So how did your garden grow?

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Permalink Reply by Mary Heaner on October 10, 2009 at 12:36pm

I had a really sweet season in northern Portugal. Sauce from my beefsteak tomatoes tasted like ketchup. Red bell peppers are still producing, and the soup I made from them tastes like a dessert. OK, so they are both in the same family. But my beets are like candy and my apples are so sweet you would swear the applesauce I made from them is sugared apple pie filling.

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Permalink Reply by Terri Pucci on October 11, 2009 at 6:15pm

I envy your climate - so much sun to make everything so sweet!

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Permalink Reply by Martha Hill on October 11, 2009 at 12:23pm

You cannot outguess your garden !! Every year will be different !! Its like Pandoras Box !! Always a surprise inside !!

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Permalink Reply by Terri Pucci on October 11, 2009 at 6:14pm

In my New Englad garden we had tons of pole beans, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, potatoes, and waiting for a frost to harvest our carrots and brussel sprouts. The slugs did a number on my swiss chard and basil but I was able beat them by sprinkling salt directly on the slugs each night which turned them into goo. Once I was able to rid my garden of them my vegetables grew so much better. My beef steak tomatoes did ok and cherry and grape tomotoes too but we had black centers and black seeds in most of my roma plum tomatoes. I thought it was from the wet weather we had this year but after some research found that the plants were diseased right from the garden center. Our corn produced nothing - have to build up the soil in my new garden area.

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Permalink Reply by Robin Tingley on October 11, 2009 at 6:45pm

Interesting topic - this year was a head scratcher in zone 7b. No rain at all this summer after a wet spring. My tomatoes came down with TYLCV after I brought in two seedlings from a greenhouse - have spent the rest of the summer and fall battling whiteflies. Did have enough tomatoes for eating and freezing, but no homemade sauces to can this year :-(. Eggplants were eaten up with flea beetles, but still managed to produce enough for summer eating. Cucumbers, basil, peppers were outstanding. Beans did absolutely nothing - poles or bush. Have my fall veggies in now and still battling the whiteflies as well as cabbage worms but I refuse to admit defeat - and the collards are thriving right now.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Taylor on October 11, 2009 at 9:33pm

I'm in California (Sunset Zone 23), and we had a really weird year with 25+ degree temperature swings (like 90s with 40 mph wind and 7% humidity, then down into the 50s and back again a week later). That completely threw everything off schedule. Tomato volunteers came up in January and are still producing fruit. Some trees refused to set fruit at all.

Our 'real' tomatoes did great - for a while we were getting 30# to 45# per day from 14 plants. 'Black Krim' and 'Persimmon' were the two rave-heirlooms this year. The 'Yellow Perfection' tomatoes were great tasting and crisp, but much smaller than the previous years.

Melons were variable, and did best in areas that got reflected heat. We had great results from the 'Yellow Doll' watermelons.

We are into our fall garden, and I already have started harvesting nice baby beets put in Sept. 1. Lettuce varieties are in and growing nicely, more greens are about ready to set out, as are chard, broccoli and a few other cool weather veggies. We are still having oranges, guavas (pineapple, strawberry and lemon), sapotes (the 'Golden Glow' never really stops bearing), pomegranates are ending, and the persimmons are getting ripe.

Gophers had a field day in the banana republic and eat the bulbs from under half of the bananas. The survivors have been transplanted into another area - and into underground wire fabric cages...

We did have some pest issues, notably aphids that attacked a far end of the garden where I couldn't get a hose to jet the bugs off, and that pretty much cost me chard, eda mame and cabbage family plants in that area. Other than the aphids, we were pretty much insect free this year. Part of that may have been the weather, but a large part was the heavy mulching I have been doing for the last two years that has suppressed most of the orchard weeds. Another factor is the native environment we have recreated - including several coveys of quail which have done a great job of eating the bugs.

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Permalink Reply by PiscesGirl on October 11, 2009 at 10:32pm

I live in Olympia and had a mixed bag in the garden this year. Tomatoes, zukes, delicatas & grapes did awesome, onions, pumpkins and peppers were pathetic! This is our 3rd year with poor onions, so there is something that I'm not doing right, but I haven't figured it out yet.

By the way - my peppers were also Anaheim, and a few jalapenos too, and they are only just now flowering. I think they just need a longer season than they can get here in western Wa. :(

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Permalink Reply by Penelope on October 14, 2009 at 10:54am

My apple trees produced the best crop since I planted them 10 years ago. I have four: Gravenstein, MacIntosh, Rome and Lodi. I made pies and crisp, and my daughter picked the bulk of the crop to make sauce. My grapes, however, didn't do well. I need to learn more about pruning them. My tomato crop did OK, but the weather prevented many of them from ripening. A "black" tomato did really well and was our favorite slicing tomato. The marzanos were a disappointment this year; last year they were wonderful and I had an abundant crop. My garlic did well. I need to clean a bed out and plant more. I've had so much to do with my job and mandatory weaving projects, I've neglected my fall garden.

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Permalink Reply by Maxine Walker on October 14, 2009 at 11:35am

Fruit and nut tree production is strange, Have lived 5 years in my 1920's house with accompanying old walnut and plum tree. I thought maybe they were too old to bear. No fruit on the plum tree till this year, littered the ground this summer. No walnuts to speak of for 4 years (mostly went to the squirrels) until last year, neighbors and relatives and myself harvested buckets full. This year hardly any. My Himrod white seedless grape, 5 years old, finally bore a full crop, so much so I was scrambling for recipes and finally did raisins in my dehydrator. You didn't say how old your grapevine is - like I said , not much on mine until it reached 5 years. As to pruning, I pruned back each existing new growth to two nodes last spring all along it's 16 ft of length on a fence.

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Permalink Reply by Penelope on October 14, 2009 at 12:41pm

My grapevines are 10 years old. I planted three, too close together. I was used to the higher prairie where I lived before where people were likely to hve 40 year old apple bushes (stunted trees) that might have two or three apples once in a great while, and where grapes were unheard of. I probably need to take one of the grapes out, maybe the white Concord which was supposed to be a purple concord for juice but isn't. I also have a Himrod which produces nice table grapes and a Swenson red which doesn't always turn red before first frost. I think they need sun and a better attendant than me.

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Permalink Reply by Kathryn on October 14, 2009 at 12:47pm

Before you pruned them İ hope you pickled some of those leaves...

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Permalink Reply by Maxine Walker on October 14, 2009 at 1:00pm

Yes, but I picked them before then because they had lost their leaves by then. Pickled them this summer to make dolmas and also added them ro cucumber and zucchini pickle crocks to maintain "crunchiness". Also learned grapes develop more sweetness if subjected to some cool nights before picking. Yes Penelope, grapes need sun all day especially if not grown in "sun country".

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