A green salad with carrots from the garden, and a fruit salad featuring the very last harvest of raspberries (plus summer fruit that was in the deep freezer) were part of our November 1 dinner. We can say that we ate fresh, harvested produce from our garden in November. If the greens, carrots, and a couple of the last cabbages can hang on through the end of the month, we will harvest them for Thanksgiving dinner.
It is time to assess this year’s garden’s produce. The fruit harvest far outweighed the vegetables. Except for the strawberries that suffered in the drought and that we supplemented with more new plants, all of the other fruits surpassed our expectations. The apricots were the stars of the summer, followed by raspberries and pears. Our currants produced well, as usual, the young cherry tree gave us a nice bowl of fruit, and the apple tree had its first showing of fruit (although largely inedible) for the first time in at least 10 years.
The vegetable beds produced more good performers than poor ones. Topping the list were Swiss chard (Luculllus) that we harvested from early summer through mid-October, and cucumbers (Bush Pickle) that resulted in three batches of relish, a batch of pickles, plus cucumbers for salads and giving away. The two varieties of carrots (Prodigy Hybrid and Scarlet Nantes) were numerous yet small. We may do better by thinning the carrots next summer so that they produce fewer, larger roots. We were fully satisfied with our bean production. All three varieties (Top Crop Green Bush Bean, Jung’s Tricolor Blend Bush Bean, and Golden Rod Yellow Bush Bean) kept us well-supplied with beans for eating for weeks and freezing for winter. Specialty Greens Oriental Salad mix and a lettuce variety were spring treats that lasted through mid-July.
Less impressive were kohlrabi (Early White Vienna) that was supposed to take just 55 days to harvest, but we had to leave them in the ground through September until they produced enough for eating and freezing. The cabbage (Savoy Express Hybrid) gave us one head, but may have been more productive had the tomatillo not crowded them. The tomatillo had hundreds of flowers but no fruit until about a week before the frost killed it. A trial packet of tomato seeds (Delicious) did no better than the tomato plants we purchased. The tomatoes were generally sparse but tasty. The basil (Jung’s Balcony Blend) was a trial packet that resulted in one plant that we have now moved into a windowsill pot for winter. Eggplants and peppers did not produce more than a few small ones, enough for a single serving each.
The poorest performers were Jung’s Summer Squash medley and Baby Blue Hubbard. Despite copious flowers, we harvested no more than a half dozen zucchini and no other squash. White Icicle Radish gave us just one radish, and Cajun Delight Hybrid Okra, a handful of okra.
Most of the flowers did well and attracted a hummingbird and butterflies (Salvia Bonfire Elite, Hollyhock Summer Carnival Mix, and Petunia Storm Hybrid Mix) except for the Cosmos. They reached seven feet tall and then the frost got them before they bloomed. The sunflowers (Moonwalker) were 11-feet tall but short-lived because the birds ate them just as they bloomed.
Most of the flowers did well and attracted a hummingbird and butterflies (Salvia Bonfire Elite, Hollyhock Summer Carnival Mix, and Petunia Storm Hybrid Mix) except for the Cosmos. They reached seven feet tall and then the frost got them before they bloomed. The sunflowers (Moonwalker) were 11-feet tall but short-lived because the birds ate them just as they bloomed.
We note also the best harvest of asparagus in years, producing from May through July.
Why do some fare better than others in a garden that experienced the same conditions from spring through fall? We had a drought from early spring through mid-summer as well as a record-cold summer. The conditions that favored fruit production resulted in mixed results among the vegetables.
The season ends with some things still growing in the garden that we will harvest before long. Meanwhile, we look forward to next spring, always optimistic that we will have at least as good a garden as we had this year. We hope the rains of fall continue, that we get a good snow cover this winter to protect the perennials, and that spring warmth and rains come as needed to give us a good start to the growing season of 2010.
