I’m going to add my ‘Lessons Learned’ for 2023 here, as I forgot to add them last week! Zone 5a, SW Wisconsin.
Best tomatoes 2023 for Slicers/Salsa/V-8 Juice: ‘Celebrity Plus’, ‘Bella Rosa’, ‘Grandma’s Pick’ & ‘Chef’s Choice Orange’.
Best Paste-Type Tomato 2023: ‘Roma VF’ and ‘Bush Roma, Italian Roma’
Best Cherry-Type Tomato 2023: ‘Valentine’
Best Red Pepper: ‘Big Red’ (can be used at green stage, too.
Best Jalapeno: Bonnie Brand ‘Jalapeno’ (plant from Walmart)
Best Broccoli: ‘Lieutenan’t, Bonnie Brand, 6-pack from Walmart
Kale: ‘Prism’, by far. Scarlet got very tall and very leggy but kept it’s color and flavor nicely
Brussels Sprouts: Again, Bonnie Brand, 6-pack from Walmart. They are HUGE, easily 5’ tall and just LOADED with sprouts. Keeping them in the ground untill we have a few frosts for better flavor devlopment.
Best Marigold: ‘Fireball’
Zucchini: EZ Pick green and yellow
Sunflowers: Most were volunteers from previous years, but ‘Soroya’ will always be a reliable favorite.
Zinnia: ‘Queeny Mix.’ Those were fun to grow and the green/pink ones were my favorite (’Queeny Lime’ I think?) but I’m going back to clear, true colors next season.
Lettuces & Spinach: All performed well, as usual. Easiest thing in the world to grow. ‘Double Choice’ spinach from Burpee was nice as a baby spinach and mature sized. Lettuces: ‘Red Velvet’ ‘Bronze Attowhead’ ‘Simpson Elite’ ‘Grandpa Admire’s’ and Burpee ‘Looseleaf Lettuce Blend.’
Basil: ‘Lemonchello’ great flavor and aroma. Worked well in the Pestos I made & froze.
Beans: ‘Saychelles’ green pole bean and ‘Good Mother Stollard’ pole drying bean. Pole green beans didn’t produce as well as other season; I think the massive Brussels Sprouts were blocking some of their sun. The drying beans are still drying on the vine. I planted ‘Scarlet Runner Beans’ in two spots on hog-panel V-shaped trellises Beau made for me, and they were gorgeous all summer and the Hummingbirds loved them. I will harvest the seeds from them and use them again next season. :)
Next season: Seriously? FEWER tomatoes. I do NOT need to feed the NATION anymore! And don’t bother with potatoes - they were OK, but a full 4x8’ bed can be put to better use. I also want to do more ‘Square Foot’ garden beds according to the REAL rules of the game, versus just planting things wherever, to see if it REALLY makes a difference in production. Also, more flowers. Always, more flowers! :)
NOTE: We had a VERY dry growing season, so disease issues were minimal - we have more problems in wet seasons.
Amazingly, the crops all around us have done well and soybeans, alfalfa and feed corn production doesn’t look like it took a hit. We are still in drought conditions. If the weather pattern continues, it will be a low-snow winter, which isn’t bad, but Farmer’s Almanac is predicting colder than normal conditions. Ugh. :(
Have you ever grown German Johnson heirloom tomatoes?
We visited a cousin in NC back in July & he gave my mom a German Johnson tomato. He said those are his ‘sandwich’ tomatoes - he grows Celebrities, but those are his canning tomatoes because most of them tend to come in at the same time.
Mom LOVED that German Johnson - said it was one of the best tomatoes she’s ever eaten. I am probably going to have one German Johnson next year and one cherry tomato plant and that is all. I tore myself up (GI tract - I have a nightshade ‘allergy’) eating too many tomatoes this year, trying not to waste the Celebrity produce. I did do some ripe tomato canning, had 8 lbs of green tomatoes for relish canning, plus we gave tomatoes away to the neighbor & to the fire department (twice!), too. All this with only TWO Celebrity plants!
I have to grow jalapenos for pepper jelly or certain relatives will come ‘looking’ for me LOL! I had one bell plant & one Giant Marconi pepper plant this year - waaaay too many peppers & they are still producing. Usually bell peppers are a ‘bust’ in my garden, but this was an outstanding pepper year - ALL the peppers did great.
Spaghetti squash - will grow it again, but not in a raised bed. The plants are ‘prickly’ (very!) so the deer won’t touch them. They also did not chew on any of the squash that developed outside of the fencing. I will plant them ‘out’ somewhere ... they take up a lot of room.
Next year, I would like some green beans .... tried last year, but with the knee, I planted too late. The leaves were eaten up by something.
More flowers for sure - will spread the dahlias out more & support them better as well.
Barely garden thread related, but yesterday, I cooked a regenerative farm pasture raised meat chicken in the slow cooker until the legs were falling off - literally, one got left in the cooker when I lifted the bird out! I made chicken soup out of it - the standard ingredients - chicken, onion, carrots, celery, bay leaves, salt/pepper, chicken stock. It was so “blah” ... I added some ground thyme which helped a little. There was no ‘depth’ or ‘complexity’ to the soup/stew. What to do ... I had an idea, but looked up ‘flavors to add to chicken soup’ and on one blog, I saw my idea .... fish sauce! It doesn’t taste fishy for those that are going ‘yuck!’. I tried it in a bowl of soup & boy, that was the answer. I added 2 tablespoons to the slow cooker & it was perfect. Even my mom was saying ‘this is such a tasty soup broth!’ The missing ingredient was “umami” & the fish sauce gave me that.
Umami: often described as ‘the fifth taste’.In the U.S., there are four words that we often use to compartmentalize the taste of food: sour, sweet, salty, and bitter. But what’s the word you use to describe more complex flavors such as the ones prominent in various types of cheese, miso, and even mushrooms? The answer is umami. Umami is a flavor often attributed to meats, but you can find them in eggs, plant-based foods like tomatoes, mushrooms, miso, seaweed, fish sauce, and soy sauce. [https://www.eatthis.com/umami-taste/]
Best tomato we have grown them for years. Sabre. A Ukrainian variety. If you can find them. Not only are the fruit solid, maybe only 5 seeds in each one. The plants are the hardiest for a northern climate. Ours are still green and have new green fruit and flowers. They also do not get blight. All our other 4 varieties plants dead brown and yanked.