Elisabeth

Beets were perfection!
Daikon was okay, but not as perfect as last year. Make sure to give each plant enough space next year.
Jerusalem Artichokes grew well, with only one flowering period this year. Possibly still too close together. Harvest just okay. Consider starting with fresh stock next year.
Potatoes from Fedco were disappointing (we’re experimenting with holding over Hutchins fall potatoes until spring). Adirondack Blue did well. Other 2 varieties didn’t all come up and didn’t have impressive yields. Less insect damage this year.
Radishes first crop had long harvest season (planted in 3 stages). Second crop did great, but should have been planted in stages to spread out harvest. Wasabi type just did okay, not all matured (maybe too close together).
Rutabagas started out ok, but did not reach full size. Had some mildew and late aphid damage. Maybe plants too close together. Consider fertilizing more.
Salad Turnip first crop had uneven germination, possibly didn’t get watered due to planting along edge of bed not being noticed. Consider marking with colored string. Second crop was amazing, very little root damage.
Sweet Potatoes were not as vigorous overall. (Didn’t try to take over the garden.) Purple variety not as productive; standard type most productive. Tubers were clean and very few fingerlings. Harvested before any critter damage.
Turnips were good, but a little smaller than usual. Were hit with mildew.

General notes: Consider reordering the cucumber bed: Honeynut | Watermelon | Slicing Cucumbers | Pickling Cucumbers | Pumpkins. For all squashes, get organized early to treat borers and mildew regularly and systematically. Consider switching trellises for winter and summer squash to better access radishes in front of cucumbers.
Cucumbers did better than last year, but still suffered from wilt. Experimented with planting summer radishes to deter beetles; may have helped (not as many seen this year), but certainly didn’t hurt.
Honeynut squash failed this year. Seedlings were fine, but they produced few squashes, which were small and all taken by critters before fully mature. If growing again, cover squashes with mesh bags.
Pumpkins were hit by vine borers and mildew, produced 1 pumpkin per plant.
Watermelons were better this year, good quality and reasonable size. Sprayed with Serenade for mildew. First harvest was early, and harvest lasted 9 weeks!
Winter Squashes did not have a great year. Squash Vine Borer eggs started appearing in June and continued through the growing season. Experimented with hand pollination. Critters nibbled at squashes; covering with mesh bags helped. Sprayed w/Serenade but didn’t keep track… try to be more systematic next year. Research different squash types and varieties to grow with butternut.
Zucchini and Yellow Squash did well and were productive. Both plantings got off to a good start and the first crop lasted into November! Planted seedlings in a soil basin to retain water. Vine borers were less of a problem due to lots of work: early removal of eggs on stems, injections, and surgeries. Dunja plants did better than Success; consider only growing Dunja next year? Try experimenting with upright supports to keep plants off ground.

Our embrace of the whole gardening season (such as it is in New England) puts us in the true Yankee gardener camp. We start many crops indoors to get a head start on the season, which opens up some of our garden space mid-summer for late season crops.

We grow early and late season broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, starting our early crop indoors and our late crop in a nursery bed in early June, following our spring spinach. On our 7-foot high trellis, we grow tall spring peas followed by fall pole beans, the first of which were picked today.

We follow our garlic, onions and shallots with root crops: turnips, daikon, radishes and salad turnips. Our first fall radishes were also harvested today. We slip in two plantings of bok choy, kohlrabi and mustard with almost effortless success. And we plant a crop of late peas after our spring fava beans, though they’re often stymied by trying to germinate in the hot mid-season soil. Sigh.

A few crops are grown successively. Our first two crops of lettuce are started indoors, followed by several direct-seedings through the end of August. (The last went in this morning.) Several plantings of arugula alternate in two small plots. We plant our carrots in three batches, the last going in after our beets, which we start indoors. And we squeeze in a smaller, second crop of zucchini after the first crop of broccoli comes out.

The garden soil is busy supporting crops almost continuously until organized gardening comes to an end in mid-November. Some years we have enough young lettuce plants to keep growing under low row covers through mid-December. And last year, our kales and collards were left in place over winter and survived to give us a spring harvest!

[The photos at right show the fall broccoli, cabbage, pole beans and our first harvest of radishes today.]