Last Garden Update (Summary)

In short: we had a great year in the garden.

The tomatoes were everywhere. As is the case every fall--I don't care if I ever see another tomato again. Bring on the frost!!! My heirlooms didn't do as well as the hybrids, probably because they really took a hit while hardening off. But then again, everyone around here had slow tomatoes because of the wet, cold spring.

Summer squash was ok. It got sacked by squash bugs some time in August and I had eaten enough of it to stop caring. (Let me know if my end-of-season apathy is not apparent). It did fine up until the bugs though.

Winter squash was excellent. I pulled about 6-7 off of two plants. Not bad. I still don't know what killed two of the plants early in the season though.

I got two watermelon off one plant. One was big, the other wasn't.

I had pole beans coming out of my ears. I froze about 7 quarts.

Radishes were excellent, so were carrots.

Onions could have been better. The spot I put them in didn't get a lot of water, so they didn't get that big.

Brocolli... Hmm, brocolli. Brocolli is hard--I have only gotten the timing right once. If they come out too early, they freeze. If they come out too late, they bolt. They bolted this year.

It was a good year for strawberries, probalby because of the cool spring. I harvested them for at least a month.

Peas were excellent. LIke brocolli, the timing has to be just right.

Five pumpkins. Three are orange, the others green. I picked them all last night because I was expecting a frost.

Sweet potatoes. The jury is still out on these. I have checked some of them and the roots don't look very big. They have been fun to grow though. Next season I will make sure to order healthy slips instead of planting old stock from my pantry.

AND... (drum roll)... We finally started some asparagus this year. We won't be eating any of it until the third or fourth season because of the way it grows. I am starting them out in pots so I can take them with me if I ever have to move. :)

We had more variety this year than we have ever had before. It was fun growing all these different vegetables. This was also the first year I kept a gardening journal. As the years progress, I hope to avoid many of the timing blunders that always seem to happen. I am already excited for next season.