This past year I was worse than usual and did not get around to blogging about my garden. My new spring resolution is to be better at keeping notes about the garden. For now though this is from memory....
Let's see... the potatoes did not make it. There was a crazy heat wave and termites got into my potato growing bags and ruined them all. I had waited until after vacation to harvest, in hindsight I should have dumped the bags before vacation because I saw rotten remnants of what might have been lovely potatoes that the termites ruined.
The zucchini went bonkers in the heat, as usual and lasted into August before the squash bugs ruined the plant. Normally I would've been sick of zucchini by that point anyway but I discovered zucchini fritters and couldn't get enough of them.
The eggplant produced nicely and I thoroughly enjoyed making eggplant hummus out of them.
The big surprise was the banana peppers. I got tonnes of them and decided to try making salsa with those instead of bell peppers.... WONDERFUL! I will be growing lots more again for making salsa.
The tomatoes didn't do so great. I am struggling with the seedlings in the seed starter. They get leggy and when they are planted outside don't produce a lot of fruit.
For the things that did typically well, the carrots, beets, leek, celery, cucumbers all grew like every other year.
I actually got a nice bowl worth of peas this year. Making progress. I used the legume inoculant and it really made a difference. I think if it hadn't been a crazy hot year I would've had lots of peas.
I tried the already started plants from the nursery for broccoli, brussel sprouts and kohlrabi and they all did well. The broccoli didn't put on too much because of the heat though. The brussel sprouts grew tall. Since I didn't know when to prune the leaves I started too early. This year I need to leave it alone till the fall I think.
The beans put on nicely after I finely got them to grow. Something kept eating the plants off so I over seeded and ended up getting enough to have lots to freeze.
In around all the tomatoes and peppers I planted spinach which worked out really well. I was able to harvest lots before the heat stopped them from growing.
I put a lot of basil plants in and harvested early to make pesto which worked out the best. With the heat they went bitter again and I couldn't use them later in the summer.
I also grew lettuce in a planter box and these grew really well until it got hot. I will definitely do this again too.
The nice surprise was the cajun peppers and jalapeño that I got starter plants for. These were yummy and I will start a bunch from seed this year. I also tried poblano but they didn't grow very well. They were all small and not big enough to stuff. Also, in the fall I pulled the entire plants out just before a heavy frost and hung them in the basement. Surprisingly enough they do ripen that way.
Now it's time to start planning this year's garden :D
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