End of the Season

Enjoyed the last few peppers and squash. Frost a few days ago. All that's left out there is onions and leeks, we need to cover those with some ground up leaves to keep them cozy for the winter. Also need to plant the garlic this weekend. Few weeks ago went in to NYC to the Union Square Green Market and bought some garlic (rocambole, hard neck) from the author of It's a Long Road to a Tomato. He recommended that I plant it around Halloween, but it's been alternately wet and late when I got home this week, so it's looking like tomorrow will be the day.

Oh, quick note, our Gooseberry bushes are Houghton and Black Velvet.

Pepper Plans

Last year's pepper harvest was really nice. This year's was plagued by mismanagement on my part. So many of the seeds I took from peppers I bought at the store failed to germinate. And some of those that did produced rather peculiar crossbreeds - I think my jalapenoes and my Hungarian Wax peppers from last year cross pollinated. Oops. Interesting, but not particularly exciting crossbreeds.

For next year I was thinking about the following varieties:

Pepper plan

Will probably select 2-4 additional varieties while browsing the seed catalogs and grow a couple of each. Since my peppers grew very well in buckets this year, I'll grow most of them in buckets. So I need...~70 buckets. Right now I've amassed 20. Probably will grow the Anaheims directly in the ground in the back garden, so that bumps it down to ~50.

Oh, another thing that worked really well this year is grass clippings in the pots. A layer of grass clippings helps the plants retain water and prevented weeds.

Next Year

So a couple of plans for next year.

First pass

Over the tomatoes and corn I'll build a chicken wire cage to keep out the squirrels. Yeah, it's that bad.

I'm thinking big tomatoes in the fenced in garden, and a variety of cherry tomatoes in buckets, most likely on the front porch. I've been amassing a large quantity of 3 gallon buckets (they serve up loads of hard boiled eggs at work from the buckets). Going to use those for peppers. And then finally the tons of empty 2 liter bottles I have will be pots for basil. Maybe dill as well.

Retrospective

Starting to get a bit chilly. Hasn't been a frost yet, but soon I'm sure. Got me thinking about how things have gone over the past four years, and what I've learned in the process. And of course a bit of planning for next year.

2008

The first gardening season in our place. Didn't go too nuts, just built a couple raised beds out back and planted some tomatoes and zucchini.

Raised beds, 2008

What did well

• Rutgers tomatoes
• Zucchini

What I learned

• I needed more space
• Zucchini are awesome, and I don't tire of it easily

2009

It was as if the gardening gods decided to let me have a good year to get me hooked. I assumed things would only get better. Ha! I tilled up a bit more ground for planting and tried some new veggies. 

New plot, 2009

Beans, 2009

Tomatoes, 2009

What did well

• Green beans, but I didn't plant many

What did poorly

• Tomatoes, deer ate most of them
• Zucchini, well, maybe not poorly, but squash borers did a number on them
• Eggplant, ended up with less than 1 per plant

What I learned

• I need to keep the deer out!
• I need to do something about squash borers

This year inspired me to try growing tomatoes in the basement (and start this blog). That wasn't very successful either. But it was fun.

2010

The year the fence went up. Definitely the biggest change to the backyard. And it did keep out the deer. But I was introduced to a new enemy - the squirrels.

The fence, 2010

Peppers, 2010

Different tomato varieties, 2010

Butternut Squash, 2010

Anti-squirrel cage, 2010

What did well

• Butternut Squash
• Peppers
• Cucumbers
• Garlic

What did poorly

• Tomatoes, due to the squirrel invasion
• Zucchini, due to the borers
• Corn, due to various wildlife

What I learned

• Squirrels eat tomatoes, the only reliable defense is a chicken wire cage
• Same for corn
• Barley is too much of a hassle
• Upside down tomatoes only did so-so

2011

Didn't really feel like a spectacular year, although we did ok. 

Cherry tomatoes, 2011

Weird pepper crosses, 2011

Basil, 2011

What did well

• Basil
• Garlic, although the cloves were small
• Tomatoes did better than the last few years
• Few pumpkins out back, 10 small pumpkins from a random pumpkin plant that sprang up out front
• Ping Tung Long Eggplants, restoring my faith in eggplant!

What did poorly

• Zucchini, hardly got any
• Green beans, mostly due to my neglect
• Peppers were a big mess, most of the seeds I had didn't even sprout. Others were not what I expected

What I learned

• Buy pepper seeds from a catalog!
• Set up cage next year for tomatoes and corn
• Basil does great and doesn't need much space, plant in small pots next year
• Cherry tomatoes, particularly Sun Gold for the front porch next year
• I need to plant more dill for pickles
• Plant garlic a bit earlier

So... Terribly... Dry.

Done some drying lately. Made sun-dried (well, ok, oven-dried) tomatoes.

Into the oven you go, cherry tomatoes!

And back out again. Submerged in oil and put in the fridge.

Also dried some peppers. These were a gift from a friend, not from the garden. Maybe next year I'll have this kind of bounty. The habaneros didn't get completely bone dry, so I tossed them in a jar and put them in the freezer.

Habaneros before...

...and after.

Drying

Dried and ground

And relabelled.

One of our Cherokee Purple tomatoes out front just went nuts. Tons of tomatoes, but since it wasn't properly staked I missed out on most of them, chipmunks and squirrels and slugs got them first as the ripened. I pulled what was left on the plant (8 or 9? Picked 6 or 7 a week or so ago). Frost probably soon.

Loads of green Cherokee Purple tomatoes.

Winding Down

Things seem to be winding down. The lower leaves are dying off in most everything. Some nice peppers.

Serrano

Anaheim (New Mexico chilis)

The Serranos were a little hot, but not as hot as I expected. I roasted the Anaheims in the oven and gave them a place of honor atop some green chili bacon cheeseburgers. Planting more Anaheims next year. That's the one thing I miss about living in New Mexico.

Tomatoes are still coming in. Done a few different things with them. Right now got a tray of cherry tomatoes hopefully turning into sun-dried tomatoes in the oven. Oven dried? Faux sun-dried?

Pound of mostly Sun Golds.

Tomato Jam

Homemade bread and butter pickles, olives (storebought), pickled banana peppers (not my peppers, but I did pickle them - very crunchy), and pickled black cherry tomatoes (so good).

Pumpkins and sunflower heads. Pumpkins were pretty small, but we got about 9 of them.

Pumpkins and sunflowers

The Zucchino rampicante is starting to die off like the rest of the zucchini, but I did manage to harvest this.

Zucchino rampicante about 13" long

Zucchini on the vine

Basil is starting to go south. The lower half of most of the plants are getting much lighter green and developing dark brown spots. So I harvested everything and made over a quart of pesto. Recipe:

• Loadsa basil
• Lotsa walnuts (pine nuts are crazy expensive)
• Lotsa parmesan
• Buncha garlic cloves
• Some olive oil

Blend it all until smooth.

Can't really go wrong with this one. Make it plenty thick, you can dilute it later if desired.

The basil harvest.

Mmmm, basil.

Half pound of fresh basil = 1 quart of pesto

Next year will grow more basil, gave a bunch away and more people were interested.

Pumpkin Harvest

Picked a few of the pumpkins, the vines were dead.

Delicious pie pumpkins

Also picked 3 lbs 9 oz of tomatoes. Highlight was 45 Black Cherry tomatoes totaling 13 oz. I think they've earned a return spot next year.

Black Cherry, Red Cherry, Sun Gold, and Gold Nugget

Pickled a bunch of them.