Our gardening season is starting to wind down, many of our summer crops have bolted and died but we’ve got a few holdouts that are close to harvest. I already harvested one of my containers of potatoes because it looked close to death and got a nice meal of kennebec potatoes. My chicken wire container is still going strong and we have high hopes for the purple, red and gold potatoes I planted in it.
We got 2 rounds of radishes. I let our rhubarb go for the year to get it established but I snagged a stalk or two for strawberry rhubarb pie. We had a big crop of bok choi, more than we could handle actually. Romaine did well but came out very strongly romaine flavored. I think we’ll grow butter or iceberg lettuce next year. The rabbits mowed down the watermelon right after it bloomed and all of our Kohlrabi so I’ll have to devise rabbit proofing measures for next time. Broccoli and cauliflower didn’t do well in the sunny bed I had them in. I think it was too hot for them. The Romanesco, however, seems to love it and is putting on what I hope are some broccoli heads.
I’m walking a tightrope with my artichoke. I want it to get bigger but I can see that it wants to flower any day now. The standoff continues…
I have a single pie pumpkin on the vine.
But the squash are putting on veggies like mad.
I don’t think the corn will be able to produce anything before it freezes but I’ve already frozen some Sweet Corn from a local farm. I did well with shallots and onions but have no idea how the beets will turn out. They look like they’ll be tiny but I could be surprised.
I did not do well with cucumbers. I have a single tiny one on some pathetic looking plants.
I think my leeks and carrots did pretty well but they still have time to plump up.
With all of this in mind, I’ve got a strategy for next year. Keep in mind, this was my first ever attempt at a garden on my own. Usually my husband is the one that has a green thumb and it’s been an ongoing joke that I have a black thumb. But I’m going to eat food I grew. You too can overcome your dark thumb malady. Ok, so it’s not that dramatic but we’re both pretty excited about it. Next year, I’m going to limit my crops. I grew a little of everything this year to see how they’d do. I did well with potatoes, artichokes, shallots, onions, pumpkins, squash, leeks and carrots so I’m going to do larger crops of those and either buy or trade for the ones that didn’t do well in my hands. I either need to dig out and line my beds or do containers next year because I have a lot of tree roots growing into the beds and competing with the vegetables. I skipped tilling or amending my soil this year which I think held my plants back. Adding a drip or irrigation system would help a lot too. I wasn’t able to really soak my beds the way I should have been. I’m probably going to attempt some vegetables in containers in our greenhouse over the winter along with digging up my herbs to bring inside. Neither of us has spent much time container gardening and how great would fresh vegetables be in January?
