2011 Garden Overview & Totals......Part 2

Part 1 of the 2011 Garden Overview & Totals can be found here. Part 1 started at Asian Veggies and ended at Garlic.

Greens: There were a few different veggies planted that I put in the Greens category. All were originally planted in the cold frames in early December of 2010. They all did well and we really enjoyed them. This year I planted an additional variety of kale in the cold frames.

    Arugala - 1.3125 lbs.
    Chard - Rainbow - 2.0625 lbs.
    Collards - Vates - 1.375 lbs.
    Kale - Squire - 1 lb.

Kohlrabi: I have always thought that Kohlrabi was a very cool looking plant. I had never tasted it but planted it because I had the room and I thought that it was very cool. The varieties planted were Early Purple Vienna & Early White Vienna. Both did very well at the plots. I am not sure if I will start any this winter for next year since I don't know if the new gardens will be ready in time for planting.

    Early Purple Vienna - 1.9375 lbs.
    Early White Vienna - 1.9375 lbs.

Leeks: It was a very strange year for leeks. I usually don't start harvesting them until fall and leave many in the garden to harvest during the winter. This year many of them had to be harvested early since they were getting slimy. I think it was due to the excessive heat then the excessive rain. The remaining few were harvested a couple of weeks ago for two reasons. One, bad planning on my part at the home garden. Two, I didn't want to leave the remaining 4 at the plots over the winter. Total harvest was 7.125 lbs.

Lettuce: I didn't do a very good job of separating the weights of the different varieties of lettuce. The varieties planted this year were; Romaine, Freckles Romaine, Buttercrunch, Gourmet Mix, Eva's Burgundy, Rocky Top & Quattro Stagioni Sel. Rossina Di Pescia. Total harvested - 12.9 lbs.
I really need to do a better job keeping lettuce growing in the garden. I was so so late starting lettuce for a later crop.

Melons:

Watermelon: There were two varieties of watermelon planted at the plots; Sugar Baby & Moon & Stars. Both varieties had an encounter with the groundhog. The little monster ate the Sugar Baby melons when they were young. So we didn't get any for ourselves. We did manage to harvest a couple small Moon & Stars though. Total harvested - 8 lbs.

Cantaloupe: Two varieties of cantaloupe were planted at the plots; Organic Delicious & French. They did OK and both varieties were good. I was really bad at my record keeping and don't remember the details and which did better. The Total harvest was - 13 lbs.

Misc. Melons: Two other varieties of melons were also planted at the plots, Korean & Tularosa. The Korean melons were from seeds that I had saved from a melon that a dear friend of ours gave us a couple of years ago. This melon did OK and 1 lb. of fruit was havested. I was very excited about the Tularosa melon. The seed was gift from Holly. This melon is supposed to be wonderful! I ended up with only one plant. It was planted at the plots and was doing well. One day it just died. I have no idea why. It was fine one day and wilted the next.

Onions: All of the onions this past year were planted from sets or purchased plants. I had such a bad year when I started them from seed. It was so much work and the results were the worst that I had ever had. Maybe some day I will try my hand at growing them from seed again. All of this years varieties were storage onions. Sown from sets were Red Baron & Stuttergarter. Sown from purchased plants were Red Zepplin & Copra. The onions really liked the soil at the plots and did great! I didn't separate the totals of the two different varieties of red & white. Next year we are planning on sowing some sweet onions in addition to storage onions. I think that we also need more poundage to get us through the year. We shall see how we make out.

    Red Onions: 23.3 lbs
    White Onions: 16.5 lbs.
    Spring Onions: .7 lbs

Peas: There were a lot of different types of peas planted this year. Some were planted at the home garden and some at the plots. The peas did pretty well. I did notice that of the varieties of peas that were planted in both locations, the ones planted in the home garden did better.

• Shelling Peas: The only variety of shelling peas that were sown were Little Marvel. Some were sown at the home garden and some at the plots. Most of the first sowing at the plots rotted due to the excessive rains we had. The Total harvest was 4 lbs. Next year I will be adding some new shelling varieties.
• Snow Peas: There were three varieties of snow peas planted; Oregon Giant, Mammoth Melting & Carouby de Maussane. The Oregon Giant & Mammoth Melting were sown both in the home garden and the plots. They did pretty well. The early peas of these two varieties were great. As the season moved on the peas got tough and stringy and the plants were pulled. The Carouby de Maussane were only sown at the plots and did not do very well at all. I don't think that I will be planting that variety again. Total harvest was 4.7 lbs.
• Snap Vine Peas: We had some great new snap pea varieties this year that we absolutely loved! These were; Spring Blush Snap & Sugar Magnoila Purple Snap. Both varieties are vining and were purchased from Peace Seeds. The Spring Blush peas were sown in the home garden and yielded 1.8 lbs. The Sugar Magnoila peas were sown at the plots and yielded 2.6 lbs. Both of these varieties will definitely be planted next year!

