Garden Summary 2020

I’ve posted a lot about my garden this summer. This is the first year since growing up helping my mom with giant gardens that I haven’t had to rely on small raised beds. I’ve always made the most of those small plots, but this year I had enough space for everything I wanted. I think I can do even better next year by different crop placement, altering some planting times, and more soil amendment but overall, it was a great year. So, here’s where it ended up:

Lettuce - produced enough to last two families until September.

Peas – snacked on fresh while grazing in the garden and froze six bags.

Green beans - enjoyed all the fresh we could eat and froze about ten bags.

Cucumbers - made many salads and two batches of refrigerator pickles.

Bok Choy and spinach – all we could eat through July.

Potatoes - dug about fifteen pounds that we’ll store for use throughout the winter.

Corn - had about five meals of fresh corn on the cob (got a late start, which we’ll remedy next year).

Snow peas – enjoyed fresh, in several stir fry dishes, and froze four bags.

Carrots – ended up with about a gallon-size storage bag in the refrigerator.

Herbs – I’m still using fresh rosemary, mint, parsley, and basil.

Zucchini – canned 20 jars of sweet relish (awesome on burgers and sausages), gave it to anyone who would take it, froze four quarts ground up for wintertime zucchini bread and/or cake, and ate it for dinner at least four times a week.

Anaheim Chilis – roasted four batches. Delicious!.

Bell and Sweet peppers – green and red bells did not produce well, but the sweet gypsy hybrids produced a lot of yellow and orange peppers.

Cabbage – Grew six well-formed heads, enough to share, eat fresh, and freeze.

Onions – not great, but had enough to use fresh during August.

Tomatoes – these were my biggest disappointment. I’ve gotten enough for a few salads, two batches of spaghetti sauce, and a few homemade pizzas, but nothing to freeze. Even in raised beds I’ve grown enough to freeze and use all winter.

Rhubarb – lots of jam.

Fruit – grapes ripened and were delicious, but didn’t produce enough for wine or jelly. Raspberries got a very slow start and didn’t produce well. Very disappointing since this is my favorite fruit. Cantaloupe I have three that are about the right size but very green, so we’ve been covering those and keeping our fingers crossed they’ll have enough time to mature.

It was a lot of work, but well worth the effort. I’ll enjoy a break from the zucchini, but I’m sure by the first of the year I’ll be anxious to start all over.