Our house came with lovely raised garden beds, and it would have been a shame not to at least attempt to grow some fresh vegetables. I have always had a brown thumb, so my expectations were low. I expected the tomatoes to be a challenge, but figured any idiot can grow zucchini. The strawberries and green beans would probably be somewhere in between.
That just goes to show how little I know about gardening. Summer garden recap:
Our zucchini plant produces lovely flowers, but so far only one miniscule zucchini. We got a few Papaya Pear squashes before the plant got, umm, squashed by a rogue peach tree.
We won't have any strawberries until next year (apparently, I should have known this).
My anaheim pepper plant was dying in its pot after expending tremendous effort to produce two huge peppers. I transplanted it into the garden to see what would happen. I estimate we've gotten 20 huge peppers from it since then.
We didn't really get enough beans from the "bush style" plants. A gopher ate one plant. Weeds strangled two others. We did get one mutant bean.
Tomatoes provided me with some heartbreak during the season. Two plants were damaged by frost, and two others had plenty of flowers, but few tomatoes. Only the cherry tomatoes were producing well. But late in the season, the other varieties came through. Here's my recap by variety.
Taxi (pictured at right):
This is a determinate variety (doesn't grow tall) and could thrive in a wine barrel. It produced plenty of medium sized tomatoes with few seeds - great for cooking. But they were bright red, not yellow. Perhaps our plant was defective.
Sungold:
Excellent orange cherry tomatoes. I stopped counting how many we harvested around 100. They are as sweet as candy. Both cherry tomato plants were also more draught-tolerant than our other plants. This plant is nearly six feet tall and still producing.
Reisentraube (pictured at left):
Heirloom red cherry tomatoes with an earthy flavor. The name means "giant bunch of grapes" and it is easy to see why. The largest tomato from this plant was nearly two inches in diameter.
Black Brandywine:
I discovered after buying this tomato that this variety is not very consistent. I did get dark colored tomatoes from it, but they were all fairly small ones. It also took a long time for the plant to set fruit, and it drank more water than any other plant in the garden. I might try a regular red Brandywine for next year.
Great White (pictured at right):
This plant was supposed to produce tomatoes that weighed a pound each. The tomatoes are not quite that big, but they are definitely delicious. Problem is, we'll get a grand total of 8 tomatoes from it this year.
Dixie Golden Giant:
I can't tell you how these taste, because none are ready yet. This plant seems to be too fragile for this climate. It doesn't like cold (part of the plant died during a late frost), and doesn't like dry heat (wilts like crazy after 24 hours without water). The plant finally set fruit in late September and the tomatoes do show signs of becoming giant. I am hopeful that all of the hard work to pamper this plant might pay off.
Next year: 50% hybrid tomatoes! These heirlooms are delicious, but troublesome.
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