Category Archives: 2008
2008 Garden in Review–Cauliflower, Cabbage, and Broccoli
In the end, my broccoli took up SO MUCH space! It didn’t produce as much as I had hoped. Still, I will do it again! The fresh broccoli was SO DELICIOUS it was worth all my time starting, tending, transplanting, and picking worms off the plants! Long live broccoli! I enjoyed growing cabbage, but I had one major problem: we don’t eat “cabbage food” during the summer. All my really yummy cabbage recipes (borsch, cabbage rolls, etc) are foods we eat in the fall. So next year I need to make real efforts to grow cabbage in the fall, when … Continue reading
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2008 Garden in Review–Onions, Potatoes, Cucumbers
Onions One thing I learned here–definitely worth starting from sets! All the time and effort I put into starting from seeds was pretty much wasted. I harvested 6 pounds of onions, and used every last one in salsa! I planted them this year near my potatoes, but in the end they sort of competed for space. Next year I want to try a sweeter onion variety–the ones I grew had me weeping as I cut them–and I’ll plant them next to plants that don’t have huge root systems, or root vegetables. Potatoes After the failure I expected, I was SO … Continue reading
Posted in 2008, My SFG
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2008 Garden in Review–Squash, Peppers
Squash This year I planted 1 mini-pumpkin, 1 regular pumpkin, and 1 zucchini. We harvested 7 small pumpkins and 3 large (one huge!). On one hand, we didn’t get a lot of pumpkins, considering the space it took up (it sprawled to cover almost an entire box, even though I trellised them through the fence). Still, it saved me the $10-15 we would have spent buying pumpkins! We are virtually no zucchini this year. Last year my son was crazy about it, and ate a ton. This year, not so much. The truth is, I’ve never come up with recipes … Continue reading
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2008 Garden in Review–Tomatoes
First, we had a REALLY bad start with cool weather for at least a month longer than usual. I don’t think this was a typical year. I didn’t know of anyone with “too many” tomatoes. I planted 3 vining tomatoes with a trellis. Well, I thought they were 3 vining varieties. Turns out I mixed up some plants somewhere along the way, and I ended up with two Sweet 100 plants (which I intended) and one Roma (which I thought was a Better Boy). I planted these alongside my cucumbers. First, the Sweet 100′s were HUGELY prolific, and took over the entire trellis. … Continue reading
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End of August
As you can see, I’ve been purging. In my middle box, everything got torn up except for 2 squares of onions. I replanted green beans, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, and peas. My pumpkins are the only things left in the right box–and they are taking over! I planted 2 squares on the far right, but the plant closest to the grass grew faster than the one by the back fence. So my intentions to trellis them on the chain link fence have been halfway thwarted. Truth is, those darn squash just take up a ton of room! I have a friend … Continue reading
Posted in 2008, My SFG
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Harvest Rainbow
Harvest time! My first harvesting of peppers and tomatoes. I’ve still got TONS of green tomatoes, waiting to ripen! Happy gardening!
Posted in 2008, My SFG
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Potato Harvest!
Today was the best gardening day of my life ever! As I posted earlier, my potato plants looked so sad. I was tearing out my peas (which finally stopped producing) and thought I would clear some space for fall crops. I ripped out 3 potato plants, and on the third–up came a potato. What? I thought they were totally dead and failing. Nope! Here are a few 4″ potaotes–HUGE! In all, it was 10 pounds of potatoes. This is from 3 square feet and I pulled them up prematurely. I still have 2 feet I hadn’t rashly ripped out, so … Continue reading
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Fourth Week of July
I’ve been somewhat angry at my garden this year. It snowed nearly every week in May, we had several huge windstorms, and it’s been unseasonably cool. The weather feels about a month behind. I figured out that my video camcorder can take pictures, so I finally took some! Here is my East Garden: vining tomatoes on the left, peas in the middle, broccoli and pumpkins on the right. This is the West Garden: tomatoes on the left, peppers and dill on the right.
2008 Garden, Third Week of July
My garden is finally starting to feel successful. Here it is: If you can believe it, I have been getting TONS of peas–all in July! By the calendar my peas should be long past dead, but instead I’ve had nearly a month of snow pea bliss. I started harvesting broccoli about 2 weeks ago. The original head of broccoli was small (but SOOOOO delicious!), but I left the plant and it is growing more side shoots into little heads. These are equally delicious, and much more plentiful. The plant itself has taken over 2-3 squares. I think it’s almost time … Continue reading
2008 Garden, Second Week of July
The garden is growing. I’ve been harvesting peas, carrots, broccoli, and green beans. I even pulled out a small onion. So darn delicious. Note: a bunch of my onions are flowering. I finally read up on that–not good news. But they’ll be okay I think. It’s from the varying temps–which has definitely been the case. Lessons learned: Mel suggests you put a little here, and a little there. I wish now that all my carrots were together, all my green beans, onions, potatoes, etc. I’ve loved having all my peppers and tomatoes in one place. Next time I will plant … Continue reading
Posted in 2008, My SFG
Tagged Broccoli, Carrots, flowering onions, green beans, harvesting, onion, Peas
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