My Traditional Garden 2011: What I Learned....

1.  DOUBLE PLANTING THE ROWS of veggies worked great and almost doubled my harvest.  Tomatoes didn't do too well for anyone this year, but I still had plenty for all the salsa I wanted with the 28 plants I had.  And I plenty of beans too.

Corn Crop after the Wind Storm

2.  After CORN comes up, pile dirt around the bottom couple of inches to create BRACE OR PROP ROOTS so stalks won't blow over in the wind.  (I lost half my crop.)  Kmetzsch's corn fell over too, but they propped it up asap and staked it and they preserved their harvest by doing so.

3. I planted two CORN varieties, Serendipity and Ambrosia, but the SERENDIPITY did best, with the longest, fullest ears at harvest.

4.  The Kentucky Wonder POLE BEANS were much better than last years, but still a bit stringy.  If I plant pole beans again, I should find a way to extend the fence up another 3 to 5 feet and try an even better variety.  I could put rebar down the fence posts and run four inch chicken wire between posts.

5.  I need to plant double or triple the GREEN PEPPERS for eating and salsa.  There is never enough.  i had enough of the other peppers, but should plant more of those too so that I will be able to share.

6.  American Fork neighbor, John Cox told us that he dumped a pile of sand and a pile of COMPOST from the GREEN WASTE PLANT into his pasture.   Over the next couple of years, he said, weeds grew like crazy out of the sand pile, but nothing grew in the Green Waste compost, which means it has no nutritional value.  It is good for TILTH or as a GROUND COVER MULCH, but that's about it.

7.  Plant three or four SUCCESSIONS OF CORN so we can enjoy the harvest well into the fall.

8.  PICKLING CUCUMBERS did next to nothing.  Aunt LuAnn supposedly planted a different variety of cucumber that was long and skinny, good for slicing and pickling.  I need to find out the variety and give it a try.

9.  July is too late for planting PUMPKINS.  Got some nice vines though.

10.  Putting LANDSCAPE FABRIC down right after planting eliminated a lot of extra weeding.  Just make sure the seeds or seedlings are not covered.