Notes to the Future

Bulb Fennel: grew well, tasty though not very large, find a bigger variety for next year

Carrots: nice carrots from both plantings, good varieties (try settling on just 2 orange varieties?), good schedule, should have been thinned better

Celery: good overall, about the right amount, lost one seedling early and a few more plants later, blanch earlier next year?

Parsnips: added (maybe too much) sand to the soil, another bad year for germination – even second seeding, some leaf damage (by beetles?), overrun by sweet potatoes, a few were split or stubby, try to improve for next year

Arugula: awesome planted w/zucchini, plant using on a 6-week schedule, dividing the bed into 3 sections planted every 2 weeks (alternate with lettuce)

Bok Choi: 4/25 planting produced good heads in 7-8 weeks, try seeding more heavily to take some plants and only leaves from others or replant in July

Cress & Mustard: tasty varieties, produced more than enough, plant in April, June & August

Kales & Collards: did well, try to find a larger-leafed dinosaur kale, go back to old curly kale?

Lettuce: mostly perfect, varieties & schedule good, one planting developed some type of rot in the heat, start planting Nevada earlier, leave more space for planting board, last planting was a bit late

Spinach: spring crop: bad leaf miner on plants seeded in garden – not on transplants from indoors, Shelby germinated better indoors – same as Verdil outdoors. Fall crop: Verdil germinated well though many plants died off, those that survived did great

Swiss Chard: bad leaf miner early in season, broadcasting worked better than planting in rows, find a bigger variety for next year, try not picking one plant to see how big it gets, try row cover

Bush Beans: grid planting okay, leaves affected by some disease (rust?), shorter harvest season

Fava Beans: best crop & best looking plants to date, yet still not very productive

Peas: all did well (both early & late), check source of Sugar Snap (better in 2014)

Pole Beans: purples did better on trellis – those at gate were diseased (rust?), Romano type smaller & less bountiful – check source for seed, greens didn’t do as well as in previous years

Soybeans: good crop over reasonable harvest window, some damage to leaves (beetles?)

Beets: uneven timing, though all eventually produced nice beets, but bad leaf miner early in the season & some diseased leaves (rust?), plant radishes afterward next year

Jerusalem Artichokes: good harvest, though hit with aphids & mildew, move next year

Potatoes: all varieties did fine, Purple Vikings rule

Radishes: early crops did fine – might be better in main beds, late crops did poorly due to lack of sun, try planting earlier or in main beds

Sweet Potatoes: black plastic technique not great, all 3 varieties produced good vines, lost 2 Georgia Jet plants – replaced with Beauregard slips, yields of 3/plant not great, try using black plastic to warm soil – then remove

Salad Turnips: early seeding in perimeter beds had lots of root damage, plant in main beds only. Late seedings should have been planted a little earlier and thinned better

Turnips: did well, needed to be thinned better