The Rest of 2009...and Into 2010

I cannot believe that my last post was from September 2009! I sure got lazy towards the end of the growing season last year, not even keeping all of you up-to-date on what's been happening. Worst of all, I haven't even STARTED this season yet, which is very sad. I have no excuses...none at all. I will say that I fear a very hot, dry summer this year. Spring has already seen one week with temps in the mid to upper 80's and this week appears to be another hot one. No rain is forecasted this week. Not good for a Spring garden that wants cooler temps and LOTS of water. The rain barrels are not set up yet, so no luck there.

So, let's catch you up on the remainder of the 2009 season. As I recall, Fall came earlier than "usual" and I had the garden beds completely cleaned not long after my last post. The squirrel managed to figure out how to get to that one sunflower that still had seeds before I had a chance to harvest it. Darn him! I'm sure he made it through Winter OK since he had a gut full of my high-energy seeds in his belly. The pumpkin plants did well but were horribly infestated with squash beetles. Some organic pesticide did the trick. I let the infestation get out-of-control and there were just too many to pick off of throw in soapy water. Plus, I still have a thing about picking off bugs. I have finally gotten over the fear of picking off the little cabbage caterpillars, but anything bigger, and a beetle nonetheless, gets me acting like the girl that I am (that is, any sudden movement from the bug when disturbed by me elicits a little scream...one of my secret shames that I am such a girl when it comes to bugs). I digress...back to the pumpkins. Since the pumpkin plants collapsed from the squash beetles, I harvested my 2 small, but relatively orange, pumpkins. Imagine my surprise when cleaning the plants out that I found 2 more pumpkins, good-sized and still green, attached to my now detached plants. I harvested those and it turns out they make good Jack-o-Lanterns, too.

Just a few comments on some of the varieties I planted last year:

• Cauliflower "Snow Crown" - Seems to be a slower grower but once the crown starts growing, it takes off. I tied up the leaves to protect from sun scald and ended up deforming the crowns. No other issues. I would recommend a daily check once the crowns start forming and harvest no larger than 6".
• Cabbage "Late Dutch Flat" - Love this variety! Super easy to grow. Fast growing although you will wait a while for the heads to get to a decent size. Forms very tight heads and mostly round, but with a slightly flattened shape. Other than cabbage worms, which are unavoidable with any of the cruciferous plants (cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, etc.), I have no problems with Late Dutch Flat. It is so yummy cooked in Madhur Jaffrey's Cabbage with Fennel Seed recipe.
• Sweet Pepper "Red Beauty" - I'm about to give up on the colored peppers. They just take MUCH longer to attain their full color than the labels say and then you run the risk of sun scald or worse. I think I'm just going to stick with green peppers.
• Sweet Pepper "Calwonder" - Lots and lots of peppers! I had a good 2009 harvest when others were complaining about a poor pepper season. I never compared varieties with anyone so I have no evidence that this variety is any better but it sure does produce for me. Big fruits that I thought were sweet when eaten raw.
  
• Cucumber "Boston Pickling" - The first cukes I have ever been successful with are these. They produced well even under less than ideal growing conditions. I made 4 jars of dill pickles out of my harvest - cold & crisp. I will try these again this year if I can find them.
• Sweet Pepper "Golden Bell" - See my comments under the Sweet Pepper "Red Beauty" bullet.
• Tomato "Early Girl" - This plant was not a good producer for me but then anecdotal evidence from the 2009 growing season suggests that it was not a good season for any "beefsteak" varieties. Romas and Cherries mass-produced in 2009 but all of my grower friends reported poor harvests with Beefsteaks. Again, I did not compare varieties with other growers to know if we all planted the same variety or not. Early Girl is worth another try. The few fruits that I did get were tasty.
• Broccoli "Packman" - I find that broccoli is the fastest bolting plant in my garden and this variety was no exception. It seemed that it was blooming only a few days after the heads started forming. I've decided to give up on broccoli, too. I'm not a huge fan of the veggie and have not found a way to prepare it that I really enjoy. Since broccoli plants are large like cabbage and cauliflower, I can use the space for something else, like more lettuce or carrots. :)

The last note I will make about plants on my 2009 growing season has to do with herbs. I planted 2 herbs last year: Fernleaf Dill and Sweet Basil. I planted the dill within the corn near the pickling cukes. I had no success but I also did not treat it right. More water would have been helpful, especially amongst the corn. And probably more sun. I planted the basil with my tomato plants. I have seen this paring suggested in a number of gardening resources so I decided to give it a try. The idea behind planting basil with tomatoes is called complimentary planting. The basil is supposed to help repel tomato hornworms and help the tomato plants grow faster. I don't think I buy into the complimentary thing. I found 1 tomato hornworm on my plants. This is about normal for a season. The basil was planted closest to the Roma and Cherry tomatoes, but I doubt this was the only factor contributing to their bountiful harvest while the Early Girl underperformed. I will plant them together again this year, if only for the fact that when I'm out harvesting a lot of tomatoes, I inevitably rub against the basil leaves and release the oil that gives basil that nice smell. Ahhhh...

