The main reason for starting my gardening blog back early last year was to keep notes on what worked, what didn’t, and what I would change for 2010. Since my 2010 Territorial catalog came in this weekend I guess it’s time for me to write the summary post on all of the things I grew in 2009.
First, though, the results of a few of my experiments from this year.
The stone bed really is good for plants that do better in partial shade. My tomatoes didn’t do well there. Spinach, lettuces, kale and carrots all did well there. Onions, bok choy and surprisingly enough, Chard, didn’t do very well. I guess it will be my ‘greens’ bed from now on. This works out well since it is elevated above the bunnies that would likely chow down.
I have several experiments planed for 2010. First of which will be to propagate my blueberry bush. Second will be the new garden itself. I’m going with Steve Solomon’s recommendation and moving away from raised beds towards low mounded rows. I’ll be doing a lot wider plant spacing in hopes of better water conservation. I have the 1/2 acre, I should put it to use.. and I will. This should allow me to run my in-ground irrigation system only rarely through the driest of summer months.
Now, on to the summary:
Name |
Grow Again? |
How it went |
What to do differently |
Jalepenos |
Maybe | Peppers are hard. Really hard. We had several days over 100 degrees and mine still yielded poorly. I think they were planted way too early | This year I think I’ll grow the seedlings much longer indoors. I set out fairly small plants in 2009, way too early. I think they went into shock. I’m considering growing them under cover all year too. I have some coldframes in use this winter that might make it extra warm for the peppers. |
Leafy Greens |
Yes | These were my greatest success, probably because it’s hard to screw em up. I did well in succession planting in my stone framed bed. | I think I’ll add bits of spinach and smaller leaf types around as borders in my flower beds and other areas this year. They do so well and look so pretty. |
Pac Choi |
No | The first early planting of pac choi didn’t do well at all. In fact they failed miserably. A second, much warmer planting did better but still didn’t create very large plants, and most bolted quickly. | We eat a fair amount of store-bought boc choy, but I think I’d rather grow something else in the space. |
Rutabagas |
No | We ended up eating more rutabaga greens than rutabagas. The roots didn’t develop very well. To top it all off.. we found we don’t really care for rutabagas. | Not growing. |
Bulb Onions |
Maybe | They didn’t do well. Most sprouted and just stagnated at 5 inches tall. However, towards the fall and even early winter they started to grow nicely. | Storage onions are cheap… I live in the same state that produces Walla Walla Sweets. On the other hand, if I grow over-wintering onions, it will be growing when not much else does. I’ll have to do some reading about it this year and see what the fall brings. |
Carrots |
Yes | I did two plantings of carrots this year and had great success with both. The carrots grew nice and fat and tasted great. | I planted too early to get any frost on the carrots. They were all ready long before the fall. This year I’ll do another planting in mid-summer. |
Canoe Peas |
Yes | I’m not sure about these. They did OK, but didn’t do as well or produce as much as I was expecting. I had 10 vines get about 3′ tall and produce only about 5 pods each. Not much. | I’m not sure what to do differently. I think I’ll try succession planting this year to see if I was too early into the ground. Peas grow in cool weather, so I don’t think I was all that early if any. We’ll see. |
Early Tomatoes |
Yes | I grew Oregon Spring and Northern Delight early tomatoes from seed indoors before transplanting out. I’m pretty sure I was still too early into the ground with these. I got only a few pounds of tomatoes from each plant. Barely enough to eat, not nearly enough to can. | Start indoors a little bit later, and then out into the coldframes instead of the ground itself. The season for tomatoes here is short, so I need to get a head start, but the nights are still cool enough to put the baby tomatoes into shock, from which most never recovered lasy year. |
Main Season Tomatoes |
Yes | I picked up several semi-professionally grown San Marzano and Roma tomato seedlings from a neighborhood lady on Craigslist. I planted them much later in the year.. too late I thought, in mid-May. It turned out to be just right though and they did far and away better than my Earlies did. | I will likely try to buy some seedlings from the same lady this year as back up to my own that I start indoors and in coldframes. |
Tomatillos |
No | My tomatillos didn’t do all that well this year. Probably due again to the fact I jumped the gun and planted too early. Their requirement to be planted in several plant groups for proper pollination adds up to me not planting them again in 2010. | Not growing. |
Beans |
No | I harvested a total of 3 bean pods in 2009. Epic Fail seems to apply to my bean crop. Only 2 out of 15 beans in two successive plantings germinated at all. Or, as I think is more likely, survived the birds. | We don’t really eat many beans, so I’ll use the space for something more valuable. |
Green Onions |
Yes | My green onions took a bit to get off the ground but eventually went on and did really well. They grew well into the fall, providing me green onions whenever I needed them and storing very well in the cool ground. | This year I plant to grow a lot more, and use them a lot more often. |
Sunflower |
Maybe | We tried to grow two different sunflowers this year, and both failed. The first was from a seed packet and most of the seeds were cracked. None germinated. The other attempt was for a plant from home depot. It didn’t last a week. | If I decide to try again this year, it will be with reputable seeds planted in the main garden. |
One Ball Squash (summer) |
Yes | These were some of the most luscious looking plants in the garden this year. They all did well and produced plenty of little single serving summer squash. | Give the plants more room this year. They all grew together really fast last year and mildew set in and killed most of them once the season started to change. I think I could have gotten another few weeks if they were spaced wider. |
Spaghetti Squash (winter) |
Yes | This vining squash needs a lot of room to grow, but grows fairly well vertically. It did well, and the fruits held for a long time after being harvested. At least 3 months on some of them. | I’ll create a better trellising system for them this year right from the start. They seemed to grow pretty happily in the Up direction which gives me more room on the ground for other things. |
Herbs |
Yes | Some of my herbs did ok, some failed spectacularly. My cilantro came up on its own this year and did just OK. I don’t think it got enough sun or heat to grow big lush leaves. My dill took a full 60 days to germinate and then came up long after I had given it up for dead. Still it didn’t do very well either. I had better luck with Basil that I planted in pots. My oregano, sage, epazote, and marjoram all did great. | I think I will keep more herbs in pots or planted under cold frames with my peppers, especially the cilantro and basil, the two I use the most. |