eating green beans by now, which should say quite a bit about how many we've picked.
The bad (and the bad was ugly):
Tomatoes. Oh, tomatoes. This year I had such high hopes - no morning sickness and I've learned to can. And then blight struck. All of my tomato plants are either dead or dying, and our yield was pathetic. My neighbor took pity on me and gave us 17 pounds of their tomatoes, so I was still able to live the dream of canning tomato sauce (I dream big), but not with my own tomatoes. Maybe next year will be the year that my tomato crop matches my tomato consumption/preservation abilities.
The zucchini and two of my sweet mama winter squash plants succumbed early to squash vine borers. Luckily the Uncle David's Dakota Dessert squash and one sweet mama squash plant survived, so we'll have at least a few winter squashes.
The beets never amounted to much. Unlike last year, this year's crop had a terrible germination rate, and then I never got around to planting a squash crop. The same neighbors that gifted me with tomatoes also gave me some beets, which Bullet promptly peed on. Just not a good year for beets at my house.
The potato bugs were terrible again this year even though I tried very hard to stay on top of the eggs. We didn't have many tomato hornworms, but my tomato plants also died, so that one's a draw.
I started cauliflower seeds inside in June in hopes of a fall cauliflower crop, and they were the most anemic seedlings I've ever seen. Only one survived the transplant, and it doesn't look too motivated to actually form a head.
The cabbage worms this year were terrible. Next year I MUST put floating row covers over my broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts. Because cabbage worms are really gross, and I'm tired of picking them out of my broccoli and then having a sneaking suspicion that I missed some. Ew.
Rough plan for next year's garden:
More paste tomato plants, one whole bed, and much more vigilance about blight. Also, three cherry tomato plants, and one slicing tomato plant.
Fewer bell peppers, more hot peppers - maybe two bell pepper plants, two poblanos, two jalapenos, and a banana pepper plant.
Same amount of eggplant, with a similar mix of small varieties. Half a bed seems to give us a good amount for using and preserving, and I found some very tempting canning recipes for eggplant that I'd like to try next year.
A full bed of carrots again, but next year we need to fully till the bed before planting, and thoroughly thin the seedlings. We have a very funky looking bunch of carrots this year.
More shallots, at least half a bed, and fewer scallions (1/8 - 1/4 of a bed). 1/4 bed of leeks seems to be good.
More leaf lettuce and less mustard greens, which seem to be a favorite of the flea beetles.
Shelling peas in addition to sugar snap peas. Also, I think July was too late for a fall planting of snap peas. The plants are growing, but I doubt we'll have peas before frost. We'll see...
Three cabbage plants, maximum. I don't know why I keep letting Mike talk me into a full bed of cabbage. We really don't eat it.
1/2 bed of cucumbers, and that may still be too much!
1/2 bed of bush beans and 1 site of pole beans. I know that pole beans and haricot verts are supposed to taste better than the regular bush beans, but this year I grew all three kinds, and thought they all tasted about the same. Loved them all, but apparently I do not have a refined green bean palate.
1/2 bed of chioggia beets and 1/2 bed of golden beets, and lots of finger crossing that they germinate.
1/2 bed of broccoli is plenty when the plants produce side shoots like they did this year. And I'd like 1/2 bed of cauliflower. Next year I'll have to buy seedlings early for a spring crop.
Two beds of potatoes is good. The mixture of early/regular/late was also good, although the mid season and late potatoes seemed to be ready at the same time.
New crops I'd like to try for next year are kale (to go in 1/2 bed with chard), fennel, parsnips (I think maybe I'd need to plant them this fall? We'll see if that happens), soy beans, walking onions and hard neck garlic.
Next year I'd like to have a greater mix of varieties and vegetables, now that I know the yield that we're getting when we devote an entire bed to one plant. I'd also really, really like to stay on top of the weeds a bit more next year. We'll see how farming with a toddler compares to farming with a newborn.
