Now that we are into winter, and it is almost Christmas 2011, I am planning next year's garden. There will be berries added as well as a little more space for veggies. I plan to plant 4-6 red raspberry plants, 3-4 high bush blueberries, and 30-50 strawberries. The hard part about this will be waiting for an entire year to begin reaping reward from the berry plants. "sigh"
This year I managed to get 12 quarts of green beans plus a couple of pints, there are also 6 quarts of tomato juice and a few quarts and pints of canned tomatoes. Last week I ate the last of my potatoes. Hopefully next year will have a better tomato crop. I also made something like 9 pints of green tomato relish, some of it with jalapenos in it "grin".
Oh and then there is the squash, I have eaten and made pies from 6 butternut squashes, eaten all but one buttercup that is still in the cupboard where i keep the squashes. There is still 11 butternuts and one buttercup in there. Happy happy
I am thoroughly thrilled about all the fresh food I ate on an almost daily basis for over 2 months last summer. I hope I can extend that to 3 or more months next year by planting a succession of cooking greens.
I am pleased with the way this year's garden grew and am looking forward to an even better one next year, weather permitting.
The one main thing I will do differently is to feed my tomatoes differently, I think they got too much nitrogen fertilizer, I will buy specially formulated tomato fertilizer next year. There will be 3X the amount of pole beans and I will get to plant an entire row of the bantu beans and the italina fagiolina beans (I think they are peas, they have a flower similar to sweet peas, they are really yummy).
This year I managed to get 12 quarts of green beans plus a couple of pints, there are also 6 quarts of tomato juice and a few quarts and pints of canned tomatoes. Last week I ate the last of my potatoes. Hopefully next year will have a better tomato crop. I also made something like 9 pints of green tomato relish, some of it with jalapenos in it "grin".
Oh and then there is the squash, I have eaten and made pies from 6 butternut squashes, eaten all but one buttercup that is still in the cupboard where i keep the squashes. There is still 11 butternuts and one buttercup in there. Happy happy
I am thoroughly thrilled about all the fresh food I ate on an almost daily basis for over 2 months last summer. I hope I can extend that to 3 or more months next year by planting a succession of cooking greens.
I am pleased with the way this year's garden grew and am looking forward to an even better one next year, weather permitting.
The one main thing I will do differently is to feed my tomatoes differently, I think they got too much nitrogen fertilizer, I will buy specially formulated tomato fertilizer next year. There will be 3X the amount of pole beans and I will get to plant an entire row of the bantu beans and the italina fagiolina beans (I think they are peas, they have a flower similar to sweet peas, they are really yummy).
