End of Season Review - Lettuce & Corn

Lettuce

The lettuce story this year was a mixed bag – both good and bad.


Lettuce Harvest from the end of July

End of Season Review - Swiss Chard & Spinach

Swiss Chard

This year, the chard did ok – not a huge success, but not a failure either.  The plan was to grow two new varieties to join my standard Fordhook Giant:  Peppermint and Bright Lights.

Peppermint & Fordhook Giant Chard

End of Season Review - Carrots

I have been growing carrots for 4 years and have yet to have what I would consider a good harvest.

This year, several issues were at play.

Baby Carrots

End of Season Review - Peas

Peas are a favourite around here – especially sugar snap peas.  I have been growing them for a few years now and they are always such a special treat.

Sugar Snap Peas

Shelling peas were new to the garden this year & I grew 2 bush varieties – Aladdin PVP and Sabre.

Freshly Shelled Peas

End of Season Review - Fava Beans

This was my first year growing fava beans and it was great fun watching the plants develop & the pods form - I really had very little idea what to expect.  As far as I can tell, favas (or broad beans in the UK) are not commonly grown in North American vegetable gardens.

Fresh Extra Precoce Violetto Favas
 

End of Season Review - Beans

I grew several new varieties of beans in 2015, both fresh & dried.  I also grew fava beans but these will be covered in a separate post.

For fresh beans, I grew Contender (bush, snap), Oceanis (bush, filet) and Gold Marie (pole, yellow Romano).  Dried beans included Cherokee Trail of Tears (pole, black bean),  Walcherse White (bush, navy type bean) and Vermont Cranberry (bush, cranberry bean...obviously!).


Vermont Cranberry

End of Season Review - Brassicas - Part 2

My 2nd post on the brassicas of 2015 is all about the successes – namely broccoli, salad turnips, kohlrabi and radishes.

Broccoli

My first attempt at growing broccoli was in 2014.  It was a late sowing (transplanted at the end of July/early August) in the hopes of getting a fall crop & I did harvest a few small heads.  The sowing was much too late to generate any side shoots, although Munchkin showed some promise on that front.

This photo, taken in late 2014, shows
Munchkin's side shoot potential

End of Season Review - Brassicas - Part 1

Yes, I’m very tardy in reviewing my veg – 2015 was one of those years.

I thought I would start my veg specific end of season reviews with the brassicas.  This was a strange year for brassicas – many were a flop while others shone.  Since I prefer to get the bad news out of the way first, I decided to do my first review on those brassicas that didn’t have a particularly good year.

Collards & Kale

All of the collards and kale and some of the Chinese greens were situated in Bed #8, which was found to be overrun with willow roots during the course of the summer.  This little disaster so completely overrode any other factor, that there is little to say on the crops grown in that bed.  The willow was cut down and I applied a good quantity of compost to the bed in August.  Hopefully it recovers enough to be of use next year, perhaps as a legume bed.

Bed #8, just before pulling everything up