2010 Vegetable Garden Notes

Here are some notes for next time I plant a garden:

Peas:

Half way through the summer I thought that I shouldn't even have planted garden peas because you have to shell them. You don't have to shell sugar snap peas, but you can if you want to so it makes sense to only plant sugar snap peas. But I was wrong. Sugar snap peas have a shorter growing season- they start producing later and end earlier. So it is nice to have garden peas to fill in the gaps when the sugar snap peas aren't around.

Oh yeah. Peas need something about 4 feet tall to grow up. I used the sticks from the raspberries I pruned, but they were only about two feet tall and the peas fell over the top of them by August.

Swiss Chard:

I discovered this year that Swiss chard does not taste good. However, it is really pretty- especially the bright lights variety. I may not grow it in my vegetable garden again, but I would grow it as a foliage plant in a flower garden or a pot. In fact, the most recent Better Homes and Gardens magazine uses it as one of the suggested plants for a planter pot.

I had a lot of leaf miners in my chard at the beginning of the season but by August, they were petty much gone. Of about ten plants, two have gone to seed so far.

Summer Squash:

Zucchini has a reputation for overproducing, but that hasn't been the case for us. I grew one mound with four or five plants and we have used almost all of it, except for a few that I froze. We have been eating zucchini every day though. The funny thing is, we have one mound of yellow squash with four or five plants and I have been picking about ten of those every other day. We have way more yellow squash than zucchini. Next time I want to try growing pattypan squash too. Maybe I should buy some first though to see if I like it.

Beets:

They don't taste very good. Don't grow them again.

Carrots:

My carrots did great this year. I grew a small variety and they were ready a few weeks ago. It seems like it isn't worth it to grow carrots because they are so cheap, but it is nice to have them conveniently out in the garden. Fresh carrots are not as sweet as old carrots though. We used them in stir fry.

Spinach:

I loved having spinach because it was ready before anything else. I planted about a 15 foot row and wish I had planted more. The only problem was it went to seed by the end of June.

Cucumbers:

The cucumbers took forever to be ready, but they are really good. I planted Armenian cucumbers and they are huge, taste great, and are really crispy. I will definitely plant them again. Only next time, I would like to use a trellis so they are easier to pick and they don't get dirty from sitting on the soil.

Lettuce:

Love having lettuce in the garden. Hate kale, endive and arugula. Red lettuce grows way slower than green but makes the salad look pretty, so plant extra red lettuce.

Green beans:

I tried planting them early to see if I could get a head start but it really wasn't warm enough so all I did was waste a bunch of seeds. I only ended up with a 6 foot row, which did not produce enough. Next time I want to plant pole beans instead anyway because you don't have to bend down as much to pick them.

Chives:

So useful! Plant them again!

Weeds:

Use mulch! It was a nightmare keeping the garden weeded. I used grass clippings in some spots to keep the weeds down and it worked great. Just make sure they are applied thick enough.

Additional things I would like to plant in the future:

An unusual variety of potato or fingerlings.
Tons of tomatoes. Oh, how I love tomatoes.
Onions
Melons (if I ever have the space)
Winter squash
Shallots
Cilantro