Garden 2012: What I would like to try to grow

I just ordered my 2012 Burpee seed catalog last Sunday and I have been anxiously awaiting its arrival all week even though it will probably come closer to the end of the month.  Even though their catalog is available to view on their website, it just isn't the same as getting to hold a paper catalog that you have to physically turn the pages with your hands rather than click on an arrow icon to make a digital picture change.  Plus, I like to put stars next the the items that I am interested in!

That brings me to this posting's topic: what I am planning to try to grow for 2012.  I have never been a huge fan of following the advice that I should only stick to plants that are bred to grow in my climate.  To me, that is just plain boring and unadventurous.  I already know that I can successfully grow large heirloom tomatoes in cool Western Washington, so why not try something else that "they" say I can't grow? 



Chili peppers!  Don't they look exciting!

 So, in 2012, I am going to try to grow chili peppers!  And yes, I know, they need heat to produce hot chilies, but I am prepared to try my best.  And even if I am only able to produce one pepper that is still green by the end of summer, I will still consider that a success!  I am thinking of trying a mixed seed packet that is offered by Thompson and Morgan that contains chilies that are red, yellow, and orange, as I like variety and different colors.  Rather than grow them directly in the garden, I am planning on keeping them in containers and having them grow on my back deck where they will receive lots of sunlight and a lot of heat that radiates off the back of the house.  I will also place black plastic around the containers and will figure out some other methods along the way. 

I also plan on trying potatoes.  I grew potatoes long ago in Kenmore, WA and had a dissapointing experience as all of my potatoes ended up getting infested with some sort of grub that bored holes and made the tubers inedible.  I am hoping the garden soil here at my rental in Elma, WA does not harbor these pests.  I will find out one way or another.

I have also been toying with the idea of growing some sort of winter squash as well.  The issue with this is that I really don't know what to do with the squash after I harvest it!  I guess I will just need to do some extensive research on recipes that use squash that I will find appetizing enough not to waste what I have grown and produced.  I am aware of all of the soups, pies, and other caserole-type dishes that most people prepare during the fall and winter months that call for winter squash, it's just that I've eaten that stuff all my life and would like to use it differently or...maybe with chilies mixed in?!  Anyway, I've got time to decide on what to do.

As far as other vegetables, I will continue to grow tomatoes, carrots, lettuces, and retry bell peppers and corn.  I may also grow cucumbers and some sort of bean.  Very exciting stuff!

Next post:  Pre-spring preparations.

Winners and Losers of the 2011 garden



Yellow pear tomatoes, one of the winners of 2011.

 So sorry for the long absence from writing to this blog.  Those who know me personally will know and understand exactly what I am talking about.  I was also highly engrossed in writing for Helium, which was having this awesome summer long writing contest, so my time devoted to this blog was taken up by other activities not to mention working outside in the garden during the daylight hours after getting home from work.

Now that December is here, it is a great time to reflect back on what I did during the growing season of 2011 and what worked and did not work for me.  We will start with the winners.

Winner: Tomatoes
I started all of my tomatoes as seed indoors under my grow light and they all did wonderfully.  When it was time to plant them outdoors, I used black plastic to absorb more heat to help the plants grow, flower, and fruit.  I also made an upside-down tomato planter out of a bucket and stuck a seedling in it.  All of my hard work paid off and I was able to enjoy a very nice bounty of heirloom tomatoes! 

Winner: Lettuce planted in container
I filled a large terra cotta pot with potting soil and sprinkled the surface with seed.  After only a week, the seed sprouted and I was able to harvest baby lettuces in 3-4 weeks after that.  I allowed a few to continue to grow into larger heads which were also delicious.  My only issues was trying to manage the watering schedule as the terra cotta pot did dry out near the surface much more quickly than a plastic pot would.  The plants were much more protected from slugs, although I did find a few lurking under the plants during the afternoons when it would warm up during July.

Winner:  Rainbow carrots
I had planted the seed for these carrots back in April.  Because it was a very cool spring, it did take them a while to really get growing.  I did have a few issues with slugs eating the leaves off the crowns of the carrots but they were always able to sprout back up in time.  Harvested some very nice roots in September that were around 7 inches long, a victory after struggling with the rock removal!

And now, the losers of the 2011 garden.

Loser: Bell peppers
It wasn't exactly my fault that the summer was cooler than usual.  The problem was that the cool temperatures were just perfect for a huge army of slugs to grow and destroy things!  In most years, the summer temperatures are high enough that the slugs will not attempt to come out of their hiding places in broad daylight.  This became a problem for me and I quickly ran out of Corry's slug and snail death as a consequence of frequent slug baiting.  When it did get warmer, the slugs waited until exactly twilight to emerge in a huge group that slowly crept toward my garden.  Just like little vampires, they narrowed in on my pepper plants and striped the leaves of one plant at a time.  The next morning, I would find only one plant completely void of all leaves but the others untouched.  The next night, they would target a different plant, and so on until all of my pepper plants were stripped of leaves.  The plants themselves were not dead and did try to put on new growth.  The problem was, by then, it was too late in the season to get any kind of harvest of bell peppers.  Very disappointing indeed.



Here is the corn at the beginning of July.  It started nicely but soon began to struggle.

 Loser:  Red sweet corn
This year, I wanted to try something that was quite foreign to me.  I had never grown corn before and knew there would be challenges.  I planted the corn directly into the ground at the beginning of June and had germination in a week and a half, which is good for Western Washington.  I then realized that the challenge was to try to get the roots of the corn to grow in soil that is chock full of rocks!  I had only removed a few at the time of planting and thought nothing of the consequences of leaving the next layer of rocks under the ground.  Corn needs a lot of soft loamy soil to grow into and this was definitely the least ideal growing condition for it.  As a result, the corn struggled to grow and only reached a height of 18 inches tall at the most.  At the end of August, to my great surprise, all of the plants produced pollen followed by miniature corn ears!  Some of the earns were pollinated and began to swell but then cooler weather set in and the miniature ears were eaten up by the slugs.  I pulled up my tiny corn stalks and examined their tiny root systems.  The proof was in front of my eyes: rocky soils can dwarf certain plants.

Now, based on my results, I have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't work in this garden.  I have decided to try the same crops again for next year but will adjust my methods to see what might work better.  In the words of Dr. Loverine Taylor, my plant genetics professor at WSU, a negative result is still a result.



Next post:  What I will do differently for the plants in 2012 and the new things I will try to grow!