Garden notes

This year I am trying to keep records of what I've planted, when I planted it, and when I started harvesting. I'd hoped to weigh each day's harvest, but that hasn't been happening. Instead, I'll keep a list of how much I put up (freeze or can) and when. This will help as we try to produce enough food to last until next year's harvest; we'll know about how many plants we need to produce x amount of food. Of course this will vary with the temperature and weather conditions each year, so overplanting is always a good idea.


Here's what we've planted and some of the results so far:

• Potatoes: planted 50 lb each of Yukon Gold and Kennebec



• Onions: planted 5 lbs each of red and yellow



• Peas: Snowpeas and Little Marvel. The peas are now done and the Little Marvel didn't do well this year.



• Lettuce: gourmet mix



• Other: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, turnips, rutabaga. We are on the second planting of turnips and rutabaga. The kohlrabi seed must've been old as we only have two kohlrabi coming up.



• Carrots: Danvers and fingerling



• Radishes: French Breakfast. These are great- not too spicy or woody and are not as apt to make a person belch. Ew. lol



• Corn: Planted one pound of Kandy Korn seed.



• Beans: Mostly Kentucky Wonder Bush, but a few are Tendergreen Improved Bush and Contender Bush. I have about 183 plants, I think, and so far we've harvested enough for two meals, but it's still early.



• Tomatillo: 12 plants



• Cucumber: I planted at least one seed packet of each kind: Burpee Pickler (a total dud, not one seed germinated), Pickalot Hybrid, National Pickling (got our first cuke from this vine today), Sugar Crunch Hybrid (these are producing like crazy), Straight Edge, Marketmore, and Lemon.



• Tomatoes: We have over 120 plants including: Celebrity, Amish Paste, Sub-Arctic Plenty, Early Girl, Sungella, Champion, Japanese Black Trifele, Siletz, Supersweet 100 (cherry tomatoes), and Pink Globe, Red Zebra, Marglobe, Brandywine, Big Mama (a paste tomato) plus a few volunteer plants (this means they just popped up where some tomatoes fell last year.)



• Squash: At least 24 zucchini plants actually came up, including Green Gem (producing like mad), Black Beauty, and Burpee's Bounty. We also have 12 Bush Pink Banana squash, which I've never had before but hear is super tasty.



• Pumpkins: Conn. Field, Jack'o'lantern (another dud), Casper (white), and some small pie variety (sorry, the name escapes me at the moment).

• Melons: Collective Farm Woman (I've grown these before and they are amazing), Moon and Stars watermelon, and of course Sugar Baby.



• Amaranth: Love Lies Bleeding, Hartman's Giant, and Golden Giant

I know I'm forgetting something. *shrugs* Oh, well, it'll grow even if I don't list it, right? lol Oh, and did I mention we don't own a tractor or tiller?
Update 7-22-09: Over the weekend, DH and I processed and froze 24 quarts of zucchini and three quarts of green beans (thanks to Little Sis for being my official Bean Breaker). Then we immediately went out to the garden and picked another 50 lbs of zucchini. That will be about another 24 quarts once I get it processed.