Notes to the Future

General comments:

• Fertilize EVERYTHING on a more regular basis – and not just with compost. Research to find ideal frequency & nutrients needed, by crop. Consider foliar feeding, e.g. with Stress-X or other seaweed-based fertilizer, which also helps to discourage foliar diseases.
• We need to be more ruthless in our thinning. Research ideal spacing, by crop, & adhere to that when thinning.
• Use an organic critter deterrent (spray and/or in small, ventilated bottles hung throughout the garden, possibly allowing us to avoid chicken wire around crops where the wire interferes with tending/harvesting.

Garlic: did well, fertilize in spring next year.
Leeks: did well, but not quite as robust as in some years.
Onions: sets did fine, seed varieties all did well, counting problems with seedlings, consider fertilizing mid-season.
Scallions: grew stronger and faster in sunny spot near gate, bed near bench took all season to mature. Scallions near bench were in thick hedges, consider distributing the seeds in thinner rows to make harvesting easier.
Shallots: did well, but didn’t have enough, consider fertilizing mid-season.
Walking Onions: provided spring scallions, first bulblet planting not as successful as second.

Broccoli: first crop slightly discolored (try fertilizing mid-way), second crop solid, but all headed up the same week. Late crop covered with insect screen, but lots of cabbage worms matured under the screen. No noticeable lasting damage from the worms.
Brussels sprouts: grew 3 varieties due to old seed (difficult to tell apart) some didn’t mature, aphids only on leaves.
Cabbages: early green did well (red variety was small), late varieties good (except Aubervilliers hardly headed up). consider covering spring cabbage bed with agrofabric when transplanting seedlings.
Cauliflower: early crop variety did well (some headed up very early), late crop didn’t all mature.
Kohlrabi: good way to use space in center of zucchini bed, but difficult to harvest, try starting as seedlings or maybe making a raised-bed, like leeks?

Carrots: first crop basically failed: poor germination and die off, second crop planted earlier than usual did well. Make sure to keep soil moist after sowing.
Celeriac: strong seedlings, plants did well; too close together. If we’re going to continue planting these, maybe we should plant half as many?
Celery: strong seedlings, most plants did well, may have wrapped too early, research blanching and companion plantings. We need to keep an eye on these once they are wrapped and it rains. A couple of them rotted. Needs calcium (eggshells) and boron.
Parsnips: poor germination despite pelleted seed (straw mulch or soil temperature?), those that matured were good, harvested late Late harvest after poor germination reinforced the need for serious thinning, as most of the parsnips harvested were a good size.

Basil: plants did well, some insect damage (wooly bear caterpillars)
Cilantro: first planting good, but spotty germination afterward
Nasturtiums: did well (took over Malabar Spinach), consider planting with zucchini. Overtook the malabar spinach seedlings, consider bigger gap between them.
Okra: strongest seedlings ever, all matured, need mid-season fertilizer.
Popcorn: new variety similar to old variety, slightly less productive.
Rhubarb: hanging on, but not thriving – research ideal conditions. Rhubarb definitely loves sun, so moving it to a sunnier spot would help.
Sunflowers: awesome!

General: consider insect screen for more crops, esp. Collards, Chard, Lettuce, Spinach.
Arugula: first planting good, but spotty germination afterward.
Bok Choi: both crops did well.
Collards: did well, some insect damage early in season.
Kales: chicken wire worked well for bunny protection, some insect damage.
Malabar Spinach: strong seedlings plus self-seeded plants did fine on side without nasturtiums.
Lettuce: germination a problem all season (lots of transplanting), early seedlings did the best.
Mesclun: grew fine in shady bed, need to establish schedule & find someone to adopt. Good way to use up old greens seed at end of season.
Mustard: green not as robust as red, need to establish schedule.
Perpetual Spinach: did well again, even in terrible location.
Spinach: seedlings bolted a bit, seeded crop had spotty germination. Needs lots of calcium (eggshells).
Swiss Chard: some die-off (rot or fungus) early, try transplanting to fill gaps, use larger piece of screen to cover Poor productivity- need to research possible causes of rot/die off problems. Screen definitely helped causes problems.