OK, with that I leave you for now. I will return with a tally of the 2009 rain total and a report on the 2010 garden.

Happy gardening!

The Growing Season Wanes

Well, all of my hard work in the Spring paid off with another rewarding harvest. It's been a great year for Roma and cherry tomatoes and peppers of all kinds. I had no luck with corn and slicing cucumbers (again), but did finally win in the cuke category with pickling cukes. Oh - and I have 2 - count them 2! - pumpkins growing!! Woohoo! I shall have my own homegrown jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. Awesome!

Yesterday I got out into the garden for a bit. I cut down the sunflowers. My dreams of lots of roasted sunflower seeds were dashed a couple of weeks ago when I squirrel darted down my largest sunflower one afternoon when I let the dogs out. I inspected the sunflowers to find that all of the seeds were basically gone! Darn squirrel! After I reported my finding Dave tells me about a day earlier in the week when he saw the squirrel just lounging on the fence, monorail style, with legs draped over the side as if in a stupor. I guess he gorged himself on sunflowers and was taking a rest. Sigh...I did find that my smallest sunflower still has seeds because it has grown in such a way that the squirrel cannot reach them. Yippee! That one will stay in the ground a bit longer to let the seeds mature some more.

My second task yesterday was to harvest more tomatoes. The Romas are STILL going crazy. I must have harvested 10 pounds of tomatoes yesterday. I really need to learn how to make some home made spaghetti sauce. :)

I think in another week or so I'll take the pepper plants down. They are still producing but the peppers are starting to grow deformed, which always seems to happen at the end of the plant's life. I guess we all get deformed as we get older. ;) Once I get the pumpkins harvested I'll be able to clean those beds out and get some new compost in them for the Fall/Winter.

Can't believe it's the middle of September already! The first day of Fall will be in a few days. Crazy how quickly another growing season passes.

I'll Be Back Soon - I Promise!

As you are well aware, I haven't been blogging about the garden much lately. There are several things contributing to this: the discovery of Facebook (a major time suck), working too hard (another major time suck), being plain ole tired, and there's nothing really going on - just waiting for things to grow!

I harvested enough tomatoes to feed a small army today. My pepper plants are producing like crazy although the red ones never turn red so we just eat them green. Still great! Last week we made stuffed green peppers from our homegrown harvest. Yummy! I'll have to share the recipe in a future post. Today I also noticed that the corn I didn't think was going to produce has now formed ears. I harvested 2 ears that we are about to eat. Can't wait! I also harvested 3 cucumbers!! Yes - cucumbers!! The veggie I've never had any luck with. These are pickling cukes so I'm going to try to make some homemade dill pickles next weekend.

This week I'm off to a residential training program for work so I'll have to share photos, recipes and more when I return.

Happy growing!

Attack of the Japanese Beetles

Wow - no posts for a while! Sorry about that. Between going to Vegas for The Amazing Meeting 7 (which was AWESOME!), working 12 hour days, and then getting sick on top of it all, I haven't been able to get in the garden much. I went out yesterday and noticed I have lost one green bean plant to Japanese beetles. The buggers have totally skeletonized all the leaves on one plant and are working on the others. They are all over the place! I've never had a problem with Japanese beetles before, so this is disappointing. Today I sent Dave out to pick off what he could and drop them in soapy water. This is the best organic approach but definitely not the most efficient. I'm not sure if any pesticide exists to destroy them and, even if there is something, I'd have to spray constantly. So, it's a battle of me against the bugs.

On the plus side, we're getting TONS of tomatoes and green peppers. I have at least 2 green peppers large enough to make stuffed peppers. Need to look up a recipe and give that a whirl. The corn and sunflowers appear to be doing well. It looks like I may have some success with cucumbers this year, too (but I'm not entirely convinced yet). I did see a bumblebee on my cucumber plant yesterday so that was exciting. Means I have some natural pollination occurring!

Well, I need to get myself outside. It's a beautiful day but nothing has been watered since the last thunderstorm came through. The plants in pots are looking pretty sad and, despite how I feel, I still need to get out there and at least get stuff watered.

Toodles!