A year end garden review...

 

I am a firm believer in looking back before moving forward.  I am getting towards the end of my vegetable garden harvest and now is the time to review successes and failures while they are still fresh in my mind.

  

First, I'll start with the garden design.  The new outdoor beds worked much better than I had anticipated.  Despite several hailstorms the plants continued to produce.  There are a few changes I would like to make.  One is adding a cold frame at the end for the pumpkins.   A few were lost to an early hailstorm.  On a positive note it has been very beneficial having pumpkins surrounding the garden, because the deer avoid the leaves.  Another change is I need to make a better path along the back, so I can pick my cucumbers without doing a balancing act. 

Later in the summer I added a wheel gate and that has made my little outdoor bed complete.  Someday I would like to add one more outdoor tier.  On the inside of the greenhouse I rotated my tomatoes and kicked the pumpkins out.  The only change I would make inside are the containers I use for growing plants on the bench. 

 

One of my biggest successes has been the lemon cucumber.  I love that you can just pick and eat them.  I also enjoy slicing them up and putting them in water.  The water just tastes fresher.  I also made some refrigerator pickles that were delicious.  The plants were very productive.  I highly recommend giving lemon cucumbers a try.

 

Another cucumber I enjoyed, was the little tiny Mexican Sour Gherkins.  I wish I had planted more in a more accessible spot.  Next time I will try planting a few in the wash bin in front of the greenhouse.  They are perfect for salads.  That is if you can get from the garden to the house without eating them.   I will also try a few in the greenhouse.  I don't believe you could have too many of these little guys growing.

With three years of tomatoes under my belt, this is what I've decided.  I love Zebra Cherry Hybrid and Gary Ibsen's Sasha Altai.  The Altai seeds I won from High Altitude Gardens last year and am forever grateful, because they were easy to grow and delicious.  I was disappointed with my Early Cherry Cherry Tomato as they kept cracking.  I also wasn't impressed with my store bought Patio and Red Grape.  The Red Grape ended up being the size of peas.  Next year I'm going to give large tomatoes a chance. 

I was overjoyed with my green peppers.  We ate stuffed peppers several times.  This is the first time I planted them directly into the ground of my greenhouse and that proved to be more productive.  I will plant more green peppers next year.  Hopefully, next year I will be able to pick a peck of peppers.  I won't pickle them:)

I was also pleasantly surprised with the Dill's Atlantic Giant pumpkin.  It was slow out of the gate, but is making it up in the home stretch.  Already the two I have are bigger than any other pumpkin I've ever grown.  Thumbs up on these guys.   Hopefully, this fall you will see a giant pumpkin in my fall porch display.

One more success was my Burpee Sweet Corn Early Choice Hybrid.  I really didn't think I could grow sweet corn at this altitude, but decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a go.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Not only did my corn grow and pollinate, but my husband and I enjoyed several tasty meals.

 

I don't even want to discuss the jalapenos.  I had it in my head that I wanted jalapeno poppers.  I hate hot and spicy foods, but my friend Jody made some poppers for me once,  They were incredible, so I was determined to try.  Last year I had no luck, but this year I grew 6 plants from seed.  I also planted them in the ground in the greenhouse.  Again things planted in the ground do better.  I have jalapenos coming out of my ears.  I was so excited to make poppers.  Jody sent me her recipe and I was ready.  Oh my, that didn't work.  Even after roasting for an hour they were so hot even my jalapeno popping husband threw in the towel.  That wasn't the end of the story.  I didn't realize the juice from the jalapenos would burn your hands.  For two days I suffered.  I tried every remedy I could pin or Google, to no avail.   Jalapenos will be found under the label of failure.   

Another unsuccessful plant was the Tigger Melon.  So cute and yet so yucky tasting.  Sorry I couldn't think of anything more descriptive than yucky.  I have one more out there and I will wait longer to see if the next one tastes better.  If not I am sorely disappointed.  Too bad, because they are super cute.







Well, that is my gardening story and I'm sticking to it.  Please share any vegetables that were surprisingly successful or are tried and true favorites.  I'm always looking for new things to incorporate.  Plus, part of the fun of blogging is sharing ideas.  Happy gardening.