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.

What I Learned This Year: 2010

1.  Cursed STRAWBERRIES!!  I weeded them, topped them all, and fertiziled them only for a small handful once in a while.  Every year I need to plant at least a dozen or more new plants for a continual harvest.  Plant everbears for all season long satisfaction.

2.  POLE BEANS seem to give a bigger, longer harvest.  The variety I planted was tough and stringy (Blue Lake Pole).  I will try another variety next year.  The vines grew up the fence and into the neighbors lilac bushes- twice as high as the fence.  They didn't really grow up the corn stalks, however.

3.  All SQUASH PLANTS were lousy this year.  Don't buy seeds from Lowe's anymore.  Yellow Squash and Zucchini was tough and yucky- not a big harvest either.

4.  I ordered lots of PLANTS FROM SPRINGHILL this last year.  We will see if they grow back next year and if it was worth it.  Planting 30+ plants was lots of fun.  (The ground cover plants are thriving.  Only two out of six ferns came back.)

5.  Once you lose a branch off a BALL WILLOW TREE, its not long til the whole tree splits and starts to come down.  We took it down before it fell.  (Dad and Micah)


Green Garden Goodness



6.  DIVIDING PLANTS already growing in my yard is a lot cheaper than paying for new ones.  (2 out of 3 lavendar plants survived and both daisy divisions survived.)

7.  I planted PEAS in mid-July.  The plants got nice and tall and the harvest was great but once it froze, the pods, which were still to small to pick, cracked and were inedible.  Plant them a little earlier, like July 1st.

8.  I missed not having PUMPKINS in the fall.  Be sure and plant some this year.  Or plant lots at Gram's around her trees where sprinklers are already set to water.

9.  Grandpa Molyneux said to FERTILIZE THE CORN with nitrogen fertilizer for bigger corn cobs.

10.  Uncle Marlo Bergeson says if you cut your PEACHES into quarters or more, you lose flavor into the syrup.  He recommends putting halves into bottles.  He says Peggy's tree is CANADIAN HARMONY.

11. Plant two or three different varieties of TOMATOES in case one of the varieties gets a disease.  Its a good idea to get them from different nurseries too.