Rating your 2003 garden

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your 2003 vegie garden? Mine was about a 5, good corn, good tomatoes, good green beans, good cukes, ok summer squash, terrible zucchini, so-so onions, half a crop of grapes, wasps invaded the strawberries so total loss there, ok beets, good chard, poor potato crop, winter squash ok but not too sweet, bitter brocolli, good cabbage. How was yours?

This message was edited Oct 16, 2003 10:51 PM

Mary an absolute 10 plus this is the best garden I have had in thitry years and we are still without frost.

I got my last zuk last week and a culiflower and broc and the corn was goood as usuall.

I still get enough toms to feed the neighbors and took 100 some odd mixture of squash to give at work. Lindas day next to give where she works.

The cucumbers were so prolific and There are still fifty lettuce that should all mature.

If I had known this would be this way I could have planted half of what I did and had pleanty to share.

My only dissapointment this year was my own doing I over fertilized my onions and killed them when they were like a tennis ball only a couple got the size of soft balls.

Maybe I already am in that perfect garden location.Ernie

Good for you! I hope next year is as good for you.

MARY - SAME AS EWEED. BEST GARDEN IVE HAD IN A LONG LONG TIME. GOT TONS OF GRAPE TOMAOTES AND FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ABOUT 5 YEARS MY EGGPLANTS GREW LIKE CRAZY, AND MY HOT PEPPERS WERE EXTREMELY HOT.

Herbie I scortched the tomatoe juice. Ernie

eweed - if at first your dont suceed, you know the rest

MaryE there must only be gardens on both coast from the replies. I would have thought by now reports from all over could be read here.

I noticed a couple typos in my answer wow and I was sure I checked it sorry.

I once removed a reply to you about big beef tomatoes because I was embaressed when I looked at it later. The truth is I just can't spell. Right now I am trying to think of three small words to change for the word embaressed .

Had you not asked about big beefy I probably would not have read the stats on Big Beef which I am now going to try next year.Ernie.

Herbie I was a little boy with a mongrel dog and a bike made with parts, I have a firm grip on the process of edge walking

Being a life long tinkerer has treated me to real life experiences of crashing and burning.

I am now off to the kithchen to tinker with some scalloped potatoes and pork chops.

Linda will be so happy when she gets home from the play I won't hear a thing about the mess. Regards Ernie

I'd rate our garden at a 5. Tomatoes got blight. The squashes did well. Not one cucumber got big enough to pick. Peppers were pretty good. Only two nice cauliflower out of 8.
Better luck next year.

Ernie, where did you find stats on Big Beef? Don't worry too much about your spelling, we all have some words that just don't look right no matter how many times we rearrange the letters.

MaryE www.Hpsseed.com or also in Johnnys seed catalog which came last week.

wwwJohnnyseeds.com

I also found it in the plant data base.This information makes it a no brainer I am going to try it next year.

Question why did the hyperlink thing come up on the hps thing and not the johnnys thing? Did I inadverntly hit the wrong thing. I know zip about most of this stuff. Regards Ernie.

I'm here in central MO. Just found this thread. We had quite good yields of onions, garlic, and potates. Very good early crop of spinach which I shamefully admit I did not make enough use of and a smattering of spinach out there now from seeds sown in August. Tomatoes were a real disappointment. Thank GOD we still have a hundred or two jars of tomato products left from years past. The 6 pepper plants did alright-finally. I have quite a few brussel sprouts ready to pick on the 3 plants the bugs didn't devour. Eggplant was so-so. Zukes, cukes, and all winter squash were a big were an almost total flop. I think I picked 3 zukes and there may be one or two winter squash out there. But I did get the rhubarbs and several asparagus moved into raised beds where they seem to be doing well. At least the rhubarb seems ok. The asparagus are covered totally with beautiful Dr. Ott morning glories, but the last time I did see them they were ok.

I do hope next year will give us a bit more moisture in the heat of the summer.

Funny, how we all had either perfect gardens or just so-so. Mine was a solid 4. New bed, torrential early rain followed by near drought made mine a mess. Tomatoes and yellow peppers did well, as did early stuff like mesclun, spinach, arugula etc. Carrots, celery and beets were (and still are) great. Old reliables like zukes, cukes, winter squashes and green beans were complete failures, either due to disease or bugs. I had my first experience ever this year with uncontrollable bouts of both insects and diseases.

Potatoes and sweet pototoes did okay - first year for either of them, so I don't have anything to compare. Brussel sprouts are okay, but really wormy. Chards and radishes burned up faster than they could grow. I'm not sure what got to them. If the frost hadn't killed them off, I'd still be picking peas! Second crop of strawberries was sweeter, but less prolific than first. Didn't get any raspberries, blackberries or apples at all. First year for blueberries, and I got most of them, but shared a few with the birds.