Peppers: It was definitely the year of the pepper for us! They just would stop producing!!

Hot Peppers:

• Habanero - This one plant, seed from Mimi, produced the biggest Habanero peppers that I have ever seen. This baby just kept going and going!! I have a lot of them dried that need to be ground for Habanero Powder....which was requested by my Sister In-law.
• Jalapeno - These seemed to produce at their normal rate and we had plenty pickled for use over the winter. The Jalapeno peppers were extremely hot this year.....right from the start.
• Pepperoncini - These seeds were from Thomas. This pepper has got to be one of the most prolific varieties! It was amazing how many I got from just 3 plants! I have to say that I am disappointed in the flavor though. They were very bitter with an odd flavor. I love pickled pepperoncinis on just about everything. I am going to have to look for a different variety though.

Spice Peppers:

• Cayenne - The Cayenne peppers seemed to produce at their normal rate. There are plenty dried that need to be ground for cayenne pepper.
• Paprika Hungarian - The Paprika peppers did very well this year. They were much larger then usual. There are also plenty of these dried waiting to be ground in to powder for cooking.
• Pimento - The pimentos started out great....until the groundhog decided that he was going to eat each and every one of them. I only managed to harvest two before he had his feast! We were really looking forward to canning these.

Total Hot & Spice Pepper Harvest - 25.7 lbs

Sweet Peppers:

• Orange Bell - These were very prolific this year. I just wish that they would turn color quicker. I may need to look for a variety that gets a little bigger and turns color quicker. I'm open for any suggestions.
• Corona - Yellow Bell - This variety produced well also. It does have a few problems though. The color is the same as the orange bell, it doesn't turn color quick enough and they aren't all that big. I am open for suggestions on a yellow bell as well.
• Red - Corno Di Toro -Italian Heirloom frying - This also did very well since it was the year of the pepper.  
• Red - Marconi - Italian Heirloom frying - This pepper did great and is bigger then the Corno Di Toro.
• Red Bell - Quadrato Rosso D'Asti - Granny gave me this seed. I have to say that this pepper is wonderful! They are big bells that turn an absolutely perfect lipstick red! Now, if I can only find an orange & yellow bell that are this good!

Total Sweet Pepper harvest - 51.2 lbs.

Potatoes: I planted three varieties of potatoes this year; Yukon Gold, Sagre Red & Kennebec. I choose these varieties because they were early or mid-season potatoes and are supposed to be good for storage. Even though we did have some problems with the potatoes this year, they did pretty well. The Yukon Golds  were planted in a bed next door at the rental house that I use to own. They started to look like they had a disease. So, I pulled them early. I also planted half of the Sagre Reds there and half at the plots. All of the Kennebecs were planted at the plots. While digging around for some potatoes at the plots, I noticed that something had been nibbling at them. So, all of those potatoes were pulled early too. The Yukon Gold is our favorite potato. The Sagre Red were OK, but I have had better red potatoes before. The Kennebecs  were definitely the best performers. I think that I am going to look for a different variety of red potatoes to plant next year. I planted 2 1/2 lbs of each variety and the harvests were as follows.

Yukon Gold - 7.5 lbs.
Sagre Red - 9.5 lbs.
Kennebec - 23.1 lbs.

Raspberries & Blackberries - All of the raspberries were Heritage.  Some were new canes that I planted and some were already at the plots. They didn't do all that well. There was an early modest harvest and no fall harvest due to the hurricane. The total harvest was 3.7 lbs. The blackberries that were at the plots when we got them are a variety called Hull. I have to say that we really really loved those blackberries. They made the best jam ever! The total blackberry harvest was 11.5 lbs. I am planning on moving some of them to the new Community Garden location early next spring.

Spinach- I have to admit that spinach has got to be the most difficult crop for me to grow. I have tried everything. The best crop that I had was last year when I got so disgusted that I just ignored it and we went on vacation. When we came home we had tons of spinach. Maybe it needs the passive gardening approach. This year I got absolutely nothing from the spring crop. So in disgust, I threw a ton of seeds at the one end of the one bed at the home garden for a fall crop. I think that I planted  a couple of varieties of Bloomsdale and maybe some Matador. They are growing! So, we may have some fall spinach after all. If not, we will definitely have some in the spring!

