My first year of gardening is now over. My previous posts talked about
how I tore up strips of my lawn and
then how I started to plant fruits and vegetables. Now it's time to be objective and critical about what I grew, how well it grew and whether or not I'll try it again next year, a few years from now or never again even if my life depends on it.
Basil - Bought a plant from
Trader Joes that was only 2.99 and was a large plant. Got a good deal of fresh basil from the plant, used scissors to cut leaves from the top and side. The taste of fresh herbs, especially basil, it incredible in anything you cook. Never planted in the ground, cold weather eventually killed it off. I feel I got my money's worth, easily got and shared more than $3 of basil. Would I grow it again, yes. Grade B
Be
ets - Planted them in late September in an attempt to get a fall crop of vegetables. Started to pop up but since it was a very cold October they never matured. I debated whether or not to try and pick the leaves to at least cook them but never bothered. Never got any beets. Did I get my money's worth, clearly no. Would I grow it again, yes. Grade D
Blueberries - Just planted them this fall. There was a special at
Larsen Family Nursery, half price (or two for one) on fruit plants. Realizing how complex it would be to grow an apple or pear tree right now my wife and I opted for blueberries. We bought two plants, both mid-season, was told it's better to have two of the same for cross pollination. One of them is a Vaccinium 'Duke' the other I don't remember. They have started to grow, hopefully the cold hasn't killed them, too soon to tell. Grade Incomplete
Chives - G
rown from seeds with the other herbs, started indoors and then moved to a pot for outside. Since they are perennials and can spread, they were not put into the ground. As a kid growing up there was a chive plant in the backyard that we would cut from each summer. I might have them moved to a planter box this year, but they should come back. They did in New York and the winter is much colder there. Used often in cooking, added a terrific flavor. Clearly got my money's worth since they are so expensive dried, let alone fresh. Will I grow them again, have no choice they are coming back. But this is good. Grade A
Fennel - Be careful what you wish for! Turns out that we grew the wrong type. My wife was responsible for the herbs, I was in charge of the vegetables. These were grown from seeds, decided to drop them in the garden. There are two types of fennel, one has a large bulb and short stalks, the t
ype I though we planted. The other, as seen from the photo, grow as tall as five feet. Gave a lot of it away, cooked some but there is only so much fennel you can cook with. Decided to pull up before it seeded and took the leaves and placed in a mason jar with white vinegar to make fennel vinegar. Money's worth, yes. Grow again, maybe one day but not next year. Grade B+
Garlic - Two types grew in the garden, regular and elephant. The elephant was an accident. During the summer as I w
as clearing out the area around the garden I noticed in a pile of weeds what looked like a full bloomed garlic plant. As I cleared around it and dug it up, turned out it was garlic. I think it was there for years. Elephant garlic has large mild bulbs some people prefer them since they taste like garlic but not a strong. Cooked them and gave some away. The regular garlic was my go
al since I first moved into our house. Didn't have the time in the fall of 2008 to plant it so I waited to early spring 2009 to plant about 35 cloves. I didn't do anything to the soil, just put it in the clay soil and it grew. I'm sure it would have done better if I added better soil or compost or something. But I got nice sized bulbs, the purple type
! I found out that these are stronger in flavor than the plain white. I got my money's worth since one head of garlic produces another ten to fifteen heads. Will I grow again, I've planted two hundred cloves in September so I hope to have enough next year. Grade A+ (with a bonus from the existing elephant garlic)
Jalap
eno Pepper - This one seemed more of a goof than anything else. My wife got it for me at the
farmers market in May, I didn't think it would grow. I planted it in a space between the fennel, one of the plants didn't take. It started to take off and actually grew a number of peppers, at least six or seven. They were good, not the spiciest pepper I ever had but definitely the freshest. I got my moneys worth, one dollar for the plant got me about two to three dollars of peppers, a good return on investment. Will I grow again, maybe next year but definitely again in the future. Grade A
Lavender - This came from the herb mix my wife used, I believe. A good sized plant was put in the front of the house, but since we were going to be gone for almost two weeks in July, we needed to make sure it would be watered. Since I put a automated timer in the backyard, the lavender was moved to a pot and put in the path of watering. It stayed in the pot and grew pretty wild but was never replanted. It still seems to be growing, will see how it survives the winter. Getting my money's worth, it grew so I guess it's a break even. Will I grow it again, possibly but if it survives then I'll keep it. Grade C
Lettuce - Different types were grown.
