2014 Vegetable Garden Review

I started planning for next year's vegetable garden over the Christmas break.  Figuring out what seed I need to order, where to rotate the crops to next.  I always find it helpful when planning ahead to look at the past year.  Reflecting on what went wrong and what went right helps to plan for what to do next.

A sample from the summer garden

Some plants I have *somewhat* mastered and know what to expect from year to year.  Once again I harvested more carrots than we could eat.  Beans, garlic, basil, dill and lettuce were in abundance as well.  The amount of cucumbers I grew was unreal.  We give away cucumbers like some people do with zucchini.  I grow Tasty Jade cucumbers and they seem resistant to mildew, bugs, hot, cold, wet - anything you can throw at them.  One plant produces a half dozen long english style cucumbers per week in peak season.  We did so good that I took bags of food to the Upper Room Food Bank this year on an almost weekly basis.

Pole beans covered the trellis in no time

Speaking of zucchinis, we didn't get a single one this year.  Not one.  It seems impossible.  They are one of the easiest plants to grow and they produce in vast numbers.  So what happened?  Well the plant grew and started to flower and just when I thought we would get a zucchini ...... I found mould. Fruit rotted, stems dropped off and the whole plant died.  Powdery mildew was to blame.  I had only planted a single plant so we didn't have a back up.  I was reduced to purchasing zucchini at the Farmer's Market.  the shame.

Another disaster was the asparagus.  I planted asparagus seedlings the first year we started this garden.  I've been hoping for asparagus every year since and I am finally throwing in the towel.  Next spring I'm digging them up and giving them away.  The plants are healthy enough but the perennial weeds in my garden keep choking them back so that they never produce enough spears for eating.  I can't get rid of the weeds without dousing the whole place in chemicals so the asparagus will need to go.

Each year I try to grow something new to me and stretch my abilities.  Sometimes it's a small change.  Like garlic.

I discovered a garlic grower here on PEI last winter.  Eureka Garlic grows around 70 varieties of garlic and I just had to try some of them out for myself.  I planted my usual crop of Music.  Then I purchased French Rocambole and Chinook to trial.  Another variety, Susan Delafield, was gifted to me.

 
Chinook was a miss, the bulbs never formed properly.  But I loved French Rocambole and the extra large bulbs of Susan Delafield.  Some of the best bulbs were put aside and planted in the fall for next year's crop.

A new variety of pumpkin was also grown this season.

Queensland Blue Pumpkins 

I've grown a new variety of pumpkin almost every year we've been here and have yet to decide on one I love.  I first tasted blue pumpkin years ago when I travelled in Australia.  It was my first exposure to pumpkin as a vegetable for eating and not carving.  My memories of those pumpkins drove me to search out Queensland Blue Pumpkin seed for this year's garden.  The vines were large and the yield was low but what a pumpkin!  Beautiful flavour when used in soup.  I am saving seed from these and will continue growing them in future.

I also tried watermelon this year.  It was a long shot but I thought some fruit would be a nice change.  The Yellow Doll seeds sprouted but the plants just never took off.  I collected a couple watermelons the size of golfballs and that was all.  Too cold perhaps.  I picked up some melon seeds at a recent seed exchange and will keep trying for melons next year.

Something completely and entirely new to me was soybeans.  I've never grown these before but will definitely be trying them again.

Gaia Soybean

I found these seeds at a seed swap and planted a half dozen plants to test.  My only problem was I didn't pick the beans early enough and they were starting to harden when I finally got to them.  These are best picked young and eaten with a little salt and butter.  YUM!

Another new to me plant was kale.  I know, this isn't new to most people.  For some reason though I've never eaten kale in my whole life.  Don't know how I missed it but there you go.  At the same seed swap I took a packet of kale seeds on a whim.  and now I love kale.

I've struggled with onions for the past few years.  Starting my plants from seed in the depths of winter, coaxing the seedlings along for months only to see half of them die as soon as they hit the ground.  This year I bought seedlings instead and although it was expensive it was worth it.

messy garage and string upon string of onions

We ate onions all through the summer, donated some and then I dried around 50 or so of them in the fall to keep for the winter.

You know what else did well.  Beets.

