We finished our garden harvest a few weeks back, but things have been so busy that I haven't had a chance to write up this post! It was another great growing season this year and we ended up with a good amount of produce. Sure there were a few bumps in the road, including Bronx eating Roman's prized broccoli plants, but overall it was a good season.
Once again the tomato plants when hog wild and grew to an enormous size is no time flat. One of the plants was literally the size of me. John tried desperately to keep it standing, but even 3 large stakes couldn't keep it standing. It eventually sprawled out in all directions and smothered the watermelon plants. Poor things didn't stand a chance. I used the tomatoes to make close to 32L of sauce before finally giving up on the 4th and 5th pickings, of which I didn't even take pictures of because I was so over them. I pawned some off on a few friends and the rest (which are still sitting in the garage waiting to completely ripen) will be donated the Moose Jaw & District Food Bank. If you ever have extra produce from your garden, don't throw it out!! Most food banks and even some shelters will accept garden produce donations!
John's jalapeno plants managed to produce a lot of peppers despite being partially covered by the mammoth tomato plant. SO many peppers in fact that John was able to make a good sized jar of pickled peppers. The brussel sprouts however didn't do much other than attract a swarm of cabbage butterflies. I had be warned about these nasty little bugs but I thought to myself "not in my garden". Boy, was I wrong. I sprayed the plants down to kill the worms, but by the time I realized there was a problem, there weren't enough leaves left to worry about applying powder to get rid of the butterflies. The sprouts themselves only got about as big as a loonie, despite me removing leavings to try to help them grow as Google suggested. I probably won't be planting them again. Too much effort for too little sprouts. Roman's replacement broccoli plants also aided in the takeover in the butterfly situation, but at least we got a bit of broccoli out of them.
The zucchini plant also wasn't a big producer. The plant itself was giant, and we did get a few zucchinis off of it, but then the zucchinis started rotting on the plant. Turns out the soil didn't have enough calcium in it. Google (again) suggested egg shells in the soil to increase the calcium but I think it was too little too late. I'll probably give these tasty morsels another go next year because I love having shredded zucchini on hand for baking.
I love cucumbers! This is a big statement because I always thought I hated cucumber. Turns out I'm just a cucumber snob and only like garden cucumbers. Considering the plants looked pretty sad, they produced a TON of cucumbers; big ones at that! Roman wasn't a fan of picking the cucumbers because they were covered in "pokies", but would happily carry them once we brushed them away.
Finally we get to the experimental potato patch. I for one was shocked! We ended up with what I thought was a huge amount of potatoes for an experimental plant. I'm guessing we have close to 10 pounds sitting in the basement right now, plus we ate some as new potatoes. Roman had a blast digging up potatoes. Well, more like watching me dig and then diving in the pulling the potatoes out like he had found buried treasure.
Now all that's left is to clear all the plants out and dig up all the weeds. There were so many mosquitos here this year that the garden didn't get much tending. I watered for the second level of the yard, and tried to physically enter the garden as little as possible. Even to pick the vegetables we did we had to suit up in pants and hoodies, hood up and tied as tight as possible around our faces, and doused in a thick layer of bug spray. It was not a pleasant occasion.
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