End of (another) Year

After all and at last, 2009 and the first decade of this century draws to an end. After two years, the vegeable garden beds are established and have been productive. The past season's weather was much different from 2008 and so were the bright spots in harvest. But with the last two years experiences, an understanding of all that needs to get done is clearer. While not overly abundent, stored vegetables look to the load through most of the Winter.

Plans for the coming season will involve a focus on increasing productivity to a much higher level than in the past. This will be a "test" year to see if it might be possible to produce enough surplus to be of use to others. There are also lots of new projects to help that along.

Cheif among the new projects will be a permanent greenhouse, PVC hoophouse, and a experimental PVC cold frame. Couple with row covers and other "cold weather" techniques, the season could hopefully be extended y a month on each end. In addition, the soft fruit growing areas will be expanded using a few purchased starts as well as transplants.

Catalogs have begun arriving and over the next week or two, it will be time to make wish lists that will soon be purchase lists. This could wait until local sources are available, but with the deariness of Winter and anticipation of the coming Spring, its hard to put it out of mind.

Brassica

About the only Brassica that I eat much of is broccoli - and I do like it alot. I try to grow enough to have frozen and soup to get through the Winter. While it takes a lot of space, I can get two or three harvests before removing the plants in late summer, I try to have some growing in mid summer to offer fresh plants in the Fall.

Last year I bought Green Goliath and had some Waltham 29 seeds previously. I still have seeds of both but I'll probably stock up again when seeds are marked down this Summer.

I've seeded plants in doors and out doors directly in place. The plants give me a head start for the first one or two crops and then there's enough time to let them grow in place. With luck I'll have 30- 40 plants during the growing season.

I do grow a couple of green and red cabbages - two or three reds and 3-4 greens. I don;t eat them, but they do make for good gifts and barter in the Fall.

Lettuce

Lettuce is another easy to grow vegetable, but it is easy to get too much at one time. Last year I planted too heavily and had that problem. This year, I'm working to plant just a little, but often. I like a variety of lettuce and so I plant both red and green colors of Simpson/Grand Rapids, Cos, and Buttercrunch types. The Simpson and GR grow very quickly and get used regularly. The Cos and Buttercrunch types are a little slower and longer to mature but help to make tasty Spring Salads.

This year, I started a few of each variety in-doors to transplant out into the graden, but after one or two crops, I'll be seeding directly outside. The small plants transplant fairly well and it gives them a bit of a head start during the cooler Spring. As with the Radishes, its best to plant just enough to get by rather than large amounts.

Generally I shoot for about a dozen plants at once of each type. The first few harvests, I'll cut leaves, but then after that I usually pull the plants to make a little more room for warm weather crops like beans.

Radishes and Carrots

Radishes are one of the fool-proof vegetables I grow. I don't eat a lot of them, but do enjoy some fresh and in salads. Because I don't need to grow a lot, I can grow a few varieties.

The best ones I grow are French Breakfast. These are an elongated cyclindrical type and grow quickly. The globe-type tend to go woody quicker for me, but I still plant Cherry Globe, Sparkler, and few Chinese White globe-types. Because the grow quickly, even up here, I tend to plant a few every 10 days or so trying to spread out the harvest. I usually try to limit my efforts to two or three feet at one time. Once it warms up they are best not planted as they go woody even faster. The key is to harvest them early and heavily. My goal this year will be to ruthless ly tend them and harvest as soon as practical to make room for my Carrots.

I do use more Carrots in soups, stir fries and freeze them for Winter. Because the beds are only 8 or so inches deep, I try to grow more short varieties than the longer classic types. Half Danvers and Nantes have proven the most reliable for me and I plant enough to get me through the Winter as well as enough to eat fresh.

Onions

I really like onions and eat lots from Fall through Spring. Last year I planted sets and they turned out ok - not too many of the baseball sized ones I was hoping for. Someone told me that the biggest sized bulbs can from plants and so this year, I'm putting out plants along with Shallots, Bunching seeds onions, and Garlic.

I like a good variety of onions so I got 50 each of Walla Walla, Mars (red) and Cora for overwinter. The Garlic just came from the grocery and was planted last Fall. This is the first time I've tried Shallots and Garlic - but both look to be a good addition to the allium bed. With the 150 plants I'll put in I hope to get about 50 nice onions to overwinter and share.

Potatoes

Last year, potatoes in my garden were an accident. I had some store bought Yukon Golds that went wrinkly and sprout. I was headed out to the compost pile when at the last minute I thought "What the heck?". Even though it was early June, they did fine and a got a couple of pounds of bonus potatoes.

This year, I decided to get serious about them. The smallest amounts I found were 2 pounds of seed potatoes which is what I ordered in 6 different varieties; Yukon Gold, Red Pontiac, Kennebac, Purple Viking, Adirondack Blue and All Red. I expect to plant about 8-12 nice hills of each and should get a nice harvest this Fall - at least that's the plan!

Peppers

I suppose one of the other long crops I'm growing are Peppers. I use a lot of Sweet Peppers in cooking and would like to have a good supply on hand over Winter. That means I need 6 or more plants and would like about 2 dozen peppers to freeze for overwinter.

I will be buying plants of California Wonder and will seed a Carnival Mixture for some other than the regular green bells.

Also this year I am going to grow some hot peppers mainly as ornamentals. I purchased several different colors and shapes to grow in pots as well as in beds. I have Numex (purple to red); Super Chili (green to red); Sangria (purple to red); Pretty in Purple (purple to red); Prairie Fire (Yellow to Red); and Riot (yellow to red).

Tomatoes

It seems that everyone lists the varieties of tomatoes they'll be growing first on their blog. I think that it may speak to the importance that we northern gardeners give to our tomato crops! For my part, I'm planning on both small cherry types as well as several standard types.

Sun Gold is a golden orange Cherry that I'll be trying this year - 65 days
Yellow Pear is an heirloom pear-shaped cherry I tried last year - 75 days
Juliet is a larger grape type that will be a first this year - 60 days
Sugar Snack is a cluster cherry that will also be a first this year - 65 days

Hopefully the above mix will provide a longer season of small tomatoes for snacking and storing. Some plants will be put into pots for the deck and the others will be in the garden proper.

Yellow Boy is a mild indeterminate standard from last year - 72 days
Big Boy is a larger indeterminate also from last year - 78 days
Beefsteak is an indeterminate old stand-by from last year - 80 days
Roma is a paste Italian type determinate that will be new - 76 days
Rutgers is an heirloom indeterminate that I've grown in the past - 74 days
Orange Blossom is an nice orange from last year - 68 days
Mr Stripie is an heirloom German type from last year - 78 days

Hopefully these standards will give me losts of Summer tomatoes as well as enough to put by frozen and in salsa, chili, and sauces to get through next Winter.