Notes to the Future

Eggplants did great again after a slow start (maybe too much water from doubled soaker hose?); some flea beetle damage but marigolds seemed to help again with small insect holes in fruits, great yield again.
Ground Cherries – very good, do again.
Peppers had a reasonably good year, plants generally strong and productive, leaf chewing was treated successfully with Neem oil, larger sweet peppers still needed to be picked green to avoid rot from insect holes, marigolds didn’t work to keep them away.
Tomatillos were unusually floppy, characteristically late to produce and had lots of small fruit at first frost, but not hit by striped potato beetles this year!
Tomatoes grew well on support structure updated with more secure stakes holding the strings, mulching around base of plants with garlic mulch worked great, pruning to double leaders on 6 plants worked great, and the drought caused predation problems in peak season; Seiger got wilt and failed in July, Bodacious had some large fruit but plant stopped producing early, plants in raised beds (Jaune Flamme, Plum Perfect) may have suffered from a soil nutritional deficiency.

Beets were very good – do again with insect screen and thinning protocol.
Daikon did okay, but would have liked to be planted sooner and thinned more like turnips to reach full size.
Jerusalem Artichokes in same location for second year, strong plants with 2 sets of blooms again, but a disappointing harvest. Perhaps replant with fresh stock next spring in a different location.
Potatoes all did well, had to cut seed potatoes into many pieces, potato beetles not as bad this year, best yield from blue, then purple, gold came out a week earlier which worked out well for planting the cabbage seedlings.
Rutabagas very good, do again.
Salad Turnips – spring crop did great, with 3-weeks to second planting being perfect; fall crop did great but could have also been two plantings next year.
Sweet Potatoes were less vigorous than usual with fewer flowers but produced well, harvested early to avoid predation, seedlings not planted had critter damage before coming to the garden.

Cucumbers were an ongoing challenge, initial germination wasn’t great, plants hit by early wilt (even supposedly-resistant new pickling variety), restarted seed twice indoors, tried planting last seedings in other spots around garden where they avoided wilt, but were planted too late.
Pumpkins – plants were inconsistent, with some producing well and others not.
Watermelons were awesome, 6 beautiful plants produced 6 perfect melons! (Harvested and pulled plants early to access space beside raised bed.)
Winter Squashes had a spotty year, germination was weak (soil not sterilized well enough), needed to protect fruit from critters with mesh bags, Acorn type were hit super hard with squash vine borers in vines and fruit (only harvested 1), Delicata type only had 1 plant (not many seeds left) but did fine, Honeynut plants struggled but produced some good-size and some small fruit, Butternut type did well.
Yellow Summer Squash first planting was all we had this year, plants never thrived and died back early (planted on mounds in a drought year and some borer damage), only produced 6 fruits for the season.
Zucchini first planting never thrived and died back early (planted on mounds in a drought year and some vine borer damage), second planting (3 in a large saucer) did great and produced through late October.

Mark your calendars with a big squash blossom star for Opening Day at the Garden on April 2nd from 9AM to Noon.

Weather permitting, we’ll be digging garden beds, planting early crops, checking the wintered-over crops, and conducting spring clean-up. After that, we’ll be gardening every Saturday morning for the rest of the season.

Come join the fun!