2014 Garden Review

Well it was quite a challenging gardening year for many. I got a late start in March waiting for the snow to melt and the ground to unfreeze. Most of my spring crops were effected by the late start. I got one harvest out of my snow peas before they started dying off because of the heat. My broccoli plants all formed heads but bolted because of the temperatures. I was able to harvest some Chinese Cabbage, Savoy Cabbage and Deadon Cabbage. Most of my lettuce went to flower before I could harvest it. I was able to harvest my carrots, beets and onions successfully. This was my best onion year, I grew Walla Walla onions from transplants that grew to a really nice size and were tasty. I will be growing them again next year for sure!

 

I got my summer crops planted on time in May. Some of my tomato plants in my home garden were destroyed by an unexpected hail storm. I learned how resilient tomato plants can be because some of my plants were left with just a stem and a leaf and they grew back healthy and strong after the hail damage. I am still harvesting tomatoes from them.

My summer crops also had their ups and downs as well. I was able to harvest a nice amount of tomatoes this year before disease took over the end of July into August. I did plant over 70 plants this year which also helped my harvest amounts. I tried a lot of new tomato varieties this year and will have plenty to share in my upcoming Tomato Tuesday posts, which I will be starting up again. My cherry tomato varieties seemed to struggle this year for some reason. My pepper and eggplant also struggled, however my peppers have taken off in the last month.

 I had a really productive bean crop this year, I grew 3 different pole bean varieties. They were Cherokee Trail of Tears, Rattlesnake Beans and Mayflower beans. I grew them on a bamboo teepee again which always works well for me. I also tried growing bush Lima beans for the first time. I grew Dixie Speckled Butter Beans and Bush Baby White Limas. I harvested many dried bean pods and will be using them eventually to make Baked Lima Beans.

My summer squash also seemed to struggle this year. I am usually overwhelmed with zucchini and this year my plants did not produce abundantly. I tried a new Italian squash this year called Tromboncino, which I will do a post on in the future.

Tromboncino Squash

I also tried Glass Gem corn this year, which was fun to grow but not very productive. It produces very pretty corn that can be used as popcorn.

I had a really good cucumber harvest early on, but once the cucumber beetles got to my plants they were destroyed. I was given a pumpkin plant by another gardener, which turned out to be a cantaloupe. I never grew cantaloupe before and was able to harvest one nice sized melon from my plant. I am now going to give them a try again next year. It was delicious!

Another new to me crop I grew this year was Ground Cherries. I started them by seed inside in February and planted them in May. I had two plants growing and I was able to harvest a ton of fruit from them. They are tasty and very prolific. I have a bunch frozen to use in baking recipes and the rest I ate fresh.

I have some fall crops growing right now down at my community garden plots. I planted carrots, beets, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, broccoli, Swiss Chard and Romanesco broccoli. My broccoli plants were chewed pretty good by a rabbit that got into my garden, but they are bouncing back.

I was very busy this summer and I did not have time to post on my blog. I have many great ideas for upcoming posts I want to write now that things have slowed down and I plan on picking back up my Tomato Tuesday posts. Please come back to see my upcoming posts and I look forward to hearing about your 2014 growing season experiences. Happy Gardening!

This is one of many volunteer sunflowers I had this year!