What Grew And Did Not In The Garden

I started out with a lot of energy and ideas for the 2014 garden.  I seemed to not have as much time this year. I did not take as many pictures.   I need my own camera.  Next will be all the clean up. The garden produced so long that the plants were still in the garden in late October producing. Usually, the garden clean up is going on in October. I think I will just list what I planted and what happened. Overall, it was an exceptional garden. 

ASPARAGUS
It was 2 years old and produced well, but it is really planted in a bad place. The ferns are shading other parts of the garden. The ferns are huge. I am going out in the next day or so to cut them down and to put compost and mulch done to get ready for spring.

BEETS
Hardly any. I have no idea why.  The only time I did have success with beets was when I transplanted them. My neighbor had some and I saw how she planted them. Her daughter started them in the house and she transplanted to the garden. I am going to start them in the house and transplant to the garden early, early spring.

CARROTS
I did not plant very many and all I got were a few short ones, but very sweet.

CELERY
This was the first year I planted it and I started it from seed and I only planted a few to see what would happen. First, I did not have room and it was planted in a bad spot, but it grew and I actually ate celery from my own garden and have some in the freezer. I will plant more next year.

BUSH BEAN
They were planted too close together and fell over, but they kept on producing. It was a mess to deal with and I am not sure I will plant bush beans again after the success I had with pole beans.

POLE BEANS
UNREAL! I do not know how much I harvested, but daily I picked 2 or 3 pounds and sometimes more. They were on poles about 7 feet high and strings tied on the poles than hung to the ground for them to grow up.

ONIONS
I planted a million. I worked hard and I planted them in rabbit manure. I could not get in to weed them, but they grew so tall. They were waist high. A wind and rain storm came and blew them over and with all the weeds, I could not stand to look at them any longer, so I picked them. I still have onions and they taste great, but they were small. I am not sure where I will plant them next time, but somewhere that I can get to them and weed them better.

TOMATOES
I planted some on the north and some on the south side of a fence. The south did a lot better. The ones on the north also had the pole beans. They still grew, but not as well as the south.  I still got them all mixed up, but a few of them I did recognize.  The cherry tomatoes did well.  The pink brandywine took forever to ripen.  I liked the Bloody Butcher that I planted, but I did not get very many.  The San Marzano produced and produced.  I will grow them again.

PEPPERS
I planted a lot of peppers and I got a lot.  They were amazing.

PARSLEY
I started some from seed and I bought some curly leaf because I read that it will reseed and come back next spring.  I have quarts of parsley dehydrated.  I was pleased with both kinds. 

GARLIC
I planted a lot.  Then, I planted peas too close.  Then, the weeds came, and I had a hard time weeding and taking care of the garlic.  I harvested a lot.  I just planted the garlic for next year.  I almost did not get it done.  I only had one place in the yard that was not froze.  I hope to keep the weeds out of this.

POTATOES
The blue potatoes were small again and like the year before there were a lot of them.  The white, red, and Yukon were pretty good size.  

LETTUCE
I had a lot of lettuce.  I really enjoy lettuce from the garden.

KALE
The kale was a success.  I waited a little too long to harvest it.  There is a lot in the freezer and a lot dehydrated.

SQUASH
The squash started out beautiful and then the birds came.  This is the first time it ever happened, but the young birds were pulling the leaves off the seedlings.  I replanted and covered with netting for awhile.  I did not get a lot of squash, but enough.  I tried a new one called Cube of Butter and I thought it was very nice.  I also tried Horns of Plenty, but I really did not get a lot of the plants, but it might have been where they were planted.

CUCUMBERS
The cucumbers were the same story as the squash with the birds.  I usually do not get a lot of cucumbers, so I planted a lot after the bird problem and they really produced.  I made freezer pickles and dill relish and sweet relish.  I will have enough relish to last 10 years.  I made ice box pickles and gave my brother loads of them to eat.  I will not be planting very many cucumbers next year.

ELDERBERRIES
This was amazing.  The biggest year for the 5-year-old bushes.  The branches were so loaded that my husband had to support them and tie the branches up because they were hanging all the way to the ground.  One of the branches still broke.  I have a lot in the freezer to make jelly and using some to make elderberry syrup to keep the flu away.  I also picked some in the mountains for the first time this year and gave some away to friends.  I dehydrated mine.

RASPBERRIES
The raspberries were amazing also.  I have gallons and gallons of them.  I bought gold raspberries and planted in May and they produced.  I like them, but I am not sure what to think of them yet.

BLACKBERRIES
These are out of hand.  The canes need trimming now.  Some of the branches broke.  I have gallons and gallons of blackberries.  I made a few pies.  I am going to make blackberry jam and jelly soon.

CHERRIES
Stella the sweet cherry tree is 5 years old and will be 6 this spring.  We got enough to eat handfuls of cherries.  They are very sweet.  The Nanking pie cherries almost caused fights in my house.  There were so many.  I would pick them a quart at a time and it takes forever to take the pits out.  Son and daughter did not want to help.  I finally had such a fit that they did help.  They sat out under the tree in wet clothes from swimming and pitted the cherries for me.  I finally decided to just start freezing with the pits.  I guess they will be turned into juice later.

STRAWBERRIES
I have had a lot of trouble with strawberries for the last 2 years.  I put them in a different place, but they did not get watered as much since they are in an out of the way place.  I weeded them and weeded them, and still there were weeds.  They are all covered with leaves right now, so I will see what happens next year.

PLUMS
The trees produced a lot of small plums.  They are sweet. One tree we just ate off the tree what we wanted, but the other tree ripened earlier and I harvested and mixed them with some that a  friend let us pick from his plum tree. I made a lot of plum jam and jelly. I still have some frozen.

CABBAGE
I had a few purple heads that were pretty good. I had a lot of slugs this year, but they do not seem to like the purple cabbage. I am not sure I want to grow purple again. I planted 100+ day cabbage and should have planted an early variety.

RHUBARB
Again, UNREAL! I have rhubarb all over the place and growing well. It is possible that I may have too much, but I am not sure that is possible.

HERBS
I dehydrated cilantro, parsley, sage, mint, basil, and not sure what else. I have a lot of weeding and work to do in the herb garden, well gardens since now there are two.

PEAS
This was crazy.  I finally figured out what kind of support they need and I guess I will plant some next spring.  They grew at least 6 feet tall, fell over the fence and grew another foot or more.  They shaded the garlic, and the kale supported them on the other side.  We ate peas daily and I have some froze.   If they had not fallen over, I think we will still be picking them.  I had another row that did not get as tall, but still fell over.  I just did not have the right kind of fence for them. 

Then there is the applesauce and apple jelly.  I did not take pictures of that, but I will be making more in a few days.  I have been dehydrating onions, potatoes, tomatoes, herbs, and even peppers and squash.  In October my husband worked hard to get firewood.  He had help from our son this year and a little from my brother and even me and our daughter.