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Re: So how did my garden grow in '97?

Hi everyone, I'm glad to see that mine wasn't the only disappointing
season. Well, here goes:

Tomatoes: I tried Brandywines for the first time this year and I was a
little disappointed in them. First of all they took forever to mature
and secondly they really didn't produce all that many fruits. I will say
that the couple of fruits that we did get were huge (14oz. or so) I
didn't think they got to be so big and the flavor lived up to its
billing as one of the best tasting toms! I think that I will plant them
again next year just not as many. I also grew beefsteak toms and they
were okay, more prolific than the Brandywines but still nothing to brag
about. Next year I think variety will be the buzz word around my garden,
no more planting just one or two kinds of toms!


Eggplants: My eggplants are pathetic, the plants are puny and the fruit
is terrible looking. Judy explained my eggplants exactly when she said "
one turd-shaped eggplant, the size & shape of my big toe."  No more
wasting space on eggplants for me, this is my second year trying them
with the same results for both years.


Spinach: My spinach was excellent and I will definitely be planting
twice as much next year. I didn't even like spinach before I started to
grow it. We would pick a bunch of it and just throw it into the salad,
yum!

Lettuce: The lettuce was planted late so we never really got to enjoy it
before it started to get bitter. Next year I will get it out earlier.

Radishes: They were great! I had a little problem at first with slugs
helping themselves to them but by covering the exposed radish with dirt
it seemed to keep them off. Always will make it into my garden!

Cucumbers: By far the best producer in my garden this year! I have read
on the list how people had a bad year with cukes but mine seemed to
thrive. I originally planted 2 squares( 4 plants total) but I found that
only one plant per square seemed to grow. I guess that I am pretty lucky
that all 4 plants didn't grow because I don't know what I would have
done with all those cukes. I did learn an important lesson this year and
that is not to plant cukes next to pole beans! These two plants ended up
so intertwined by the end of the season that the cukes were actually
growing where I planted the beans and vice versa. By the way, the pole
beans for some reason didn't produce until very late in the season so I
was a little disappointed in them also.

Melons: I tried my hand at a bush variety of cantaloupe and only got two
very small melons. I think that it just isn't hot enough for a long
enough period of time for them to grow well where I live.  I don't think
that I will try them again.

Zucchini: Normally I have so much zucchini that I can't give it away so
this year I decided to only plant one plant( space is very limited in my
garden ), what a mistake that was! I harvested one zucchini before I
noticed that the leaves were wilting on my plant during the day. I wrote
to the list and someone told me that I had vine borers and that the
plant was as good as gone. I pulled up that plant with much remorse and
broke open the stem and I was disgusted to see so many larva in there.
It was my first experience with vine borers and I wasn't happy at all.
Next year I will plant more zucchini and I will have to figure out some
way to thwart those little nasties.

Carrots: I was very disappointed with my carrots but I think that it was
more my fault than theirs. They were all misshapen which I found out is
too much nitrogen and they were bitter which I don't know why that
happened. I think that I will try them again next year and see what
happens.

Last thing I'm  thinking of doing is to plant some garlic now for
harvest next June or so. Another thing that I learned is not to plant
the sunflowers too close to the beans and cukes next time. When my wife
gave birth to our daughter the garden was untended for a couple of weeks
and the beans and cukes grew right into the sunflowers making it a
little difficult to harvest. Live and learn!

Richard(zone 6)
Brooklyn, NY

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