Garden Update -- End of the year

I noticed that I didn’t have a garden update since August. Sorry about that…here is what happened since the end of summer. It wasn’t a 100% disaster, but for the most part, there isn’t much to be proud of.

Pumpkins. So our pumpkin vines really went nuts with blossoms. Unfortunately, not one of them turned into an actual pumpkin. I’m sure the animals were eating them before they could turn into fruit. There won’t be any pumpkin plants in the garden from here on out.

Tomatoes. Unlike last year, where the squirrels ate every single one of my tomatoes, this year I only caught them eating a few, and not from every plant. In late August and early September I did start getting several Roma tomatoes turning orange, and I was happy to be able to harvest a couple dozen for the year. I made some salsa and used the rest for omelets and salads. Even so, I’m not going to bother with them again next year. Too much aggravation for very little payoff.

A small portion of our harvest of tomatoes

Peppers. These lasted a really long time. Whereas the tomato plants died off as soon as the temps went below 40, the pepper plants lasted until early November when we had a couple of days of hard frosts. The bell peppers did the worst, which is par for the course for me. The gypsy and Carmen peppers I planted did really well, and while most started to rot before I could pick them, I was able to get quite a few before they all died off. And the chili peppers that were all in my Topsy-Turvy did really well too.

Potatoes. Finally a success story! Our potatoes ended up being great. We harvested them in late August, and the plants produced some HUGE potatoes. Like 2 years ago, we only got about 3-4 potatoes per plant, which (based on a cursory Google search) is way too low. Many say 6-10 per plant is about right, others say they get even more per plant. I must be doing something wrong here, but damned if I know what it is. Either way, the potatoes we had were fantastic, so I’m not complaining.

Potatoes came out very well

Blackberries. I never did get a great harvest of these, though I was able to pick a couple small bowlfuls that were enough to sprinkle on cereal. I’m hoping that the 3rd year for the plants will really pick them up.

Finally, I have gotten off to an early start to next year’s garden. As I did 2 years ago, I planted garlic in mid October. Interestingly enough, I had to call around to several garden centers before I could find some garlic to plant. They had all sold out, which was surprising to me. I finally found a place that said they could order it for me, so I asked for a bunch of hardneck garlic. Unfortunately when I went to pick it up they had shipped softneck instead, so that’s what I ended up planting. I was out in the garden a couple of weeks ago and I noticed that the garlic is already sprouting up through the leaves and mulch I covered it with! Soon enough it should winter over and then start growing again in the spring.

Going through the painstaking task of separating all the cloves.

All the garlic, ready to be planted.

And that’s the end of another horrific year in the garden. 2012 will be a lot less, I’ve decided. After 3 years I know what works and what doesn’t, and I don’t see a reason to keep trying stuff that just won’t grow or keeps getting eaten. Thankfully Natick has a good farmer’s market in the summer, so it’s not like I’ll go hungry.