The end of the garden year, 2010

This was a challenging year in the garden. Many unique conditions prevailed which affected our food yields, and I feel I've learned a lot from the trial and error that has occurred. Most significantly there was a lot of heat, early in the spring and summer. There was also a good bit of moisture - and apparently the combination of heat and moisture = slimy mold in the broccoli and cabbage family. We pulled and discarded many broccoli plants, and also noted that they were not heading properly anyways due to the early heat. We did enjoy one delicious meal of beef and broccoli when we trimmed all the tender shoots and leaves and transformed them into a gourmet delight. ginger, garlic, broccoli, black bean sauce and soy sauce were employed with nice tender steak sliced thin.

We also lost our red veined swiss chard when it bolted in the June heat. That has never happened before. As a conciliation prize, the prior year's chard plant which had gone to seed and was left on the deck to dry; cast some seeds into the driveway and they came up and became hearty, robust plants in the shade of the house, growing wildly in the gravel and thriving all through the summer and fall.

I planted shelling peas early this spring and for some reason, after several harvests the crop set new flowers and the resulting peas were still maturing in late June (despite the extreme heat and the fact that peas prefer cold weather to flourish). This bonus resulted in delays in the planting of sweet potatoes while I awaited the final pea harvest to be done, and the idea to co-crop the hills prevented me from applying the black plastic to the sweet potato beds due to the presence of pea plants. In the end, I decreased my total sweet potato harvest from 200# down to about 30 # and reduced the overall size of tubers so much that they aren't worthy of curing. We'll eat them asap, and hope they hold firm until they're gone.

The dried bean experiments from the previous year spurred more interest and varieties to try this year. There were substantial differences in yields and I am still intending to document which ones were the favored performers and flavors. I cannot afford to buy organic/ heritage seed again. It's going to have to be my own sacrifice to grow and build my seed stock over several years, I think. That is still an open question.

I did not grow tomatoes. My heritage seed from Chris Didio of Culver Road (Wambach's) germinated and grew but I started them far too late. They are large plants and next spring I need to get a serious early start for them to thrive. Volunteer cherry tomatoes proliferated the garden and I discovered that indeed, the late blight virus did not bother them at all. That is the real reason I did not plant tomatoes - fear of wasting the space and losing the whole crop.

I did not grow squash, as Evie does not like it and it takes a lot of space and Bob continues to object to "too much garden". Sweet potatoes had filled that niche for us for a few years. Upon eating a butternut squash this fall, I liked it so much I realize I need to add them in again next year.

Due to a volunteer (junk) squash plant that took over the garden, I did not get summer squash plants we started into the garden and that was a huge disappointment. I need to remember to pull all volunteers in future years and not be deceived. I always miss zucchini when we don't have it to eat. On the other hand I did plant eggplants and I must admit I have no taste for them any more. They went to waste.

Our seed onions were successful but small due to a certain hot week when drought was on, and I didn't realize the plants should have been watered and shaded. The tops bent and the plants died a month early and the resulting bulbs were only 1/2 the size they might have been. Still a good crop - but unfortunate.

Garlic went into the ground in May and came out in August/Sept. I checked them frequently for splitting and moisture damage, as the later summer was damp, and finally pulled many firm, lovely heads to dry in the barn.

Carrot seed was planted in June and the resulting crop was sweetened by cool fall temps. Young, tender carrots not too large, unlike last year's monster carrots, were also heavily invaded by rodents and many were eaten out from the tops down. I found that the square foot method for carrots might not be ideal for that reason for carrot yields in the future. I also saw many wire worms damaging our harvest of carrots.

Beets were similarly affected by rodents when bordered by bush beans, which gave coverage to whatever was sneaking in from the side and munching on their tops. Whitey and Kathy donated a row of their carrots and they are sweet, hard, blunt tipped variety.

Parsnip seed was dead and there is no parsnip harvest for this year.

Late beets were not as quick to mature as the carrots, though planted around the same time (in the parsnip spot, perhaps?) and the cold frame has only allowed them to stay living but not necessarily to make bulbs for sweetness. I have not sampled any yet but want them to be as large a baby beet as possible, and feel that this date, November 22, is a little late to have much hope left for that.

Late Cabbages were planted and are still not headed. I may be able to get some sauerkraut made from them despite they lack of heading. It seems a sad waste. Next year I hope to time my late crops better so that they are mature in time for the root cellar storage.

Marisa and I planted turnips, kohlrabi and rutabega in later summer. Turnips have matured to anywhere from 2" and up to 4" roots, with rich green tops. The others have only begun to form up, and are still baby plants. All the late crops are under plastic but not really doing much, and I'm seeing cabbage lopers invading the cabbage now. I think it is time to give up, soon, before they eat more than the possible growth that might occur.

Today, I spent grabbing an unusually warm and rainy afternoon/ evening doing some concrete patching in the basement to close off a large breeze under our kitchen. I'm fairly certain it was an entrance hole created by a rodent; and since the whole point of growing and storing food is for us to be able to eat it, I have a distinct objection to the furry four legged varmints coming in and eating the middles out of my squashes so that they can have the seeds from the middle!!! I'm glad to say that they have not discovered any way into the root cellar - this was 2009's concrete patching work - sealing all the edges carefully so that they would not be able to figure out where to gnaw their way into my storehouse. I definitely have to think long and hard about how to create the ideal conditions and how to close off the storage of cool/dry vegetables - such as squashes - so that they won't be disturbed by rodents.