Strawberries - I planted a new strawberry bed at the plots this year. There were three varieties planted; Jewel & Annapolis (June bearing) and Ozark Beauty (everbearing).  They did not do very well. They all took off early in the season.Then they had a hard time with the many heat waves that we had and a long hot drought period and then tons of rain. I think that I have lost many of the plants. It looks like I may have to buy some more next year. The total harvest was 4.2 lbs.

Squash:

Summer: The only variety of summer squash that was planted was Cocozelle Italian Zucchini. We really like this variety and it did well this year. No SVB's! Total harvest was 17.7 lbs.

Winter:

• Spaghetti Squash - The spaghetti squash were planted at the home garden along the fence at the end of the herb garden. We won the SVB war with these too! Total harvest 23 lbs.
• Sweet Dumpling - These were planted at the plots in the one Three Sister's planting. The squash bugs tried their best to get to them. But we ended up with a decent harvest of 8.8 lbs.
• Field Pumpkin - The SVB's got to the pumpkin vines and we only ended up with one orange pumpkin that weighed 6 lbs.
• Long Island Cheese Squash - The seeds for this squash were from Mimi. They were quite small but did well. This is the squash that I used to make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. Total harvest 6 lbs.
• Greek Winter Squash - Jane in Maui gave me these seeds and I was very excited about this squash. The vine grew like crazy but it failed to produce one single female flower.
• Fortna White Pumpkin  - I planted this pumpkin because I thought that white pumpkins were pretty cool. They are on the small side. But, they did well. Total harvest 16.2 lbs.  We haven't eaten any of them yet. So, I can't give an opinion on their taste.

Tomatoes - It definitely was not the year of the tomato here in eastern PA! The total tomato harvest was 316.8 lbs. I did a tomato review that you can read here.

That's about it for the 2011 Garden Overview & Totals. I will do a short post on the herbs this year....even though I failed to weigh any of them!

Here's to a great gardening year for all in 2012!!!

Harvest Monday............06/06/2011

It was a pretty good harvest week. The Baby Choi is growing like gang busters!! The Pak Choi this spring was very small and bolted during the cold rainy weather. These guys are taking over the one cold frame bed. There were 14 plants in there. Yesterday I harvested 3.

Although they are not as full as they could grow to be. I had to start harvesting them due to their size.

Look at these huge leaves!

I have been picking some strawberries every morning. I have to say that I'm am very pleased with the flavor of all 3 varieties that I planted: Jewel (June), Annapolis (early June) & Ozark Beauty (everbearing).  Every single strawberry is so so sweet.

2 lbs. 7 oz. of Strawberries this week......not counting the ones that I eat when I am over at the plots!

All of the remaining Kohlrabi has been picked, one white and four purple.

The purple are quite pretty.

The hard neck garlic is starting to develop scapes.

Aren't they pretty?

Our favorite harvest of the week has been the Spring Blush Snap Peas.

The peas are being picked daily and are so so sweet. We could eat them every day!  I have to save some to freeze so we can enjoy them during the winter. I always pick my snap and snow peas before they get very big. We enjoy the younger tender peas the best.

I have also been pulling some spring onions, harvesting some herbs for cooking and cutting some very small side shoots from the Calabrese sprouting broccoli. The sprouting broccoli has not been doing as well as they should be. I guess it is from the crazy weather we have had this spring. I am hoping that the Walthan 29 will do much better.

Total Harvest for the 8.25 lbs.

Broccoli - 3 oz.

Baby Choi - 2 lbs. 1 oz.

Kohlrabi - White: 7 oz. Purple: 1 lb. 15 oz.

Scapes -  2 oz.

Spring Blush Snap Peas - 1 lb.

Strawberries - 2 lbs. 7 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions, our hostess of Harvest Monday and see what is going on in veggie gardens around the globe!

Happy Harvest Memorial Day!

I am very happy to say that we harvested some new veggies this week!!!!

The first two strawberries were harvested from the plots on Sunday! There were many more that will be ready this morning. I will add those to next weeks harvest. "The Italian" will be so happy to be able to have his strawberries for breakfast! I ate these two though :)

Two different varieties romaine lettuce and some Calabrese Broccoli. The two heads of lettuce weighed in at 1lb!

I also harvested four White Kohlrabi. I am planning to use both the greens and the bulbs.

Harvest total - 2.75 lbs.

Broccoli - 4 oz

Kohlrabi - 24 oz. (including greens to be used)

Lettuce - 16 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday and see what is going on in veggie gardens around the globe!

