This year’s weather gave us mild spring temperature swings, a hot summer with little rain, and a gradual cooling through fall. It was a great year for asparagus, beets, carrots, lettuce, okra, onions, parsnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and tomatillos. It was less than a great year for our tomatoes and beans (bush, pole, lima, runner, and soy).
Work began seedlings indoors in early March, followed by work at the garden in early April. There were no large infrastructure projects, though the Jerusalem artichoke bed was dug, replanted, and lined with metal edging. With the park playground completed, the Friends of Robbins Farm Park’s regular schedule returned with Spring and Fall Cleanup Days and Field Day. The Friends also had a Town Day booth in September, complete with a basket from the garden.
New crops this year were: garleek, dahlias, salvia, and snapdragons. We tried new varieties of beans (Red Tail, Amethyst), beets (Chioggia), Brussels sprouts (Speedia), collards (Top Chop), lettuce (Kagraner Sommer), marigold (Petite Mix), onion (Wethersfield), parsnip (Warrior), fall pea (Sugar Ann), peppers (Aji Cristal, Aleppo, Altiplano, Criolla de Cocina, Goddess, Round of Hungary, Sargento), potato (Carola), specialty radish (Pusa Jamuni), salad turnip (Tokinashi), tomatillo (Pancho), tomatoes (Chef’s Choice Yellow, Golden Jubilee, Midnight Roma, Mountain Spirit, Woodstock), winter squashes (Mambo, Red Kuri, Seminole), watermelon (Blacktail Mountain), and zucchini (Long White of Palermo).
None of this would have been possible without the skill, ingenuity, persistence, and genuine good cheer of our amazing gardeners: Alan, Anne, Bev, Brian, Carol, Celia, David, Elisabeth, Lisa, Maddie, Martha, Mike, Nicole, Pamela, Shakti, Steven, Suzy, Tim, and Wendy. Thank you all!
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