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As this is officially Autumn, my first year growing vegetables is winding down and most have already been harvested.
My spontaneous garden this year consisted of ~
8 Corn plants (Early Golden Bantam)
3 Watermelon (Georgia Rattlesnake)
4 Sunflower (Mammoth Gray)
2 Artichoke (Globe)
18 Pole Bean
(9 Blue Lake White Seeded)
(9 Burpee's Tenderpod)
8 Gac
14 Tomato
(9 Beefsteak)
(5 Red Cherry Large)
3 Pumpkin (Jack O'Lantern)
9 Peas (Alaska)
9 Soybean (Envy)
9 Kale (Dwarf Blue Curled)
9 Arugula (Roquette)
9 Radish (Cherry Belle)
9 Cilantro - Livingston Seed Co.
9 Broccoli (Calabrese)
9 Stevia (Honeyleaf)
9 Spinach (Double Choice Hybrid/Bloomsdale Long-Standing)
9 Lettuce (Black Seeded Simpson)
Most are in groups of 9 because I started each vegetable by seed using cells. The list may be impressive, but the harvest was not. As for the corn, it produced heavily, but was overly starchy - probably due to insufficient watering. The watermelon was planted with the corn (along with beans that never came up) in the back yard in attempt to copy the indians "3 sisters" method. If not for my dog's free roam of that section of the back yard, the watermelons would have been fine, but they grew through the bird net and were left exposed. In sections where the net was doubled over, she would hop the net and carefully break the immature melons (~6") from the vine. Lucky did not actually eat them, but picked them off one by one as soon as they were becoming visible among the foliage. The sunflowers have done exceptionally, as they were planted directly in the ground in the side yard without mulch or any form of soil prep prior to planting. Out of the 6 planted, 4 grew to maturity. One had to be replanted and never made it, while the other was broken before it was ready to harvest. The artichokes have grown well, and are expected to flower next year, as this year I started them from seed. It is possible to flower in the first year, but in my situation, apparently not. The Blue Lake pole beans were planted in a long, narrow planter against the dividing wall in the side yard with a nylon trellis. These, as well as the Gac and Peas were planted in the same style planter along the wall, with coco mulch at the base. The beans produced heavily, but were attacked by powdery mildew before the end of the harvest. The peas were attacked by the same disease before they were even 2' tall. There were several pods forming but the plant was killed before they reached maturity. The gac (a form of bittermelon normally found only in asia- thailand I believe) is incredibly healthy, but not produced yet. It has similar characteristics as the artichoke, and is expected to flower and fruit next season. The beefsteak tomato were started early, so produced the main harvest during July, while I was away in Utah, but are still throwing out a few fruits. I believe there are several left on one of the plants still... 3 of these were on cages on the slab of concrete in the side yard, while 2 were inside the greenhouse several feet from the others. The greenhouse tomatoes did much better than those outside, and were planted in identical soil and pots, so the slight temperature increase and humidity is beneficial. The rest of the beefsteak were tested in the "topsy turvy" which did live, but spat out some ripe fruit that were smaller than even my cherries. The cherries were started late, so are only now reaching maturity. I have harvested ~4 fruits so far and enjoyed them in a salad for lunch. They are exceptionally large for cherry tomatoes, and for plants that were not contained and are sprawling on the ground, matured very well. The fate of most of the rest of my list was not very good. The pumpkins croaked from powdery mildew, they were planted in the front yard on the unused patch of dirt alongside the driveway. The arugula, broccoli, and spinach never left their cells, as I was rushing to pack for Utah and could not properly contain them, so they met their demise first of all. The soy and bush beans (oh yeah, I had bush beans too) were planted opposite the gac and peas in the ground of the side yard, but without mulch. They were showing signs of fruiting before I left, but were shriveled and brown when I returned. The soy beans had gone to seed, so I have more seed to replant from, but I am going into an all heirloom vegetable garden next year (more on that in another post, as this one is long enough already). The radishes never formed after 3 months, and the cilantro bolted on me, so those two were out. Incredibly, the kale survived the cells of death that the arugula, broccoli, and spinach suffered from, and will probably be planted out for winter either in the community garden or as a test crop in the aquaponic grow bed. Stevia has probably come to be my favorite plant, as it is a woody perennial and will last for several years. They need replanted, as they are still in gallon pots and are reaching 3 feet tall and require water every couple of days to revive them from severe wilt. The woody nature though keeps the plant alive even with inadequate water. Today was actually my first taste of the fresh leaves, and it nearly knocked me over with its sweetness. The initial bite is as though you just ate a leaf, both in texture and flavor, but then the 300x sugar content kicks in and explodes in your mouth. It becomes very pleasant and satisfying. I cannot wait to harvest some leaves to dry and try in tea.
Well, this post is incredibly long and I apologize for not breaking it up, but I'm too lazy, haha. I promise future posts will not be of this size, and I will try to get more pictures up of this years harvest, as well as some video of the gardens soon.
-- kmgx3x
Wow, very interesting. when i have a minute, i will let you know how things went here with the Utah garden.
ReplyDeleteLove you, and can't wait for more posts from you.
mom