First was some green leaf which I stared from seed inside one of those mini greenhouse peat moss growing things. I realized that this was probably not necessary since lettuce can grow in colder weather and I should have just put the seeds in the ground in late March or early April. Nevertheless, I did get a few plants and had enough for a salad which made a great
classic blog post. I decided, like the beets, to make an attempt in the fall to grow some more. My goal was to have enough grown so that the salad for Thanksgiving could be picked directly from the garden. I planted more green leaf, romaine, and a salad mix that included arugula, endive-green curled, kale-red russian, lettuce-red romaine, lettuce-parris island cos, lettuce-salad bowl and lettuce-lolla rossa. I put the romaine split in the same row with the beets, the next row over green leaf shared with the attempted spinach and set up a new area, as seen in the photo, for the salad mix. The only
thing that grew was some of the salad mix. The romaine never came up, found out later that is a warmer weather variety of lettuce. The green leaf started but then due to the cold October, third coldest on record I hear, it died quickly. Not sure what types took for the salad mix, think some of the arugula, endive and possibly the kale, but they grew well. There was enough to pick to add to the basic lettuce salad for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately since I was eating mostly turkey, as well as most everyone else, I didn't get to taste too much. Also my mother-in-law did add all of what I picked, I should have stressed to leave some out, and she dressed the entire salad. The end result is after a day it's so soaked in oil that it's not good for leftovers or to be used again. For grading, did I get my money's worth, yes since I got a few salads out of the spring crop and at least one from the fall. Will I grow again, definitely and different types. Grade Green Leaf B / Salad Mix B / Romaine F
Onion
s - This didn't turn out as well as I thought it would. I stared from seeds, put them in the ground, they started to grow, but they never really grew well. I have a couple of theories of what went wrong. First I never removed them from mesh thing that I used when I stared them in the mini greenhouse. Second, they may have received a bit too much water during the summer. Third, I never did anything to the ground so it grew in clay soil. I still got a bunch, about a dozen, small bulbs of which I dried out and used them in my Thanksgiving stuffing. On a side note the stuffing was shallots, garden onions, garlic, mushrooms and fennel vinegar mixed with a generic stuffing mix and moistened with vegetable broth. Everyone commented that this was the best stuffing they ever had. I want to think that the onions helped a bit, it'll help them in their final grade. Money's worth, pretty close to breaking even on this one. Would I try them again, yes I'll try one more time this year. Grade C+
Parsley - Another one from the herb seed mix. Seeds got everywhere though. When I was planting my lettuce, turns out the first one in the row was a parsley plant. They were also put into pots next to the chives. Used regularly during the summer for cookin
g, tastes much better than the store bought and actually adds good flavor to most items you add it to. Moved the ground plant to in between my tomatoes later in the season, kept growing. Still growing now in January. Money's worth, yes. Will grow again, it's still growing and if it's there I'll cook with it. Grade A-
Radish - Purely by accident. Turns out that a radish seed was mixed up in my tomato seeds. I didn't notice it, although the leaves looked different than the tomatoes and it grew faster, I didn't think there was a difference. It was planted with the rest of the tomatoes and only after we got back from visiting family did I notice that it was not a tomato. I saw a red base, pulled it out and discovered that it was a radish. Cut up the leaves and added them to a
kale sausage potato soup, ate the radish in a salad. I got my money's worth since I never bought any seeds or plants and got it as a bonus. Will I grow it again, no since I didn't want to grow it in the first place. Grade A
Shallot
s - Planted them in the fall with the garlic. Put fifty of them into the ground, spaced between rows of garlic. So far they have started to grow. I am tempted to start digging some up but I still have some from last years farmers market and I want to wait until the spring. I am confident that they will turn out great. They grow just like garlic, bulbs surround the one you plant. Money's worth, so far it's looking like a yes. Will I grow it again, the question is would I ever think of not growing them, like garlic it will always be grown. Grade Incomplete (possible A+)
Spinach - Started too late, became too cold. Planted with the beets and lettuce mixes in the fall. Started to see some leaves but they never grew large enough. So I didn't get my money's worth, but that sometimes happens. Will I grow again, yes I will try some in the spring this year. Grade D
Squash - Grew Delicata Bush, the type with black and white stripes on the outside. This was a replacement for the radish that I though was a tomato plant. After I pulled the radish out, and ate it, I wanted to fill the empty spot. Going to Bi-Mart, they had a bunch of tomato plants they were selling for one dollar. Since I already planted twelve other plants, I didn't want to put another tomato there. There I am looking for anything that is not a tomato and all of a sudden I see a Delicata Bush Squash, the only plant that wasn't a tomato. So I bought it, planted it and watched it grow. It started to flower soon after. I have heard that you could eat the flowers, but I didn't bother. Flower after flower kept blooming but no squash. Finally around early September did I see some squashes growing, one started to get really big, and then it got cold. The small one shriveled up, I pulled off the one that was trying to grow, ate it later on in December, it was delicious. Someone told me that the male flowers grow first and then eventually the females, the ones that have fruit, will grow. I think since the plant was grown and put into the ground late, and it getting cold earlier, it didn't grow that well. I feel that I got my money's worth, especially after the radish bonus. Will I grow again, yes. Grade B-
Tom
atoes - The main reason for me to garden, next to garlic that is. First set of seeds only grew me one plant. Got additional seeds, got twelve others (eleven if you don't count the radish) and got them into the ground, eventually. Nursed them, put wooden stakes in the ground to tie them to, burried milk cartons next to them to get them well watered, finally got tomatoes. They were started late so most of them stayed green. They started to turn red in late September, early October, but it was too late. I still got lots of tomatoes that I
canned and
pickled. I did find out that in order to get tomato sauce, one of my goals of growing tomatoes, you need to grow roma tomatoes. They are also good for diced and whole tomatoes. I'll focus on those, but will do others to pickle and of course just to eat. Money's worth, clearly yes. Will I grow again, definitely yes. Grade A
Seeing that I ended up growing almost twenty items, some not even of my choosing, I feel proud for a first year attempt at gardening. So adding up my grades and not counting the incomplete of blueberries and shallots, it rounds up to a B. I feel motivated and ready for this year and will add some more vegetables and of course have to create more growing space. Maybe then I'll be able to bribe the
lettuce prosecutor.
able to tear up the ground much easier than before. Boy does that thing have a mind of it's own. It has a safety bar, when you release it stops, but when it starts you need to hold on tightly. It's good on the clay soil, fine with small roots, but bigger ones will get jammed in the blades. The area I cleared you see on the left will be my pumpkin patch. I saved some seeds from a pumpkin I got at the farmer's market last year and planted them. After making a mock greenhouse setup (more on that later) they started to grow. I know that pumpkins need enough space to stretch out so putting them in the corner of the garden should work. May not get enough sun but they should grow. Tilling I did find some thicker roots but they are at least 8 inches down. I've heard that pumpkins don't set their roots too deep so it should work. If all goes well and I can get at least five or six pumpkins, I can make pumpkin bread from home grown pumpkins this year.
