2023

This year’s weather gave us the usual New England spring temperature extremes, followed by a warm and unusually wet summer, resulting in very little watering. We had a long autumn, pleasantly punctuated by rain, and no hard frost until well into November.

It was a good year for alliums, legumes, squashes, root crops and celery, and it was a slightly less good (but not bad) year for brassicas and nightshades.

New crops this year were Scarlet Runner beans, Lemongrass, Shiso, Gai Lan (Chinese broccoli), Japanese Wasabi radish, Black Futsu winter squash, Lemon Verbena, Turkish Rocket (perennial arugula), and Black & Tan sesame.

Work at the garden began with completing the garden’s double-digging with the back perimeter beds, resulting in removal of another massive rock. Other infrastructure projects included a metal structure for the squashes and building our garden shed.

We assisted dedicated Friends of Robbins Farm Park volunteers with Spring Cleanup Day and Town Day. (Field Day and Fall Cleanup Day were cancelled due to the closing of the playground for reconstruction.)

None of this would have been possible without the ingenuity, persistence and genuine good humor of this year’s amazing gardeners: Alan, Carol, Celia, David, Elisabeth, Lisa, Mike, Nicole, Shakti, Steven, Suzie, Tim, and Wendy. Thank you all!

Egyptian Walking Onions transplanted bulblets from last year did well, transplanted more to fill in bed.
Garlic did well, Russian Red not as large as Georgian Crystal (maybe refresh stock?), wrappers were strong but there was a little rot around some stalks.
Onions did well, slightly damaged by mildew (be careful not to over-water in cool spring weather), good feeding schedule.
Onion sets did reasonably well, but would have benefitted from more diligent weeding.
Leeks did well but had a small amount of rot (too much wet weather?).
Scallions were absolute perfection, and lasted to the final day of the season!
Shallots did well, slightly damaged by mildew (be careful not to over-water in cool spring weather).

Broccoli spring crop had smaller than usual heads with good color; fall crop also had smaller heads, but with perfect color; no aphid damage on either crop; harvested stems on last gardening day.
Brussels sprouts variety was new, Divino produced small, but otherwise clean and uniform sprouts; there were lots of cabbage worms and a few plants required support, row near Jerusalem artichokes was stunted, try more regular feeding and topping plants earlier?
Cabbage spring crop was good, with lots of cabbage worms (use row cover next year?), red variety not as small as usual; fall crop also good, Alcosa savoy was smaller than Famosa and took longer to mature (go back to only Famosa?), Jersey type didn’t germinate well (possibly too few seeds planted), yielding fewer heads.
Cauliflower spring crop mostly did well, but a few were button heads (temperature extremes?); fall crop was great with a few somewhat smaller heads, some cabbage worm problems.
Collards failed to thrive, look for a more vigorous variety or go back to Georgia from High Mowing?
Gai Lan (new crop): spring crop was shaded by Brussels sprouts, fall crop was probably planted too late; try growing in another location and consider changing planting time.
Kales both had poor germination despite reseeding (weather?), barely had enough plants yet they rallied and produced normally later in the season.
Kohlrabi first crop started indoors planted denser than plan but did well, second crop seeded outdoors got off to slow start in shade of kale and volunteer marigold, many didn’t mature in time.

Carrots planting 3 crops spread out harvest well: first on 4/29 (needed some infill), second on 6/3 and third on 7/8 (after beets); germinated well with board technique and produced well but weren’t thinned properly, try to thin better next year.
Celery was enormous and beautiful (lots of rain), may have blanched the plants too early (7/22) causing some rot to develop, wait a few more weeks next year for best celery ever!
Parsnips some problems with germination, infill seeding was done between rows of first planting (maybe should be done earlier and regardless of initial germination), plants generally did well, sifting soil produced better roots – worth the effort.

Asparagus growing really well, tall and bushy, keep on same fertilizer schedule, enjoyed our first year of harvests the first 3 weeks of May!
Corn variety was a new indigenous flint type, was not terribly sturdy and produced only a half-dozen ears total; look into ways to increase pollination and vigor of plants; fence plants early to avoid breakage from weight of bean plants; saved seed and have left-over seed for next year.
Marigolds saved seed didn’t germinate, emergency buy of mixed varieties resulted in many enormous plants, buy compact variety for next year and save seed. Plant in tomato and eggplant beds and in back of squash beds, probably not in pepper bed.
Nasturtiums did great again, one patch lasted into November!
Okra a few plants succumbed to cool wet weather after transplanting (consider a cloche next year) and bunny predation during hardening off, but plants grew reasonably well and were productive.
Saffron did well, harvested over 4 weeks!
Sesame seed started too early and planted in garden too early, beautiful seedlings all died… try again and treat more like okra (plant late and cover in cold wet weather).
Sunflowers had good germination and produced reasonably well, but were in competition with the left-over Jerusalem artichokes still sprouting in the bed from last year.

Arugula first planting came up well and bolted (as usual) in the heat, later plantings lasted through the end of the season, make sure bed gets regular fertilizer.
Bok Choy spring crop did well but new variety Shanghai bolted early (only grow in fall?); fall crop did well, look for place to transplant extra seedlings (lettuce bed?), make sure it gets enough fertilizer.
Lettuce was a mixed bag again, first 2 plantings from seedlings were perfect, early summer plantings had terrible germination (too hot?), later plantings produced decent heads (especially green star) in October; consider using board method to cover seed as done in the last plantings along with shade cloth.
Malabar Spinach did well on four corners of tomato structure, went all the way to the top!
Mustard both spring crops did well, fall crops didn’t germinate as well and weren’t given enough light and attention to thrive.
Perpetual Spinach had poor germination, plants not robust and hit by small dark-rimmed holes in leaves in late summer, did not recover, give better soil and fertilize more?
Shiso grew green and red in tomato bed (in place of a basil plant), was decorative and interesting, but not all that popular.
Spinach spring crop was only seeded indoors, did better without outdoor seeding, lost a few plants (not sure why), could plant 6 6-packs and plant rows closer, forgot insect cover with a sticky trap inside but no major damage, protect next year; fall crop failed though there was some initial germination and it was covered, probably needs to be started earlier and indoors to be viable.
Swiss Chard started strong, was well thinned, but not covered for leaf miner, had a reasonable mid-season, hit by small dark-rimmed holes in leaves in late summer, didn’t fully recover, fertilize more? One errant plant that survived from the previous year was exceptionally strong and productive.
Turkish Rocket (new crop) started from seed and planted 3 seedlings in herb bed, which grew but didn’t produce florets, no harvest this year, see what comes up next year.