Here we go again...

So....another year has gone by and another year I promised myself I would update my blog and I didn't once the garden got in full swing.  I may be the world's worst blogger, if I can even be considered a "blogger".  I started this blog as more of a journal for myself, but if anyone does happen to read this and learn something from my experiences, then I'm glad I can help.  However, if I never write in the damn thing then it's not helping me or anyone else!!

Looking Back on 2010....
Thankfully I have a pretty decent memory when it comes to my garden anyway.  Last year's harvest brought me what I would call an INFESTATION of Chadwick Cherry Tomatos.  It was the best tasting infestation ever, but still, it was quite an undertaking ripping that thing out in October.  There is no way I managed to get all the seeds out of there, so I'm sure I'll be plucking out seedlings in my mulch and probably throughout my mels mix - which will be mixed up in several different beds this year - but I'll get to that later.

Tomatos overall were a sucess, unlike my first year where I got nothing but green tomatos from my starter plants from Burpee.  I purchased a Rutgers Ramapo seedling and a lemon boy seedling from a local farm stand.  I also started my own from seed, a couple of Rutgers Ramapo and Rutgers Moreton.  I was afraid at how small my own plants were at planting time which is why I invested in the nursery grown starters.  I had plenty of tomatos from both.  The Lemon Boy was the first to harvest.  I had never tried a yellow tomato before but it was delicious :) 

As the season progressed I had tons of tomatos. I was trying hard to keep up on pruning but it was tough.  Late in the summer (August maybe?) I found out that I wasn't the only one enjoying my tomato plants.  I started finding what I later found out was the tobacco horn worm.  When I saw a few of them with white sacs all over them I FREAKED.  I thought for sure my plants were toast and all those little white things were thousands of babies waiting for their feast.  So we removed the bugs every chance we could and to be safe gave them a nice funeral pyre in the driveway. WRONG!  What I later learned is that if you find the tobacco hornworm covered in white sacs, LEAVE IT.  Those sacs are from a braconid wasp, a beneficial garden bug.  They take out the hornworms while posing no threat to humans or the garden.  Lesson learned!  All in all my plants were still saved, but probably took more work from me and more gasoline for that fire than was needed.  I was having a little issue with blossom end cracking, but upped my soaker hose timer for 2 hours in am and 2 hrs in pm and that seemed to cut down on that problem (gotta remember that this year!!)

My only tomato FAIL was my romas.  Not really much of anything.  I grew a determinate type, the Burpee ensalada hybid.  I'm trying a few different varieties of paste tomatos this year, all indeterminate and highly recommended - Opalka, San Marzano, & Mama Leone. 

With my bountiful harvest of tomatos, I also canned salsa for the first time ever.  I enjoyed it but hopefully trying new recipes and a better harvest of paste tomatos this year will give me a thicker salsa.  The salsa recipe I tried was a bit on the runny side, but still a nice treat for November salads.  I have a nice fresh salsa recipe, but I know you have to follow canning recipes to ensure safety (dying from canned salsa would really suck).

Letdowns... hot peppers (yet again), potatos & broccoli. 
  I spend 16 bucks on starter potatos and barely get enough for one meal.  I can buy a 5 lb bag at the grocery store for 5 bucks.  If I ever do potatos again, I'll take my chances with an extra grocery store potato that grew eyes in my cabinet.  All the garden experts say not to do that, but whatever, its worth a shot if it costs me nothing! 

 I love broccoli, but I just can't seem to grow enough of it without a full fledged farm.  It hurts to use up a whole square of precious space in my SFG only to get a tiny little head that is barely a side dish for me once. I'll stick with the local farmers market for my broccoli consumption.

  I don't know why I can't seem to get my peppers to produce, but I'm not giving up yet. 

 The tomatillos were ok, but they take up so much room and I don't use them enough to justify that amount of space.  I'd rather have 8 squares of cilantro & basil then buy the handful of tomatillos I want for green salsa.  I don't know why I keep growing cucumbers when we don't really eat them.  I hate them, and hubby only eats them occasionally.  They also grow like weeds, so I have no problem growing them if I ever decide I want to try pickling :)

  I wish I was able to see if I could grow corn, but due to digging out under the corn box early in the season to fix an electrical problem, I never got to realize that dream.  Oh well, maybe another time.  I know where to get awesome silver queen corn anyway.

I think one of the highlights of the season was my visit in early spring to a local alpaca farm for a trailer load of manure.  Wow... that sounds really really sad when I type that out. It wasn't about the poop I swear.  It was really cool learning about these funky looking fuzzy creatures and getting the opportunity to pet one of the babies.  The farmer was a great guy, and thanks to the addition to my compost pile I may actually have figured out my composting problems....(maybe).

  Final outcomes to last years experiments - Tomatos grown in jersey sandy soil and fertilized vs. mels mix produced no differently.  No need to stray from MM.  Also, tomato trays are a waste of money and plastic - i saw no difference.  They may help traditional gardeners due to fertilizing & watering the roots, but with MM the plant gets everything it needs.

Looking ahead to this year....
I've finally learned to go back to the KISS rule.  I was very excited to try new things and I've learned alot, but I'm going back to basics this year.  Salad greens, a few herbs, tomatos, peas, a few carrots and strawberries.  And of course still attempting to have successful hot peppers.  That's it (or at least I will TRY to control my impulse seed purchases this year).  I'm still going to do my experiments.  I just started a few of my tomato seedlings for this year.   The thought process is to try to get them started a good month or two early in a mini greenhouse.  If I can figure out how to get tomato harvests early, I will be one happy jersey girl!

I've redone my layout for the garden too.  Hubby made me (2) 6' x 2' table top style boxes for my salad greens and herbs.  I will build 3 new 6' x 2' boxes on the ground with trellis for the rest of my plants (peas & tomatos) and I have 2 small strawberry stacked squares.  The new layout is more of a design and will be more aestetically pleasing to me.  Not quite a traditional potager garden, but a nice clean symetrical approach to my sfg.  I didn't really get to finish everything before the winter closed in, but the tables and strawberry boxes are done and in.  I still need to build the other 3 boxes and move the mel's mix in from the old boxes that I'm taking out (they are toast anyway - 2 years of old pallet wood is over it's lifespan).

That's it for now.  I have more to say, but this post is already huge.  Hopefully this won't be the last post for 2011......