We had humongous pea vines this year that kept producing like crazy. The brassicas did pretty well but our potatoes didn’t yield as much as last year, and the beets were dismally small. Carrots were quite a bit better than last year though, and we managed to harvest enough basil for 17 jars of pesto, if I remember right.
Lessons
- the margins of our garden are marginal, things don’t grow very well there
- roses don’t have time to bloom as far as I can tell. Don’t get them anymore.
- after the first hard frost, we still had good broccoli, lettuce, and root veggies
- tomatoes aren’t worth keeping after a frost. Peas don’t taste good and green beans turn to slime.
- it’s much better to sow seeds in the dirt than to forget to transplant them from the sixpacks
- carrots, beets and parsnips may not be worth starting in sixpacks
- rototilling and sowing before Memorial Day would have been OK this year
- bulbs:
- Lilies did great started in big pots
- brodaiea “fabiola” were really pretty
- the others didn’t perform very well. It’ll be interesting to try some scilla
Next year
- plan to spend more time planting, from the last week of May until it’s done!
- weed more, earlier
- use row covers on the basil like Basically Basil and Calypso do
- try out clear plastic mulch
- use some of that compost that is looking so good
- I planted some baby carrots we forgot to transplant- will they grow good early carrots?
- the plants on the deck were too dry, again
- start flowers much earlier
- I think the zukes wanted more heat and water
- peas grow much taller than our 5′ mesh – next year maybe do a roof for a covered tunnel walkway?
- try those perennial welsh onions instead of leeks
- harvest throughout August
- pace eating the cauliflower – it got away from us by August 20
more:
- winter squash
- cauliflower
- broccoli
- chard
less:
- lettuce
- amaranth
- are herbs really worth it?