Bull's Blood beets have beautiful red leaves

Beets are one of those things I don't seem to have the knack for.  This year was an exception.  I bought new seed for Bull's Blood beets and they grew like I have never had beets grow before.  Maybe it was the fresh seed, maybe the soil is finally healthy enough to support them - I don't know the reason but we had beets galore....  and we discovered we're actually not all that fond of beets.  We don't dislike them.  They're lovely diced fresh onto a salad or roasted with other root vegetables.  But we don't like them enough to eat handfuls of them throughout the summer.

Same went for parsnips.  I finally grew parsnips and I was so pleased.  Not very many but more than we needed.  Parsnip is nice occasionally but not regularly.  Not sure I'll bother with these again.  I would rather plant extra of things we love than waste space on things we only eat occasionally.

Another veggie I try and try to grow well is rutabegas.

This rutabaga looked exactly like a pair of dancing legs to me

I had better success this year but my soil still isn't healthy enough to produce good specimens.  Brown-heart can be found each time I slice one open.  The issue is lack of boron.  I've read about adding Borax to the soil to alleviate this problem but it sounds dangerous as too much can be toxic.  I'm hoping that manure and seaweed additions to the soil will eventually solve this issue.

Overall it was another good season and we collected loads of food to eat fresh and store for the winter.  Today the weather is cold and the garden is sleeping for the winter but we're still enjoying steaming bowls of soup and slices of apple pie.

It doesn't get better than that.

Vegetable Garden Review 2013

The weather's good and cold and all the plants have withered.

Must mean it's time to do my yearly review of the veggie plot.

Let's start with the bad things and end on a high note, shall we?

The biggest tragedy by far this year was the perennial plants.

My strawberries had to be dug up

Asparagus, rhubarb and strawberries were all a bust.   A complete and total bust.  I did not collect one single asparagus spear this year.  That's because sheep sorrel took over.  This invasive plant has to be removed out of the veggie garden on an almost daily basis.  There's no escaping it as it's everywhere on our property and it spreads like wildfire.  The majority of the annual vegetable beds get dug out at least once or twice a year which helps combat the problem but I can't do this with perennials.  I simply don't have the time to weed them consistently and the result is all these plants have been choked out.  You can see in the above photo, on the left there's more weeds than strawberries.  I had to completely dig out the entire bed and start over.

I am working on a plan though.  I have begun, in a very small way, to eradicate the grass and weeds in the paths of the veggie garden.

I started laying down layers of newspaper and cardboard in the spring.  (I knew those flyers were good for something!)  I followed that with a 3 inch thick layer of sawdust.  Then straw.  The hope is that I end up killing the weeds underneath so they stop sneaking into the veggie beds.  The small sections I was able to complete did well so I hope to continue with this next year.

The next tragedy feels minor in comparison.  I discovered that spinach seed doesn't last very long.  3 years in fact.  I should have known that, but now I won't forget.  I planted my spinach and waited, and waited, and waited. Thank goodness I was paying attention and got myself to a store to buy fresh seed. Unfortunately the weather was getting a bit warm by that point and I didn't have great germination.  So a less than stellar crop of spinach but now I know better.

Another problem with germination was beans.  I was in a hurry and just couldn't wait for the weather to warm up.  So into the ground they went and it rained and rained.  My poor beans rotted.  

Dragon's Tongue on the left and Purple Peacock on the right

I did manage to get a couple plants to come up but it was a pretty lean year for beans.

Thankfully, the tragedies aren't life or death.  Every year has surprises, and some of them are good.  What we lacked in beans we more than made up for in peas.

I had very good germination rates this year, followed by tons of blooms and bees, which resulted in LOADS of peas.  I think I spent most of my summer picking peas.  Every second day starting in June straight through August I picked peas.  August?  yes, August.  The plants had almost stopped producing in July but then we had a spell of rain.  And the vines grew, and bloomed some more, and then there I was in August still picking peas.  Good thing I like peas.  They're an awful lot of work.

Another great surprise was onions.

You know, the fact that I was actually able to grow some.  For 3 years I have been trying to grow onions with no luck.  They rotted, they withered, they refused to grow larger than a marble.  Through a combination of starting seed early, improving my soil, and not burying the plants too deeply I was finally able to produce some proper onions.  Every time I visited the garden this year I did a happy dance around the onions.  I grew those!!

