I'm starting a list of ideas for next year's vegetable gardens. I'll book mark this list on the sidebar and continue to add to it.
Tomatoes:
Use rail and string supports
Space plants more than this year
Plant as far from the old patch as possible
Use salt marsh hay instead of plastic mulch
Start plants in two batches, one 1 week earlier than this year. the other several weeks later
Find a plant light set-up
Other plants
Asparagus patch
Leave an area where Skippy can dig
Garden bench
A shade arbor over the bench
Move my two pear trees to the plot
More lettuce
Write up a schedule of planting this winter because I always end up with no lettuce mid summer even though I have some good varieties now that grow all summer
Grow lots of cucumbers in my shady home garden, none at the sunny plot
Same with soybeans and green beans
Label plants better
Store my winter keeper beets in the refrigerator in plastic baggies
Two plantings of summer squash
Try some Chinese greens, pak choy, etc (I am having fun looking into Chinese veggies)
Move garlic to full sun at community plot (cloves too small at home)
Don't bother with onions from seed again, use sets and purchased seedlings
Varieties to grow again
Basil: Nufar
Bean, green: Provider bush, Fortex pole
Bean, shell: Flagrano, Tongue of Fire
Beets: Lutz, Chiogga
Broccoli: Green Goliath
Carrots: Mokum, Oxheart
Fava beans: Windsor
Kale:
Lettuce: Prizehead, escarole blonde full heart, red summer crisp
Marigolds: Tiger Eyes
Potatoes: Russet
Pumpkin: Big Rock
Radish: Easter Egg mix
Summer squash: Zephyr, Sunburst
Soybeans: Butterbeans
Tomatoes: Big Girl, Brandywine, Giant Belgium, Orange Blossom, Sungold, Opalka
More ideas:
grow a bigger fall crop of carrots
grow more and bigger varieties of potatoes
(can you do a fall planting of potatoes?)
grow more onions too (I think I'll buy seedlings next year)
keep trying to grow parsnips (plant some in pots to see what seedlings look like)
try growing celeriac
'Sungold' tomatoes are delicious! Of all the tomatoes I've tried, they're the only ones that have actually tasted truly sweet.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, I haven't tried all that many tomatoes ;)
I'd never grown Sungold before but Gretta gave me one of hers when we were walking through her field back in August. Awesome.
ReplyDeletekathy, why would you put cucumbers in the shade?? thanks.
ReplyDeleteWell, its not complete shade. The garden next to my house gets midday sun. From about 11-3. This would actually be called "partial sun".
ReplyDeleteCukes have always done very well for me here and, though I'm not sure why, they did very poorly in my new community plot this year. The poor community plot performance may have been due to poor soil prep. But since most crops did better in the community plot and I'm looking for crops I can grow at home, I think I'll put the cukes at home next year.
I grew my cukes in partial shade on a trellis. This was my first year with a garden and didn't realize the area was shady come midsummer. I had cukes from July 3 through the end of September! Certainly no disappointment here. The shade helped the area stay moist which I believe helped the cukes in the long run.
ReplyDeleteHi Kathy,
ReplyDeleteI was wondering- did you ever learn whether you can plant a fall potato crop?
Also, I'm thinking of signing up this fall for a spot at the community garden here at Dayton, OH metro parks. Can you let us know how much time it takes to tend a community garden, and the pros/cons? I am really interested, but afraid that I may find out it's just too much...
dreamer,
ReplyDeleteTwo good questions. I'll look into this and post on both soon. Thanks for the questions.
Kathy,
ReplyDeleteI love your blog and have been following it for a while. I live in Arlington and wanted to know if you'd consider giving a tour of your garden for ELA (www.ecolandscaping.org)? Please email me at redelstein@comcast.net. Thanks!