The main thing about my garden this year is that it was just so darned ugly. I need to pay attention to design more next year. And keeping the bugs away. Already planning!

Leisurlee Don't think I consider a 10 plus perfect but the fact remains this was the best year for me and I will take more just like it. Regards Ernie

I would give my garden a 8. Despite our drought our garden did well. DH has a wonderful watering system for the vegetable garden. The asparagus was wonderful start. I just started a new bed of strawberries so had to wait a year for them. The raspberries were delicious. I goofed somehow when I started our tomatoes. 75% of my plants were grape tomatoes. It was opposite the ratio that I had hoped for. I didn't get enough to can. But, have enough in the pantry for winter from last year. I tried black beans and they were a success. Of course planning what to try next year already.
Ep

A 5, and that's being generous. Way too much rain this spring, and I wound up replanting most of the warm-weather crops twice. The saving grace was a new herb garden, a great grape harvest, and good melons. Big thumbs down on the 'maters, peppers, corn and okra :(

Hi All...Our garden this year ranked some where between a 9 and 10..I even got a late start at it, but everything did great. We had the best pea, bean and squash crops I ever dug in the dirt for. Even the corn and Okra and peppers were fantastic. Deciding to go with the square foot gardening type beds really paid off this year.

I rate it a 6 -- good garlic and tomatoes. Decent corn, strawberries, raspberries, lettuce, cabbage, sweet corn, asparagus and squash.
OK on the sweet peppers, gourds and herbs, broom corn and rainbow corn.
Failure on the pumpkins and hot peppers.
Garden shipped over 3000lbs of produce to Hidden Harvest through PAR.

I'd rate it about a 4, that's how many tomatoes I got out of 16 plants. Too much rain, not enough sun, groundhogs and some sort of worm did me in this year.

MaryETwo weeks ago I said my garden was a 10 plus but not perfect. Still not perfect but 10/29 I picked the last five gallons of tomatoes and peppers.

10/30 the North East wind started blowing and destroyed the hoop house the tomatoes and peppers were growing in.

11/1 lindas friends came by and we went to get them some potatoes. We also got them baby beets planted in Aug, lettuce,two kinds of squash,carrots,the frost on that morning wrecked the chard darn.

I also picked the last of the cauliflower which I thought I had done two weeks ago. Now thats just not bad for the first of November is it.

Maybe I can't grow the kind of watermelons I would like here but you know I think your right when you said something to the effect we just need to take advantage of what we have. Ernie

Mine was a 5....Like elsie we had so much rain and so
little sun things kinda struggled. I got good tomatoes
and the beans were very prolific but the root vine borers
took all squash. and it was too cool for okra.

However mine was an into garden - a first year after breaking
new ground at a new house - so anything I got was a bonus.
And I am thankful

never have been able to grow cantalop....sigh

We had a very strang year. Going back we have not had a 2 or 3 day soaking rain for a long time, like at least 3 years. As a result things can be planted on time etc. Timely rains until mid July, must have been what everything needed.
Terrific crop of potatoes & onions. Lots of tomatoes, so did everyone else, so they didn't sell well.
Sweet peppers didn't get large & only three lobed instead of four lobed. Probably to dry by the time peppers were setting.
I think because of the extremely dry & hot late summer, most crops were of exceptional flavor; Watermelon, Squash,
Muskmelon, Corn, & Tomatoes all were great taste.
Hot peppers were very tasty & lots of them.
Seems every year there are great things & some so-so.

Rating? Maybe 6

For the record; grain farmers here had below average soybeans, 30 - 35 bushels to the acre, & near record corn crop. Lots of close to 200 bushels per acre, with low moisture & high test weight.

Well getting ready for next year!!
Bernie

I was just thinking that those of you with a cool wet summer instead of your usual hot one should have planted more potatoes, peas, radishes, cabbages, lettuce and onions if you had only known how long that weather would go on. Oh, if we could only see those trends comming it would sure be helpful.

hindsight being 20/20 and alll
yes the potatoes did well

I agree with you Mary about the rating of 5 for my garden. We had so much rain here in Alabama that i think it hurt the veggie crops. My tomatoes didnt do well but the cucumbers did wonderfully well. My summer squash did ok and the pole beans did awful. They didnt produce much at all. Our corn was good this year. I have some corn on the cob in my freezer for winter use. My peppers did quite well. Broccoli didnt do as well as last year but did produce ok. Onions didnt produce at all this year. I think i rate a 5 in the veggie garden department this year. Maybe better luck next year.

A 2 here. New ground and relentless rain for weeks! After one good deluge I found some potatoes 10 feet away from where I planted them. Once the weather dried, root rots took over, then caterpillars finished off what was left. At least we had a few tomatoes and peppers.