As noted in my previous post I finally managed to grow pumpkins this year too.

My pumpkin patch

Whatever issues I was having last year are gone.  Good thing we have some space.  There's a manure pile under those vines somewhere.  Our weedy meadow was no match for these plants.

Aren't they the most beautiful pumpkins you've every seen?!  BIG big thanks to Brenda @ Gardeningbren for gifting me with the seed for these Long Island Cheese pumpkins.  The whole neighbourhood is enjoying the proceeds of this crop.

That's a wrap for 2013.  This was our fourth year gardening here on the Corner and it was the best yet. For those of you dying to know what happened to the tomatoes.... you'll have to wait.  I grew approximately 25 plants this year so they get their own post.

just another beautiful day in the garden

till then....

2012 Vegetable Garden Review - The Triumphs

Where bad things happen so do good things.  Life is all about balance.  We harvested more food out of the vegetable garden this year than we ever have before.

We started harvesting early in spring which was new to us.  The asparagus was finally mature enough to pick, I planted out hardy greens earlier than usual and we had our first crop of strawberries.

There were a lot of firsts this year.  I planted an array of veggies that we haven't tried before.

Dragon's Tongue Beans were a new addition

Peas, beans, rutabagas, zucchini, cucumber, and arugula were all new plants in this garden.  The Dragon's Tongue beans were a gift from a blogging friend.  I haven't voluntarily eaten a bean in years but since these were on hand I thought why not try them?  Turns out I love these.  Makes all the difference when it comes out of your own garden doesn't it?

While the peas and rutabagas had some issues, it was the opposite situation with zucchini and cucumbers.

Zucchini's quickly grew out of control

I was giving away bags of cucumbers and zucchinis to my co-workers as there was no way we could possibly keep up with all the produce I was generating.  Even nicer though was how much my co-workers liked them.  One person in particular was thrilled to receive garbage bags full of basil for making pesto.

So many of the plants, like basil, loved the hot dry summer we had.  Peppers are an iffy crop here as we don't have hot weather for long enough.

But I even managed to grow a few sweet red peppers this season.

The real star of this year's garden though had to be the tomatoes.  Red ones, yellow ones, purples ones.

We ate them fresh, we made soup, we made chili, we froze them and we gave them away.  If you're interested in a review of the different varieties we trialed click here.  Overall a great gardening year and now I need to start planning for next season!

Triumphs and Tragedies

My apologies for not attending to the blog these last few days.  It is a long weekend here in Canada (Happy Canada Day everyone!) and I've been making sure to take in the holiday sights and activities.

We began our weekend sitting on the front porch Friday evening watching yellow birds (american goldfinch) darting in and out of the meadow.  They seemed to keep returning to a particular patch of plants so I took a look at a reference book and realized they were dining on sow thistles.  It's sights like these that make me so happy we decided to stop mowing that back section of the property.  It might look a little messy but there's an array of wildlife enjoying that spot now that wasn't there before.

In addition to enjoying a little downtime at home we also took in some events.  Sunday night we viewed the Canada Day fireworks from the front steps of the lighthouse at Rocky Point.  I couldn't imagine a nicer view.  And the weather has turned a corner, it's really feeling like summer here now so a trip to the beach was in order as well.

It has been a delight this week to venture into the veggie garden.  Every day I have been picking a bowl full of these.

Strawberries are one of my favourite fresh fruits.  Initially I was a little worried that the plants weren't yielding very much and I considered that we should put in a second bed but after a week of collecting large bowls of fruit each day I think we are doing quite well.  We've had fresh strawberries for breakfast and snacks, strawberry tarts and strawberries in our iced tea.  One of these days I would love to learn how to do canning.  Strawberry jam would be first on my list of things to make.

I've been really impressed with how good the veggie patch is working out this year.  We started off with asparagus and followed it closely with rhubarb, then greens - lettuce, spinach and cilantro.  Strawberries and radishes were ready this week and today I saw pea pods starting to show signs of bulking up.  It's been a continuous flow of food and I'm just thrilled.

