Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Garden Overview 2008, part 3

Lettuce: this was my first year doing heading lettuce, and I was really happy with it (with the exception of the huge mama wolf spider that hid under one leaf, laid her eggs there, and came at me with a loaded shotgun when I tried to pick her home). I plant looseleaf lettuce with the carrots and radishes, and it’s really showy.

Parsnips: SOOOO happy with this, really tickled. I will definitely grow these again. One thing which I did know going in but was surprised was how few seeds actually germinated. Apparently parsnips are known for this problem. I will need to be a little more attentive to how many seeds I actually put in vs. how many sprout this year.

Radishes: I grow radishes with the carrots, the radishes mark the rows for the carrots, which take forever to spout. This year I grew Pink Celebration, which was a dark pink with a white inside. Eh, they were typical radishes. I also tried to grow Watermelon, which are white on the outside and pink on the inside, and they didn’t sprout. These were supposed to be a fall radish, I think I just planted them at the wrong time. I’ll try again this year.

Peas: I planted sugar snap peas around 2/3 of the deer fencing, so we had a bumper crop. I still have some in my freezer. I love sugar snap peas right off the vine, as does my father in law. I was worried he sneak over at night and eat them all, but he didn’t.

Squash, Winter: my first attempt at winter squash didn’t go so well. I think I was a victim of borers, or something. I had some wonderful, thriving, long vines and a few squash, then the vines started to die from the beginning toward the growing tip. I only got one squash this year, it was a Triamble (Shamrock). I will try again this year, I have some growing tips from a friend to try. In addition to the Triamble, I tried Guatemalan Blue Banana and Galeux d'Eysines.

Squash, Summer: last year I tried a yellow crookneck and a zuch called Black Milano (really dark green). They were nice, but both got powdery mildew and while I got a nice harvest it cut the plants’ lives short. I’m not sure how to get around this.

Pumpkins: I planted some seeds from some variety of pumpkins that Tim and I had carved the year before. They were smallish and orange, and I got two good ones.

Berries: we have a blueberry bush that came with the house and a blackberry bramble that grew as a volunteer in the middle of my herb bed, dammit, and is taking over, but does sooooo well every year that I don’t want to dig it up. We tried to root some branches of the blueberry this summer, but it didn’t take. This year I’m going to try again, but I’m going to get some rooting hormone to use and hopefully it will work.

1 comment:

YD, sometimes with ♥June and ♥Angel Samantha said...

Hi Jody,

I am so anxious to find out what you have in mind for this year's garden. I ordered my seeds last week. I can't wait!