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| Christmas snow |
Our Christmas snow turned out to be about 2 inches. It started around sunset, continued on through the night, and still falls gently today. This morning not a creature was stirring, nor wanted to venture out in the snow, but everybody wanted to be fed!
Snow makes the garden look decidedly tucked in for it's long winter's nap....
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| Snow covered garden |
... so this may be a good time to publish this post, which I've been working on for awhile. These are my thoughts on what my garden taught me this year, and what I'd like to do differently next year.
Garden notes on things I want to
remember, research, repeat, or resolve
remember, research, repeat, or resolve
Things that did well this year:
Amaranth, Giant Golden (or is it Golden Giant?) - did well in dry conditions.
Beets, Red Detroit - very happy with these, both for greens and roots
Black turtle beans - produced well even during our dry spell with little watering
Broccoli,
- DiCiccio though slow to start producing
- Waltham 29 - poor germination but larger heads than DiCiccio. Will save seed & try these again
Bush beans, State 1/2 Runner - ditto to what I wrote about the black turtle beans. Originally a substitute for a drying bean I ordered. Very prolific. These supplied most of my beans for canning this year. Dried seeds can be used as soup beans.
Calendula (pot marigold) - slow to get going but showy. I collected lots of seeds to plant and harvest a bunch next year.
Carrots, Scarlet Nantes - theses are the first carrots I've grown that have attained a decent size in our clay soils. Very sweet eating too.
Herbs, oragano, thyme, rosemary, sage, sweet basil, dill, yarrow, echinacea - all did very well though 1st year echinacea is just leaves. Apparently though, I have 2 different kinds of thyme plants. I noticed a distinct difference in smell.
Lettuce, Parris Cos Romaine - mine never do make a true Romaine head. Need to stagger plantings better.
Marigolds - long lasting and prolific! I've been reading though, that some varieties are better against nematodes than others (when planted as a cover crop), so I may try another variety next year.
Melons - ate our fill & had plenty to give away
- Cantaloupe, Hale's Best
- Watermelon, Small Sugar
Okra, Clemson Spineless - the only problem was aphids and ants toward the very end. Discovered the goats love the whole plant.
Potatoes, Red Pontiac - did well. My problems was planting too early. I need to plant a few in the spring for summer potatoes, but the bulk around July for winter storage
Radishes, Cherry Belle, Pink Beauty, & China Rose - The China Rose are supposed to be good winter keepers but I planted too late for much size. Need to stagger plantings for these as well.
Swiss Chard, Fordhook Giant - it took a break when it got hot, then came back. Survived several frosts.
Turnips, Purple Top White Globe - produced beautifully
Winter Squash, Buttercup - got a goodly amount for storage. Have seen them bigger in the grocery store though
Things that had problems (and what I believe them to be):
Cabbage plants - Dutch Flat and Savoy
- had to purchase because I was too late to plant my own seed
- growth seemed really slow, heads small. More compost?
- cabbage moths
- fall plants did much better than spring
Cucumbers, National Pickling
- Mosaic virus - need to research treatment
Horseradish -
- Planted with the potatoes as an insect repellent companion
- Spread outside of its pots
- This is a problem because it is a hybrid variety
- Needs its own bed
- Probably need to find an heirloom or OP variety
Nasturtiums
- spindly, died quickly, no flowers - they don't grow well in this part of the south. Ah well. Just thought I'd give them a try anyway. I loved growing them when I lived in Arkansas.
Onions, Ebenezer
- sets grew well, but some bulbs developed soft spots on one side. I haven't been able to identify the problem yet though
- seeds never germinated
Pole Beans, Kentucky Wonder
- The problem was that I used the popcorn as poles. Japanese Hulless just doesn't grow tall enough
- Not as prolific as the bush beans, but I do like not having to bend over to pick them.
Parsnips, Harris Model
- didn't sprout as in nothing grew
- probably planted too late
Popcorn, Japanese Hulless
- corn earworm
- one success however, was no cross pollination with my sweet corn
Pumpkins, Small Sugar
- poor germination
- poor production, only got 2
- I believe lack of water was part of the problem
Rutagabas, Purple Top
- didn't germinate, nothing grew
- probably planted to late
Strawberries - both June and everbearing
- overrun with a creeping, spreading "wire" grass, even with landscape cloth & mulch
Summer Squash, Yellow Prolific Straightneck
- bacterial wilt
- squash bugs
Sweet Corn, Stowell's Evergreen
- poor germination
- hence poor pollination
- corn earworm
Sweet potatoes, Porto Rico Bush
- grew well even in dry conditions
- Black rot (a fungal disease) noted on tubers during curing
Tomatoes (both my Romas & Rutgers)
- Blossom end rot - resolved with Enz-Rot calcium spray
- Anthracnose - initially I thought they succumbed to blight, but when the plants recovered and started producing again, I figured I was wrong. Finally identified anthracnose from this site.
- Fusarium or verticullium wilt?
Zucchini
- Powdery mildew
- Anthracnose? - noted dark spots on fruit
- planted for fall crop but they didn't get enough heat
Thoughts on those things
- Most of my problems were diseases rather than pests. Seems though, that pests are easier to control than diseases. Or at least, organic pest control products are more effective than organic disease control products. I haven't had success even when used prophylactically.
- What saved my tomato preservation was the number of plants. If these had been healthy, I would have had too many tomatoes. As it was, I got barely enough, and actually I would have liked more.
- Bush beans vs pole beans (???) I like the productivity of bush beans, but like the ease of picking pole beans. Opinions?
Things I'd like to do differently next year
- Finishing mulching before I start canning in June!
- Plant potatoes for a fall crop
- Try some new stuff:
- asparagus
- Egyptian walking onions
- and/or potato onions
- ramps
- and more
- Try different varieties of:
- lettuce - needs to be a Romaine type, or else I need to learn to grow Iceberg too, for DH (his favorite)
- sweet potatoes - or maybe just certified disease free slips, or both
- amaranth - golden giant is too giant, though produces excellently
- sunflowers - want to switch to black oil for feed
- Swiss chard - just to compare
- potatoes - in addition to Red Pontiac, which we like
- Horseradish - try to find an heirloom or at least OP variety
- marigolds - used a grocery store seed pack but will switch to a French dwarf variety (Tagetes patula) which are reputed to be the best for nematode control
- Do more mixed companion beds à la Sally Jean Cunningham's Great Garden Companions
- Grow a patch of field corn, with pole beans and pumpkins
- Get my cabbage seeds started early enough and plant enough for a big batch of sauerkraut!
- Grow more:
- cucumbers
- pumpkins
- varieties of winter squashes
- turnips and beets
- sweet potatoes. Maybe try an additional variety too. I've gotten such good recipe ideas from you all that I want more next year.
- Watermelons grow don't ripen well once the weather turns cooler. Pull vines earlier.
- Expand herb gardens (these will be raised beds)
- Cold frames next spring, row covers next winter
- Semi-permanent irrigation for the tomatoes. I plan to put down a soaker hose when I put in my plants and leave it there. It will be covered with mulch, but will be in place for more consistent watering. I think that was part of my tomato problem.
- Get some Tattler canning lids
So much to do! The other thing I'm learning is to take both successes and failures all in stride. Our time, money, and energy have to be divided amongst many things. Not only the garden, but upgrading the house, but also in simply establishing our homestead in general. There are lots of one time jobs (like fencing and remodeling) which take resources from other projects. I'm learning to be patient and simply chip away at it as we go along.
Garden Analysis for 2010 © December 2010 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/