There is always a tragedy though it seems.  Some things have gone horribly wrong in the veggie patch this year.  It started with seed.  I purchased a number of packets of seed from a company I hadn't used before and I've been horribly disappointed.  I have approximately 6 carrots in my beds right now and I planted an entire packet of seed.  I planted several rows of turnips and again, only a handful of plants came up.  I have peas but only half the amount that I planted.  And pumpkins were a complete no show.  At first I wondered if I had done something wrong.  Had I put the seed somewhere where they got hot?  too cold?  did they get wet?  But I couldn't think of anything that I had done differently than other years.  Then I read this post.  Okay, so it's not just me.  There's actually a problem here.  So I've made a mental note for next year.  I'll go back to buying all my seed at Veseys.  I've been buying from them for a number of years and never had issues with germination like I did this year.

After accepting that my pumpkin seed wasn't any good I actually went to a nursery and purchased some new seed.  I knew it was late getting them going but I thought it was still worth a try.  Into the compost pile they went and voila.

I had a half dozen pumpkin seedlings shoot up and I was on my way.  But oh wait, we had several days of rain earlier in the week.  That should have been a good thing, keeping my seedlings well watered.  Instead it brought out slugs.  I'm still not quite over the carnage.  They ate every single one of my pumpkins.  I was obviously not meant to have pumpkins this year.

Looking across the road from our house is a much larger veggie patch.  This farm field has been growing soybeans the last two years.  This year we saw the tractors out working the soil and wondered what this season would bring.  Good news!  Hills mean potatoes.

There's an unwritten rule on this island, so we've been told, that at the end of potato harvest any tubers left in the ground are fair game.  That means we'll be able to walk across the road and help ourselves to free potatoes for the winter.  Of course, every triumph comes with a tragedy.

There are a lot of diseases that can affect a potato and farmers spray chemicals to prevent them.  Smelly nasty chemicals.  We have to be aware when the tanks come out - closing the house up and bringing the cats indoors.  I know farmers are simply doing their jobs to the best of their ability but I worry, about the air, the ground and the water.  Just what's in those tanks?

Triumphs and Tragedies

It's been a busy week.  I've been trying to write this post since Friday but distractions kept appearing.  Some good and some bad.

Triumphantly the strawberries are beginning to appear.  I drool just looking at them.

Tragically the crows like strawberries too.  So it was an emergency run to town yesterday to get wire mesh and ring nails to build a strawberry cage and keep those black feathered clowns out of my strawberry bed.  I love crows and their antics but nobody is getting away with snitching strawberries in my garden.

Our new strawberry cover fits right over top the raised bed.

We had a couple losses this week of the garden variety.  Tragically one of my Neon Blue Spruces met his demise.

Just this tiny stump and a few needles were all that was left.

He wasn't that large so he was hard to see through the grass.

A tight corner when cutting paths through the meadow meant an end to his short life.

Worse, one of our mature birches suffered some major damage.  We had a load of wood delivered this week.

This photo is from last season when we had wood delivered.
See the overhanging birch branch?

This is what it looks like when the wood guy comes.  It's a very big truck and very heavy.  You can see on the right of this photo the birch branch hanging over the drive.  Well it's not there anymore.  It got caught on those steel posts and resulted in this.

The branch had to be cut right off and there's some major damage to the trunk.  Luckily no one was hurt.  It's a shame about the tree though as this will likely spell it's demise.  It's an old tree and not in great health already so I can't imagine it will survive much longer given the extent of the damage.

But we know that where there's tragedy there's also triumph, right?  While at the Agro Co-op buying the wire and ring nails for the strawberry cover I wandered into their garden centre.  And came home with more trees for the yard.  At only $6.99 a piece it was a steal.  I picked up a Sugar Maple, Black Spruce, White Pine and a Blue Spruce to replace the one murdered by the lawn mower.  The best purchase though was this little guy.

I have been researching a new tree to put out in front of the house.  I wanted something ornamental that could withstand the clay in that part of the yard.  I had thought a Katsura would be a great fit but the only place to buy one is out near Kensington.  About an hour's drive away and I can never seem to find the time to get out there.  Well, wouldn't you know the Co-op had one single Katsura in their nursery just waiting for me to take it home.  That just made my day.

