What Worked This Growing Season

Brandywine Tomatoe Plant

Martha Stewart's Brandywine Tomatoes were definitely the perk of growing our own vegetables this year. Each plant produced several large tomatoes over the growing season from July thru early September.

Burpee Roma Tomatoes produced a good amount of tomatoes. Some of the seeds in the package gave us some weird shaped tomatoes but otherwise we were pretty happy with them. They gave out all their fruit by the end of August. I have one plant in a backyard planter that sat in the shade that's giving out it's first fruit of the year.

Honey Delight Tomatoes

Honey Delight Hybrid Tomatoes (Burpee) grew bunches of tart yellow tomatoes. They made an easy replacement for tomatillos in salsa recipes.

Kohlrabi (Behnke's) was a surprising treat once they were ready. We were really happy with this vegetable as a replacement for cucumber early in the growing season.

Garden Babies Butterhead was a delight to watch grow. They grew into small heads of lettuce with light flavor and delicate leaves.

The small eggplants were neat in terms of serving a whole little eggplant in a dish. They came out tasty in an indian curry with rice and roasted in a honey/soy/miso sauce over noodles. My one gripe is that they take forever to grow.

Herbs were definitely winners this year. They all gave awesome flavor:

• Cilantro, Calypso
• Sage, Common
• Parsley, Titan
• Basil, Siam Queen
• Large Leaf Basil (Behnke's)
• Dill, Fernleaf
• Lovage (Behnke's)

Calendula (top) Nasturtium (Bottom)

The Edible Flowers were a nice mix in the garden and did attract the right insects. Although I think I would limit my nasturtiums to one plant next year. Their flavor is a bit too much and you do get a good amount of foliage/flowers from one plant:

• Calendula, Flashback Mix (Organic)
• Nasturtium, Dwarf Cherry Rose
• Edible Marigold, Lemon Gem

The Biggest Losers this Season:

Zucchini

Burpee Zucchinis were a big disappointment this year. I think I would try a vining type instead of a bush type next time. This type of Zucchini says it's for a small garden and grows one squash at a time. Seemed like way too much leaves to meager fruit.

Burpee Broccoli Raab grew into flowers way too fast before developing any thickness to their buds. This was the most disappointing vegetable of the season. I love the taste of Broccoli Raab but wouldn't plant this type again.

I don't think I'd plant the Ferry Morse Spinach again. The leaves came out way too small and we didn't really end up eating any of it.

July Garden Pictures

Here are some pictures from the garden during one of the hottest days of the season so far....

Chamomile plants

Red Onions

Collard Greens

Zucchini

Calendula (about to blossom)

Baby Butterhead Lettuce

White Carrot

Brandywine Tomatoes

Honey Yellow Tomatoes

Nasturtiums

Zucchini plant up close (baby zucchini is growing at center)

Sage Plants (we're ready for thanksgiving)

Swiss Chard

Sweet Potato (Porto Rico)

Thai Basil

Two Cucumber vines are climbing up the teepee just fine

A really long cucumber (must be 10 inches long)

Roma Tomatoes

Southern Night Tomatoes

Strawberry plant

Calendula & Zucchini

This morning I harvested zucchini and calendula flowers in addition to the usual collards, lettuce, and herbs from the garden. The zucchini plant needs trimming because many of it's leaves seem to wither when they get tangled up with the other limbs of the zucchini plant. I used some twine to tie the tomato plants to their staking posts and trimmed their leaves back. There are many small green fruits appearing on most of the tomato plants. There are three cucumbers growing. The teepee trellis is working wonderfully so far for the two cucumber plants that are climbing it. Occasionally I have to move them away from the neighboring tomato stakes and tie the cucumber vine to the teepee. I haven't seen any peppers yet and I'm looking forward to trying some from the seed grown plants. We are experiencing some high temperatures (mid 90s) today and I'm hoping we get the rain tonight and tomorrow the weathermen have been promising.

Clockwise from the top: Calendula flowers, Collard greens, Zucchini, Lettuce, Nasturtium flowers & leaves, Parsley, Sage, Lovage, Basil, & Thyme.

I'm planning to use the calendula petals (top of picture) as a garnish for food since they are edible. They don't have much flavor but they do have a pretty burnt orange color to them. I'm also interested in using them in rice dishes to see if they impart their color. The nasturtium flowers (bottom of picture) are pretty topping an omelete in the morning and add a spicy flavor. I've also used the nasturtium leaves (zesty flavor) inside an omelete usually accompanied by swiss chard and/or collard greens and of course cheese.

Garden in June

Slowly but surely it's growing. Growing from seed sure takes a long time.

My first edible flower (Nasturtium)

Swiss Chard

Zucchini

Cucumber and Tomatoes are growing bigger (top of pic)

Herb & Flower Transplants plus a Strawberry Surprise

Today I planted some of the herbs and vegetables I have started indoors: four chamomile, three calendula, two parsley, and two dill seedlings. I also found what I think is a strawberry plant growing in the walkway that I transplanted to where the spinach are planted. I also planted additional seeds: Broccoli Raab in the uphill eastern part, Swiss Chard uphill and downhill, Nasturtium (2 additional scraped seeds since the original seeds haven't germinated yet), Spinach (scattered throughout the planting area), three carrots in the uphill north part, and four zucchini seeds in a diamond pattern. I also transplanted some Chef Jeff's Rosemary and Oregano plants that I've had inside the house.

There are also other "weeds" growing that could be celery or thyme that I've transplanted in the lower western corner where the chamomile are planted. Their leaves aren't as apparent as the strawberry ones to identify. I'll see if they come out with anything interesting and useable.

Next on the list is to set out my peppers in the cold temperatures on my deck (night & day) and begin hardening my tomatoes, cucumber and eggplants (during the day). Also I can get the leeks into the garden along with some sage and Thai basil tomorrow. I haven't really hardened my herb or flower plants before setting out (crossing my fingers they'll be okay).

The cilantro in the garden that got pulled out by that storm has recovered and true leaves are forming (they actually look like a regular cilantro leaf).

Herbs, Onions and Flowers

Today I planted parsley, sage, dill, chamomile, thai basil, leeks, scallions, and marigolds using yogurt, ricotta cheese and solo cups and egg cartons. I don't think these will work as well as the plastic egg cartons but we shall see.