As things have really slowed down in the garden over the past month, I thought that it is a good time to summarize how our garden fared this year.
The big success story of the year was definitely the green beans. We had about a dozen plants growing up bamboo canes and they have been giving us reliable crops all summer long. I just harvested the final stragglers yesterday. We didn’t get hundreds of beans, but they provided the vegetable for many meals.
Then, the tomato plants. They were interesting this year. For the first part of the year, people were complaining that they were slow to start, but then it seems that the tomato season picked up for the second half, and it turned out to be a good (or at least average) year in the end. At least that is what other people found. Our cherry tomatoes (Sweet Baby Girls) did very well in the first part of the year – until we left for Scotland pretty much. They never really got back up to full production afterwards, but seemed rather burnt-out. But even so, we have had a good number in September and even October. I also grew Yellow Pear tomatoes. They did surprisingly well, although only until our Scotland trip. The plant reached five feet or so, but was then badly damaged by some winds fairly early in the season, but still fruited well. I’ll definitely do these again next year. And of course the girls *love* both cherry tomatoes and the yellow pear ones. They will eat them in preference to just about anything.
I also grew a couple of other varieties of tomato – plum tomatoes and a normal variety, called Golden Jubilee. Neither did spectacularly. We didn’t get a single Golden Jubilee (there were a few fruits, but I missed their optimal time and they went funny). We had quite a few plum tomatoes, but not enough to make a whole meal of (i.e. we always had to supplement with a tin, or store-bought fresh tomatoes). For some reason, many of the plum tomatoes dropped from the plant before they were ripe. There are still quite a few green plum tomatoes out there now. I will have to gather them all to ripen inside before the weather gets really cold (I think that the coldest it has reached so far is about 45F).
Oh, I forgot all about our zucchini / courgettes. They did well for a while too. They seem to crop well and then they just die. Which I’ve heard from other people too. Anyway, they did well, and the girls enjoyed fried zucchini very much – it was Pippa’s favourite vegetable for a while (maybe still is). Jodi was pretty impressed with my zucchini until I brought home some that someone else had grown. Oh well. Mine tasted better.
I also grew some cucumbers this year. They did ok. I got three or four small cucumbers from them. They might have done better if I hadn’t waited so long to harvest the ones that grew – I was expecting long cucumbers and instead they stuck at something that resembled a tennis ball. They were still tasty though (actually I think that I was the only person who enjoyed them).
Radishes did ok. As always. Not great. I think that they were too shaded by the tomato plants and rose plants. The beet-roots which were next to them did nothing. But the carrots which were next to them grew eventually. I need to pull them soon. I chose a variety which looks like a radish (our soil isn’t great for long carrots). The melon plants were extremely disappointing. They did absolutely nothing. The peas which I planted didn’t even germinate. Although the sugar-snap peas which I sowed did do well. They gave us a handful of sugar-snap peas. Never enough to actually cook with, but enough for a nice snack.
And finally, raspberries. Jodi and the girls (two, at the time) gave me some raspberry canes when we first moved here. I foolishly planted them under the huge tree in our back-yard. I moved some of them when I saw that it wasn’t a bright idea. But this year they all seemed to do well. The ones I transplanted and the ones under the big tree. Most times when we go into the garden now there are a few raspberries to share around. Again, not enough to do anything with, but enough to enjoy. Nothing from our fruit trees (plum and quince). Hopefully I just need to be patient.
And that is the sum-up. It was a rather wet summer without much heat (we didn’t put our window A/C in until mid-August and only used it a couple of times), so the plants didn’t know what to do. But it was definitely still worth it. Now if only someone would help me with this raised bed for next year, things would be looking great…