What We Planted:
- Tomatoes plants
- Yellow Onions (bag of started, baby onions)
- Pickling Cucumbers (planted from seed)
- Garlic (cloves, not seeds)
- Carrots (planted from seed and starts)
- Lettuce (planted from starts, and seed)
- Spinach (planted from seed)
- Swiss Chard (planted from seed)
- Strawberry plants
- Bell Peppers plants
- Cayenne Pepper plants
- Jalapeno pepper plants
What Thrived vs What Didn’t:
Our tomatoes did great! We have had a consistent small harvest every day which worked perfectly for our little family of three. I was even able to make a good amount of freezer pizza sauce! We planted the peppers next to the tomatoes and they had it rough with the weird heat waves, and I did not pinch them at first, at all, so we have got a few tiny bell peppers from it, but not really any useable ones, and the small rodents ate them before we could anyways. Unfortunately, the slugs took out the other pepper varieties earlier in the season as well, and they just never grew back, fully. So, sadly we didn’t get to use any spicy peppers.
Our cucumbers never did too well either, we might have planted them at the wrong time. They had a very slow start, and produced very small fruits so I never got to do pickles this year, although it did grow a couple tiny ones. They also just looked yellow, and sickly. We planted the garlic pretty late in the summer, so we understand why that didn’t do too good. It was a quick decision, that we didn’t think too much about, we just had it lying around and planted it, as we had never done garlic before, but we should have done the research.
We bought a bag of onions to put in a planting bin, they were the yellow onions and i’m not quite sure what type exactly, but they did not grow at all, sadly some just bolted asap, and others didn’t grow at all. We planted carrots from seed, and also planted “little finger” carrot starts, but none of them grew. I think it was because they did not have enough dirt to root down into and needed more room, potentially.
The Strawberry plant, did great, at first! Then the heat wave came and slowed it down, with some burnt leaves. It then, grew a bunch of runners and I think that is why the fruit became so small and few, to none, as I did not clip the runners off. Our lettuce, we planted from seed— “black seeded” lettuce and we also got starts of “salad bowl” lettuce, those got eaten by slugs at first, but then after that, they grew back and did pretty okay. We were able to harvest some baby lettuce for a little bit! The spinach we planted grew, but it bolted asap, so we couldn’t use it. We also planted Swiss Chard, but once again, the slugs ate it. Unfortunately, we had to take out that whole bed due to a nest of Yellow jackets, so we don’t have pictures of the lettuce/spinach/chard and couldn’t replant any of them.
Next Season’s Tactics:
For our Carrots, I will give them more dirt, to grow deep into, and try to thin them more properly, once they’re big enough.
The Peppers, I will pinch them for the first 2-3 weeks so they grow and get a better root system going, before making any peppers, as well as try to watch how I water them.
For our Strawberries, I will pinch off the runners and focus on keeping it from trailing away so it does not use up it’s energy.
The Cucumbers, I will try to give them more fertilizer and maybe check them for bugs more frequently. They kept turning yellow and sickly, with curled little cucumbers, so I don’t know if it was bugs, or some kind of nitrogen or potassium deficiency. I will also pay attention to how much I water them.
For Our Garlic I will plant that at the correct time next season, early spring maybe this fall, and see how it goes.
The Lettuce did pretty good besides the slugs, and it needed a little bit more space, so I will prevent the slugs and give them more room next time! The Spinach I think just was effected by the extreme heat we had– it grew right before and bolted right after.
For our Onions I will start them by seed this year, and in the house at first, to see if that helps. Then I will plant them outside around our other plants as a sort of barrier, to see if they like that better. I’ve heard others say the bag of started onions, sometimes just bolt and stay small, which is what ours did.
Oh and I will also find a way to get rid of slugs, before it’s too late and my plants are gone. We will probably plant a few patches of French Marigolds here and there, to prevent our crops from being eaten and remove them from the general area. They are the worst during our rainy seasons, where we live!
What We Are Planting Next:
For reference, our garden zone is 8b. Click Here to see an informative planting calendar for this zone!
The List for our next Garden season (this coming spring):
- Carrots (from seeds)
- Onions (Green onions, and yellow onions; from seeds)
- Lettuce (from seeds, and started plant)
- Spinach (from seeds)
- Swiss Chard (from seeds)
- Zucchini (from seeds)
- Cucumbers (from seeds)
- Corn (from seeds)
- Strawberry plants (and seeds I saved from this year)
- Garlic (from cloves)
- Tomatoes plants (and seeds I saved from this year)
- Bell Peppers plants (and Jalapeno peppers, just to try one more time without a green house).
Herbs and Such:
- Rosemary (from a start)
- Basil (from a start)
- Chives (from seeds)
- Peppermint (from a start)
- Comfrey (from a start)
- Lemon Balm (from a start)
- Lavender plants
All the herbs will be in pots or potting boxes, the cucumbers and corn will be along our fence, and the rest of the garden will be done in a Concrete block, raised bed type of garden. I can’t wait to show that design, and what we plan to do! Currently, I am just planting in spring, and I stop around September, so I don’t deal with the fall/winter garden. Overall, for our first time we did pretty good, and i’m happy with the outcome! We still got to harvest things and use them in our meals, so it was great- even if half the garden didn’t do the best.
How was your Garden this year? Do you plant through the fall/winter?
Leave a comment! I’d love to hear how your garden is doing!
