2015 Season

Here is what was planted in approx. 20 yds sq (except for 11 tomatoe plants at home):

Tomato plants - 32 at Leslie, 11 at home + 4 mini plants at home
- yellow cherry tomatoes (very prolific), Black Krim cherry tomoatoes (not so prolific but ripen very
  early and are actually small regular tomatoes) - purchased at nursery on Caledonia
- Cherokee (fair yield - some plants died early due to coolness and excessive rain early in the season)
- Brandywine (just a few)
- Green Zebra (novelty tomato - plant 3 or 4 max
- Sicilian (did poorly; lack of heat)
- Orange Banana (a very prolific roma type tomato - yellow/orange when ripe - did very well in
  cooler weather)
- Nepal tomatoes (no idea??)
- Black Brandywine (not sure - maybe that was what I thought were the Black Krim cherry tom?)

Total yield 77 pounds - approx value $460


Peppers
- 30 peppers in total
- Aruba, Jimmy Nardello and North Star and Cayenne
- Cayennes did poorly; not enough heat - other two gave very good yield extended over the whole  
  season, up to late September
- plant 6 to 8 cayennes next year
- at garden, increase numbers by 5 or 6:  18 North Star,  8 Aruba and 4/5 Nardello

Total yield 16 pounds - approx. value $200

Beans
- three double rows, two thirds width of plot each
- 1 double row of Nekeron (close)
- 2 double rows of flat beans (from Fiesta)

Total yield 47 pounds - approx value $330

Zucchini
- Romanesco and light green varieties - Nice style is not  great;  too much seed area
- two hills with 3/4 plants each
- home seeded plants did OK - late seeded plants produced nothing and hardly grew
- poor yield - too cold early in the season

Total yield 19 pounds -  approx. value $120

Lettuce
- two seedings
- Romaine, Deer Tonge and Hilda

Total yield 30 heads - approx. value $90

Kale
- Tuscan kale - did poorly - problems with insects - solution?
- others planted both - curly type did very well
- next year plant both types
- next year plant some regular Swiss Chard (old Dutch variety gives small yield)

Radishes
- Breakfast, white (Icicle?), Watermelon, Daikon
- Breakfast ones did very well
- white ones a bit too harsh
- Watermelon did all right but need protection from some kind of worm - plant a bit earlier than suggested
- Daikon did well but need more time to ripen so plant earlier than recommended

Total yield 6 pounds - approx. value $30

The season was quite cool early on, with some cooler spells throughout the summer.  Beans did very well and continued right until end of October (dried pods) as it never got hot enough to stop them from producing.  Not the best weather for tomatoes; it was cool with some heavy rain early in the season, which probably kept the soil cooler.  No prolonged really hot spells.
Fair bit of rain; didn't have to water too often



Total approx. value of vegetables:  $1230
Costs: Fee $80, Fence $250, Manure $20

Wow!

Tomatoes planted east side of entrance in three blocks.
Peppers in front of three rows of beans.
Beans to the right or west of plot entrance.
Kale at south end of plot and some on west side.
Zucchinis in south-east and south-west corners.

Green Beans 2013

The wood and string planters mentioned in last year's post have worked well but with one modification.  Along the bottom, instead of leaving the strings loose, I ran a string between the uprights, and tied each climbing string to the cross-string so they wouldn't blow around in the wind so much.

I think I planted 4 half-rows of flat-type beans, and one row of French style beans.

Planting so far 2013

On May 19th, at the plot planted some kale and some small rows of lettuce - lettuce could have gone in earlier.

On May 25th planted 8 kale plants started 4 weeks ago

On May 27th, planted:
- 5 cherokee tomatoes
- 7 sicilian tomatoes
- 9 San Marzano tomatoes

- 4 Jimmy Nardello peppers started 5 weeks ago

- 6 zucchini plants (two each) started 4 weeks ago

- 2 short rows of flat italian climbing beans


On May 29th in backyard:
- 5 cherokee
- 2 Brandywind
- 2 sicilian

2013 Start of Planting Season

Unfortunately missed the six week ahead deadline.  Started first seeds 5 weeks before the 24th.

Started 7 or 8 each of Sicilian, San Marzano and Brandywine/ 15 of Cherokee - one full William Dam tray =    38 plants

Also started a half tray (18) of peppers - 9 Northern, 3 Cubanel (only had 3 seeds), 2 Cayenne (may be too old seed) and 4 Jimmy Nardello.

According to my notes, I need to get the rest of the peppers in ASAP as there problems with the plants being too small last year.

Will start more tomatoes next weekend and again the weekend after.

Parsley seeds put in to soak 5 weeks before the 24th.

ADDENDUM-Turns out the 5 weeks was more than enough.  The weather was not suitable until about the 27th of May  - night time temperatures were too low.  5 weeks was even too long as the tomatoes got quite spindly.  4 weeks would have been long enough especially if fertilizing the young plants as I did this year.  
Note, though, this only applies to tomatoes, NOT peppers, and not parsley (which should have been started even 2 or 3 weeks earlier)

2012 Planting Tally

Plants at the garden plot:

30 tomato plants - Plum 18, Cherokee 5, Sicilian 4, Brandywine 3

30 pepper plants - change the balance to 2/3 Northern, 1/3 light green

Planting Plans

On the north south axis, divide the plot into thirds.  Across the whole northern two thirds, plant row crops to fill the space - beans and tomatoes.  In the southern third, plant peppers, parsley, zucchini and lettuce.

Make sure parsley has a good open space to maximize growth.

Find method to protect the base of zucchini plants from whatever it is that chews through them.

Peppers

My experiment of starting some peppers later has not worked very well.  The later plants did not have enough time to grow plant mass so each one is getting just a few peppers.   Also the plants are short so the peppers are touching the ground which makes them start to rot.
Next year start the peppers at the same time, and earlier - 6 weeks before the 24th.

Also I need to plant more dark green ones.