Well, here at Rancho McGinty, we had (or suffered) quite the end of the gardening season, with early deep snow and severely cold temperatures, just about the time our veggie produce was due to be harvested! So, short season, cool weather crops were okay for the most part, but most of the long season, hot weather crops gave up the ghost early to the unexpected hard freeze. Some gardeners in our area of the world reported an excellent gardening season ("What freeze? It didn't freeze at our place!".), as they were excused from the unusual (?) weather conditions of early Winter. We know who you are, and we are either unreasonably happy for you, or murderously envious.
Flint corn and some squash.
To review: 2020 was a good year for (in no particular order) carrots, potatoes, broccoli, onions, flint corn, cabbage, Korean sweet potatoes, beets, turnips, leeks, celery, asparagus, some tomatoes, some peppers, kohlrabi, and kale.
Aphid-infested Brussels sprouts.
Korean sweet potatoes taste like chestnuts!
Frost damage to tomatoes, but NOT to peppers.
2020 was not a good year for most tomatoes, most peppers, most squash and melons, sweet corn, South American sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, garlic, green beans, and cucumbers.
Frosted squash vines on 3-D trellis.
Pat's Pepper plants were just starting to produce a boat load of peppers when the September 7 freeze took them out, even though they were covered with floating row cover. The Anaheims were particularly abundant and were up for harvest; and Pat almost got her Paprika peppers - just a couple more days and they would have been harvested and on the dehydrator for some homegrown Paprika seasoning. Much the same with the Santa Fe peppers, which she was growing for homemade salsa. Bottom line, the season just was not hot enough, long enough for most 90-100 day crops to mature. The Brussels Sprouts (which prefer the cooler weather) produced lots of "baby cabbages" but then the aphids found them. Still trying to figure that one out!
Short season veggie standouts included: Roy's Calais (aka Abenaki) flint corn (used to grind into cornmeal and corn flour, or used whole as livestock feed), early and late Dutch flat cabbage, Stonehead cabbage, Destiny broccoli, Tall Utah celery, curly blue kale, King Richard leeks, Globe turnips, Ruby Queen beets, Scarlet Nantes carrots, and Danvers Half Long carrots. Tomatoes: Wayahead, Chadwick Cherry, Silvery Fir Tree, and Buckabee. Onions (all intermediate day varieties): Red Candy Apple, Yellow Candy, and (white) Super Star. Potatoes: German Butterball, Purple Viking, and Red Gold.
Lessons learned:
Just keep everything covered with double layers of Ree-may (R) or Agribon (R) floating row cover ALL the time, unless the plants need insect or wind pollination - that usually occurs in the morning, so pull off the row cover in the AM, and replace it in the afternoon. And keep extra sheets and blankets around to cover the heat loving plants when the nights start getting cold. Yes, it is a pain to have to remove that extra covering in the morning, but your goal is ripe tomatoes and peppers.
Start as many seeds indoors as early as possible, and transplant out when the ground warms up. Cover with Ree-may immediately just in case...
Start your second garden no later than the end of July. Cold season veggie starts only, with 72 days or less to maturity. Pat got two crops of cabbage out of the garden this year by planting starts on this kind of schedule.
Listen to your "gut" and harvest those veggies regularly. Don't wait until they are mostly all mature. It is better to have a few fruits of your labor, than watch it all dissolve overnight because the temperature is 50 degrees when you go to bed and, sometime during the night or early morning, it drops to 28 degrees or lower.
i noticed again, a lack of pollinators (honey bees, bumble bees, even yellow jackets) in our area this garden season, and I think this lack impacted the squash and melon production: one solution is to learn how to pollinate all those delicate yellow flowers my own self, using a small paint brush. Kinda like a garden pimp.
And most important - if you don't like weeding, check out the weed fabric with pre-cut or pre-burned holes to plant through (Agfabric Easy-Plant Weed Block). Pat says it is the only way to grow; she used it on her brassica garden and only had to keep the outer edges clear of invading, unwanted plants.
Plan your garden now, is my recommendation, and buy your seeds tomorrow morning - seed shortages in both catalogs and gardening centers are popping up all the time.
jim.
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