2011 REFLECTIONS

Mid December is normally a very slow garden month, even though I am still cutting that amazing Swiss Chard.   We’ve had numerous frosts, but the plants keep producing and I keep picking.  It has to be one of the best crops that I’ve planted in the garden and has consistently great results, year after year.  Looking back at the growing year, tomatoes were also outstanding and we are still enjoying the sauce.  In fact, I am using lots of the frozen tomato sauce for the 20 lb. of meatballs which will be served at our annual holiday party.  Every time I taste that sauce, I am transported back to July when I was picking baskets of tomatoes daily.  Mmmmm – smells like summer.  The greens did very well especially the winter greens that were started in February in the hoophouse.  We had salads every day until mid June.  The peppers were slow in starting, but I picked them well into the fall.  We had tons of beans, some peas and a little bit of broccoli.  That being said, we had more garden failures than any previous year.   I harvested one eggplant, the size of a marble!  No eggplant parmesan this year!  The herbs came up but were disappointing.  I like to freeze dill and parsley, but didn’t have enough of a crop to do it this year.  Only got a couple broccoli plants, although there is still broccoli growing in the garden.   Maybe I need to rethink the planting schedule.  The strawberries were a total failure due to the wet spring, but the wild raspberries had a very hearty harvest.  My daughter made jars and jars of raspberry jam for Christmas presents this year.  The cucumbers were a total failure and a huge disappointment.  I love cucumber salad, but it was not meant to be.  And even the winter rye that I planted as a fall cover crop failed to germinate.   I’ll probably follow the same timeline for 2012.  Funny thing is, what works out well one year, fails in the next.  And we certainly did have odd weather this year.   We had snow on Halloween, for gosh sakes!

So, in the spirit of the closing of the year and reflecting on this year’s garden, I have a list of suggestions to improve next year’s garden. 

1)  The bamboo supports that I made for the tomatoes looked great until Hurricane Irene came along, broke and knocked them all over.  The tomatoes spent the rest of their days lying on the ground.  It made harvesting  more difficult and looked terrible. 

2)  It is not possible to grow springtime cabbage and broccoli without some kind of insect netting.  Although I did get to pick quite a few cabbage, the moths enjoyed them more than I did.

3)  DO  NOT USE FRESH MANURE IN THE GARDEN!!!  I read this, but did I listen – NOOOOO!  The horse manure was full of weed seeds and of course weeds came up before the vegetable seeds had a chance to germinate.  I was fighting weeds all summer long (and into the winter too!).  I have my very own manure pile now and it will be composted by the spring.

4)  Stagger the tomato starts by at least 1 month.  Since I plant my early tomato plants in the hoophouse, it works for me very well and I have an early crop.  But I give plants away to friends who have a normal growing schedule and the plants are too big and root bound by the time they get them in mid May. 

5)  Replace the strawberry bed with asparagus.  Truth is, I’d rather have asparagus and since both are long-time commitments, I choose asparagus. 

6)  Repair the garden fence and gate so rabbits can’t get in.  Duh!

7)  Globe zucchinis are very confusing.  I forget what is planted there and then when I have these round objects growing in the garden, I don’t know what they are.  Plus, they just look wrong.  I’ll go back to the old tried and true shape.

8) Grow butternut squash, NOT acorn squash.  Butternut squash soup is the best!

9)  And lastly, I plan to start more flowers.  I enjoyed having a few flats of marigolds to scatter around the house.  And a packet of seeds is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a flat at the garden store. 

So here we are in mid December and plans are already in the works for Garden 2012.  I miss not getting my hands dirty and spending the day in the garden.  But before you  know it, mid February will be here and it will be time to plant the mesclun in the hoophouse and start the tomatoes.  I can’t wait!   

NATURE OR NURTURE?

My two grandsons were visiting for the week and observing their behavior at this age has been interesting.  Nathan, the 3 year old, loves the garden and bushwacking through the jungle to pick the cherry tomatoes.  He spies them before I do and pops them right into his mouth, with the juice running down his chin.  He loves it, whereas Coleton, the 18 month old, absolutely hates being touched by the plants and cries until we rescue him.  He doesn’t want to taste the tomatoes, or snow peas.  He just wants out!  So, unless things change, I think that Nathan will be the gardener of the family.  Now you might say that it is because of the difference in age, but Nathan always loved the garden and walking through the paths to find the veggies.  At this time of year, the garden is definitely closing in and leaning over the walkways.  A earlier windstorm pushed the tomato supports over a bit and they look like they are on the verge of falling into the path.  The bamboo supports have been good, but just weren’t up to a 50 mph gust of wind.  We’ve been picking tomatoes now for about 2 weeks and there are loads  more to ripen.  I just picked the first cucumber that are trained on the fence and the first batches of beans are pretty much done, but the succeeding plants are just starting to produce.  The cabbage look great and are forming big heads despite the cabbage worm attack.  There are little peppers on the plants and the squash – well, the squash is taking over.  Earlier this spring, I found squash plants already growing in the garden and I decided to let them live in the main garden.  Big mistake.  Some are pumpkin plants and are running riot over everything else.  That’s the last time I make that mistake.  But on the other hand, many of the plants were acorn squash and they are not so pushy as the pumpkins.  I haven’t seen any butternut squash though.  Too bad as I really enjoyed making soup from them.  The sunflowers are starting to bloom and the birds and squirrels will be attacking soon.  Oh, and one last thing, there is a bunny in the garden!  He chewed a hole through the netting and now everything I step in to week or pick, I chase him like Mr. McGregor.  He is little and hasn’t really done any real damage other than eat the carrot tops, and I hope that once he gets bigger, he won’t fit through the fencing.  But what will come first – his growth spurt or the end of my veggies?  Actually I think that one will follow the other! 

The wild red raspberries are at their peak and my daughter was climbing through the thorny bushes gathering as many berries as she could.  She picked about 16 cups and made jam with half and saved the others for her husband’s cereal (he’s a berry lover).  I decided not to make wine with them this year since my co-vintner (my son) is busy with work and a new house.  Next year we’ll try again. 

WILD RED RASPBERRY WINE

Early last summer, the wild red raspberries were ripe, waiting for the birds, I guess. But since my son John makes his own wine, I picked 8 lbs. of those little tart fruits, braving stickers, ticks and the heat. I was the picker, and John was the vintner. So after many months of fermenting and transfering from bottle to bottle, the clear red wine is ready for our first taste, which will be on Easter (also happens to be my birthday). The kids will all be home and we will cap off a great dinner with a wine tasting party. I made labels using our childhood nicknames. While transferring the liquid to the last bottle, we did a preliminary tasting and all agreed that it was a very 'fine wine.' So now when I am passing by the wild raspberry bushes at the edge of the woods I think of them as an unexpected bonus rather than a blight, and look forward to our second annual harvest this summer.