Triumph and Tragedy

Better late than never?  I try to cover all the highs and lows at the end of the week but time is slip slip slipping away from me.  Here we are Wednesday already.

Regardless of date the garden continues on its merry way.  I have been ignoring the flower bed behind the garage as I've been busy working on other areas.  A quick look this week told me I had better pay more attention.  The exceptionally exuberant plume poppy has expanded its reach and needs to be chopped back and the weeds are putting up a strong showing too.  Unfortunately the hollyhocks are not doing as well.

Yellow spots are decorating the emerging leaves, a sign of rust that will eventually defoliate the plants.  I thinned out the hollyhocks back in October hoping more air circulation between the plants would help.  I also cut back all the affected leaves and disposed of them in the garbage.  However, it looks like it was in vain.  I worry about this virus spreading to other plants and I really don't like dealing with sickly plants so I will be pulling these plants in the near future.  The question of what to replace them with has been hovering in the back of my mind.  I placed a Veronica in this area late last summer but it didn't survive the winter.  The pow wow white echinacea I also planted is alive but not thriving.  Triumphantly mother nature decided to solve the problem for me.

Funny things happen in a compost pile and when you put compost on a flower bed even funnier things occur.  There are baby lupines like the one pictured above scattered throughout the bed growing happily alongside the plume poppy and in between the hollyhocks.  I could not have thought of a better combination myself.

The warm weather we have been receiving lately has really moved the season along at a quick pace.  The strawberry plants I put in last year are now blooming profusely with the promise of red berries to come.

We were in for a shock though this week when the temperatures started to dip and the weatherman told us a frost was forecast!  Panic stricken I ran home and recruited Jody to help me bundle up the garden for the night.

A frost would kill all the precious strawberry blooms and that would mean no fruit.  This large orange tarp was used to cover up the strawberry bed and various pieces of wood were used to hold it down.  (and yes, if you look closely we also used gutters.  We still haven't finished putting them all back up on the house).

In addition to tarps we used blankets, buckets, juice jugs, pots - whatever we could find we grabbed to cover up tender plants.  Ironically I had been frantically planting tomatoes the day before thinking I was late getting them in the ground.

There's even an overturned laundry sink protecting plants.
Rocks - and tires - were used to weight things down so the wind didn't blow the covers off.

The following day I was scrambling to cover tomatoes, cucumbers, marigolds, and basil so they wouldn't freeze.

This red glass vase was turned upside down and placed over a cucumber to protect it from the cold.  Dirt was mounded around the edges to keep out the cold and keep the vase from tipping over.

Also a worry was the apple orchard.  The trees have begun to bloom and a cold snap could destroy the flowers.  With no flowers to pollinate there's no chance for apples to form.

There's no blanket big enough to cover this old tree so we simply had to wait it out and hope for the best.  Luck was with us as the frost never did occur.  It was a lucky miss for many many farmers as strawberries, blueberries, pears and apples are all blooming right now.

Thankfully we get to enjoy the sweet scent of apple blossoms for a few more days to come.

Garden Tour - A Confession

I've been avoiding showing the garden in its entirety because the fact of the matter is that I haven't been keeping up with my chores this year.  When you venture into the centre of the yard the area I termed the 'knot garden' looks just as bad as it ever has. 

I thought I would manage to tame at least a portion of this area but goldenrod and wild raspberry canes have run amuck through a carpet of grass.  Even the small areas I had initially cleared of weeds and covered in mulch are a mess.  The biggest thistle I have ever seen is residing next to the weigelia.  I had good intentions for this garden but instead I avoided it for months in favor of other projects.

The tractor tire that I planted in spring with Lavatera and Sedum has likewise been encased in weeds.

And the side bed that was started as a temporary space for extra plants eventually gave way to some of the largest dandelions you have ever witnessed.

The Diablo Ninebark are completely lost in the dandelions

I confess, I just gave up.

But if we look hard enough there are some benefits to my lacklustre housekeeping skills.  The raspberries blossomed and produced fruit.

Obedient plant blew in on the wind and seeded itself.

As did the beautiful red flowers of this scarlet flax

And the ever cheerful faces of pansies have appeared in the cool air of autumn

Not perfect but not so bad after all.