Lessons Learned

While the harvest season will continue over the next month, a review of the produce grown to date leads to some good lessons learned.  This was a challenging year:  a wet and cool spring followed by high temperatures and drought, with August/September rainfall at less than 25% of normal.  This combination of stressors led to a very small harvest of fruit, poor germination rates for some produce, and poor yields due to lack of rain.  But while overall disappointing, the lessons learned will help with next year's garden planning.

Some take aways:

Salad greens: the cool temperatures and excessive rain in the spring led to a very healthy lettuce crop.  However, the late summer planting of greens did not yield well due to drought conditions.

Onions and garlic: no loss of any of the plantings, as early rain gave the crops a good start.  Nice yield of garlic scapes and bulbs, and onions, while a bit smaller than normal, still produced a good yield.

Peas: again, cool temperatures and lots of rain early in the season produced plenty of peas.  Sugar snap peas were harvested through mid August!

Green beans:  A bonanza of beans this year!  With three plantings so as to spread out the availability of a crop, over 45 lbs of beans were donated to organizations supporting those with food insecurity.  This compares to just under 30 lbs donated last year.

Potatoes: The addition of a row cover over the potato bed led to a much higher yield of potatoes this year, as it kept out the potato beetles which plague the garden.  Lesson learned - use a row cover every year!

Summer squash: this was the first year for the donation garden to plant summer squash.  Zucchini is normally not planted as the plants are decimated by squash beetles.  This did not happen to the summer squash for some reason, so next year's vegetable plantings will definitely include summer squash.

Brassicas: while cauliflower was planted, it did not materialize.  So next year, more broccoli and cabbage, which produced well, will be planted in place of the cauliflower.

Tomatoes: Only cherry tomatoes were planted this year, as the season is too short for larger tomatoes to ripen before cold temperatures arise.  While the plants produced an abundance of fruit, overnight temperatures in the 30's over the past few nights meant a large portion of the fruit was frost bitten, even with a cover over the plants.  Some gardeners who planted the larger tomatoes have harvested them green - there are several in the greenhouse to ripen.  If that doesn't happen before freezing nights are here, some green tomato salsa is in the future!

Root vegetables:  very disappointing germination rates were experienced for carrots and beets, both crops which normally yield in abundance.  A late planting of carrots have all germinated, but it is doubtful that they will mature before freezing temperatures arrive.  This may be a good opportunity to experiment with overwintering the carrots in the bed - a thick covering of hay and an early harvest of the carrots when the soil thaws in the spring will happen if the carrots don't mature on time this fall.

Kale: dependable, delicious kale!  It is a staple in the garden and one that always gives a good yield.  It is a difficult product to donate, however, as many people don't know how to prepare it and wind up disliking the vegetable.  That is a shame, as it is both delicious and nutritious.  Perhaps providing some recipes with the donated crops might encourage more people to try it - something to think about.

Cucumbers:  a complete bust!  Hot house cucumbers were sown in the greenhouse and kept well watered, but failed to produce any usable fruit.  Sown in grow bags, it may be that there was not a sufficient amount of nutrients for the plants, as cucumbers are heavy feeders.  Next year the seeds will be planted in a trough in the greenhouse and fed regularly - hopefully this will produce better results!

Native flowering plants: The bees have been loving the native flowering plants, and more gardeners planted flowers this year.  Turning the orchard area into a native flowering plant meadow is ongoing - more bulbs will go in this fall, and some lupine has been added.  There did not seem to be as many butterflies this year, so some research into native plantings that support butterflies will help pass the cold winter months.

Ground cherries: This was an experimental crop this year, and three plants produced lots of fruit, but the taste was not as good as purported in the research.  This will not be grown next year.  Instead, a new experimental crop of tromboncino squash will be sown.  It's always fun to grow new things and see what becomes a staple in the garden.

Still to come: Sweet potatoes were planted but it is still too early to harvest them.  This goes for honeynut squash and brussels sprouts as well.  Swiss chard, kale, herbs, 2nd crops of beets and spinach and already harvested onions, garlic and potatoes will round out the twice weekly donations through the end of October.  Then its time to plant next year's garlic crop and put in fall flower bulbs.  

After that - a restful winter with lots of garden planning and dreaming to look forward to!