Herbs: The 'herb' box I established in Box 4 showed me which herbs I'm likely to use more than others. I'm going to reformat the box to hold the herbs I use on a regular basis - parsley, thyme, marjoram, oregano, sage - and relegate the others to pots. For instance, the Mexican oregano has become something of a shrub and I rarely find a use for it, at least so far this year. The basil has performed magnificently but the oregano is still having trouble filling out. The first planting of parsley was fantastic but subsequent ones have been weak as was the case with both cilantro and dill. The sage has done very well, it's filled out well without overgrowing its spot.
Greens: I still tend to over-plant in some cases especially in terms of greens. This isn't so bad if I am constantly thinning out the greens and using them while I do but if I don't so for just a couple of weeks, things can quickly get out of hand.
Garlic: I planted these late although the plants did pretty well. However the yield was somewhat disappointing. The bulbs took a long time to develop and not all of them did in the end. And what I've harvested has already started to rot quickly. I think this was a combination of the late start and the lack of rain in the earlier part of the plants growth.
Tomatoes: Next year when I plant tomatoes, I'm going to use my old method of establishing wells for the new plants, water them by hand for a few weeks to get them going, then work in the drip irrigation to eventually replace the hand watering with an eye on the progress of the plants as I do so. This past year I basically just relied on an arbitrary schedule for the drip to see how that would go and the results were less than stellar. Of course the unseasonably cold and overcast conditions of the Spring didn't help in getting the plants established either but there's not much to be done with that. What a weird year of weather we've had.
Peas: These also had a slow start and also something kept eating the seedlings as they would pop up so I had to replace them a couple of times. But the yield was good. The plants would quickly get mildew though. Another one to keep an eye on as the harvest can overwhelm a bit.
Beans: I scheduled bean planting to grow 4 different varieties in 4 different seedings with each seeding having one group of each variety. I also relied on the drip without any hand watering and, like the tomatoes, the first seeding had difficulty in getting started. Once they did, some varieties out-performed others and shoved them out by competition. Also it's good to remember that the beans will practically show up out of nowhere and, in the case of Romanos especially, will quickly over-mature to the extent that they are no longer edible. They're fantastic if you pick them at the right time but that time passes very quickly. And as you really need to look through the plants to find the beans, they can easily be overlooked. And the beans will go for longer than I'd expected so I'll anticipate that next year.
Carrots, celery, chicory: All of these performed well but in my use of them in frequency and taste, I didn't find that growing them, given the effort and space, was warranted.
Peppers: These had a hell of a time getting started (Spring cold) but once the weather improved in June and with the constant warm evening temperatures since then, they've done very well and should continue to do so until (if we do) get cooler temperatures and (could it happen?) rain.
Basil: Amazing yield this year, especially considering the trouble I've had with it the past few years.
Zucchini/squash: The two plants had a problem with blossom-end rot. Apparently this could have been due to the watering as with the tomatoes. Next year I'm going to take the hand watering approach with it to establish the plants and then work in the drip over time.
Broccolini: These take up considerable space but the yield has been good both in the winter and now in the fall. As the photos will show though, with our short trip to Chicago this past week, the stalks have quickly bolted. Another plant that can easily get away from you. So even though we've had one good meal, I've trimmed as much as I've harvested. Still more to come though.
Box 1
The broccolini has been getting away from me as I haven't had the chance to harvest quickly enough. But there's more to come from them. The greens were overplanted again but I've been thinning them out so there's been plenty to get from them.
Box 2
I pulled the squash a while back as it seemed we got what we were going to get. The beans are still growing but more sporadically. I've stopped watering it to conserve but next year I'll have a better idea of what to expect and how to deal with them.
I pulled the tomatoes out a couple of weeks ago (Sept 27-29) and am going to prepare this box for garlic in the next week. Hopefully the box will provide access to enough sun in the autumn sky for the plants to get established.
Box 4
I'm going to reconfigure the box once the rain(?) starts to meet the requirements I have for my cooking as I detailed above. Too much Mexican oregano and not enough parsley, oregano, dill, or cilantro here.
Box 5
Lettuce, fennel, peppers, carrots, basil.
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