The Plots at the end of May

I've been a little MIA this week. I've been very very busy with the gardens and helping my dear friend move.

The weather this week did a big turn around and the gardens are changing from day to day. Here are some pictures that I have taken at the plots this past week. I will do a separate post on the home garden.

Radicchio & Leeks. This picture was taken this past Tuesday. They are much bigger now. The raddichio will be done before the leeks get very big.

Blackberry blooms on Tuesday.....the bushes are loaded with blooms today.

Tomato Alley yesterday. This coming week the plants will definitely need to be staked.

Beds 5 & 6 today.

I had to cover the strawberries today since I found that a couple had been nibbled by the birds. I put some stakes in bed 5 for the tomatoes the other day. Now I need to get them wired up. All of the peas have finally started growing. What ever has been nibbling at them has finally stopped. I have been putting DE and BT on them. These peas (right side of bed) are the Little Marvels.

You can see why the birds want to nibble. The sun has been out most of the week and the strawberries are finally starting to ripen. "The Italian" is one happy guy! He just loves his strawberries for breakfast!

  

My little Alien plants, Kohlrabi. I planted them because I thought that they were the most fascinating looking plants. Some of the white variety has been harvested and purple is not far behind.

The purple cabbages are so beautiful and forming heads.

Raspberries bushes are forming buds.

I planted 3 varieties of cauliflower this spring, Early Snowball, Silver Cup and Igloo. The Silver Cup are 40 day variety and are the first to start forming heads.

Savoy Cabbages are forming heads as well.

The former gardeners of our plots had planted some perennials in the front. I have no idea what these are. They are quite pretty. Does anyone have a clue?

Oh, they updated the new rules at the plots. We are allowed to have a water catching system as long as it isn't higher then 4'. I have no idea why they changed the height. I haven't talked to any of the gardeners for a few days. I have been going there early in the morning before it gets too hot out and before helping my dear friend with her move.

The Plots at the end of April

Although our weather has not been cooperating, the planting at the plots is up to date. I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised how well everything is growing over there.

The weather finally cooperated on a day when "The Italian" was home and the final two beds were framed out this past week! Hopefully we will be able to get the rain barrel system and shelter set-up this coming week.

Bed #1 (The Pot Garden) is completely planted. I finally put in 30 cauliflower plants yesterday and filled any extra space with more onion sets. This bed is full of Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Onions & some Pak Choi. This is the weediest bed that I have there. If you remember, the plot to the right was full of 7' high weeds.

             

Broccoli & Cabbage

I did loose a couple of broccoli plants, but overall everything is growing wonderful!

The Snow Peas are coming up OK. The English Peas (Little Marvel) are very sporatic in germinating. I think that a lot of them rotted from all of the rain. I also feel that some much needed organic matter in the beds would make it easier for them to grow.

All of the Kohlrabi is growing great! I planted some Celery at the end of this bed and in another bed yesterday.

Both varieties of Asparagus are coming up. This is the Jersey Supreme. I couldn't get a good picture of the Purple Passion due to the sun and location of the bed.

Many of the strawberry plants have flowers on them!!

The potatoes are coming up quicker at the plots then here at home.

The Raspberries and Blackberries are growing like crazy over there! Now I need to get working on the paths, compost bins and amend the soil in Beds 3 & 4 to get them ready for the warm weather veggies.

This week at the Plots

Everything is slowing progressing at the plots. The days that "The Italian" is home it rains all day, so the remaining beds won't be framed out until mother nature cooperates.

Most of the planting is up to date with the exception of some onions and two special varieties of peas. The weather is supposed to be good in the beginning of the week but that could change at any time.

I planted 4 White Kohlrabi and 3 Purple with some onion sets between them on Tuesday. You can see how windy it is over there from this picture. They are all doing well.

The cabbages are getting toughened up from the wind and growing nicely as well.

I finally planted the Heritage Raspberries that I have had here at the house. I also met the people who planted the other raspberries and blackberries. The woman identified the two varieties of raspberries as Heritage and Roadside Red. I can definitely tell them apart. The blackberries are supposed to be Hull, I could not find any information on them though.

The Pak Choi that is planted at the plots seems to be doing better then the ones I have planted here at the house. That's a good sign!!

The balance of the Sagre potaoes and the Kennebecs were planted in this bed. It's hard to see where I planted them in this picture. It was so windy that day that the top of the soil dried up almost immediately.

While we are on the subject of potatoes....the dang City Squirrels were in the potato bed here at the house! They dug up one potato so I covered the top of the bed with chicken wire. I guess it is time to get the traps out!!

Have a Happy Easter!