So mostly I'll consider the garden a success, but that is not to say we didn't learn some valuable lessons.
1. No home garden should have 28 tomato plants. I don't care what level of tomato usage you claim, this is just an insane amount no matter how you look at it. One day I picked over a hundred tomatoes from just half of the plants - and I don't mean cherry tomatoes either! I did know this would happen, but figured we had plenty of space so it didn't matter. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough heavy duty stakes and cages for all of the plants and so when they flopped all over (and on to the other rows) it did start to matter. Next year I am planning on nine: 1 cherry, one yellow pear, one golden jubilee, one slicing and five Romas. Some of those figures seem a little on the lean side to me even now, but I think even with an extra plant here or there I should stay under half of this year's total.
2. 'Golden Jubilee' rocks! Though this is called an 'heirloom' it is a pretty common variety. I thought it was awesome and the golden yellow color was gorgeous.
3. Plant more than one tomatillo (or none at all). Mac thought it would be fun to grow tomatillos. I don't think he cares for green salsa all that much so this impulse purchase was really for entertainment value. Turns out the plants are quite attractive. Also they get quite big, something I did not adequately account for this year. The plant blooms profusely but only has empty sterile paper husks. Sadly, our plant lacks a cross pollinator, something most tomatillos require (so I have learned). But not even a tomatillo article in a gardening magazine mentioned this.
4. don't assume you know what color your veggies are. We had fun teasing Megan with questions like 'what color are tomatoes?' and 'what color is corn?' Around here we hadplenty of tomatoes that were yellow and corn that was red. And we had a rainbow of peppers - gorgeous yellow, purple and green (but sadly, the reds were pretty pathetic).
But the garden got back at me for my games with Megan - you see, about half of our carrots are a yellowish white. So far, everyone I have told this to says something about parsnips. The thought crossed my mind too, but I don't really know anything about parsnips. I do know that I absolutely did NOT buy any seeds labeled as 'parsnips.' I did, however, buy some pretty cheap carrot seeds and I have heard plenty of stories of people getting unexpected plants from their seed packs. The tops of the yellow carrots were indistinguishable from the orange ones. The yellow ones actually tasted better than the orange ones - a bit more mild and without that bitter dirt flavor (can you tell I am not a huge carrot fan?). Does anybody know if this fits for parsnips??
5. There is no such thing as too big a garden. Our garden is four times the size of what we had in Portland (though planted half as efficiently). Despite all of our excess there are things i wish i had more of (or even some of), like more onions and garlic, potatoes, more cutting flowers, possibly some grapes. Plus there is a whole catalog of exotic fruits and berries that I drool over from One Green World in Mollala. I mean, how cool would it be to make wolfberry jam or seaberry pie?? (granted, I have no idea how these things taste).
6. No matter how big your garden, blackberries might not be a good idea. Our raspberries are robust after just two years but they appear to be fairly well behaved. The blackberries, though, are sending out 20 foot canes with tons of side branches. I have to sweep them out of the paths an warn Megan about tripping dangers whenever we get near. And this is only after two full years. We may not be able to tolerate that much longer.
We look forward to more gardening next year!
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