Garden debrief
There are some photos of the various items here and here. Unless otherwise noted, all plants are grown from seeds I bought from Territorial Seeds. And I think most are organic. I don’t earn a dime from Territorial, but I have linked the individual seeds if you’re interested in purchasing your own.
I’m too tired to alphabetize, so let’s start with zucchini.
Zucchini
Patio Star – this actually grew much much bigger than the photo on the website. It was a heavy producer, and I really enjoyed the taste of the veg.
Black Beauty – I think I only harvested like 7 zucchini from this huge plant. Patio Star will be my zuke of choice for next year. The plant is below.
Carrots
Romance – yeah, but mine didn’t look a thing like that. Part of it is where I planted. It’s pretty shallow, but we (I) already have plants for increasing the depth of the planting area next year. Just you wait!
Yaya – decent. I’ve planted some in the fall garden, so we’ll see how they do in really deep soil!
Pumpkin
Small sugar – pretty plants, and decent sized pumpkins. I had 3 plants, and netted 7 pumpkins that are ripe, and 2 more than are ripening. After a late night of canning pumpkin, I’m pretty sure that I’m going to be only planting two plants next year; I did 3.
Beets
Chioggia – Meh. “Nough said.
Bulls Blood – YUM. ‘Nough said.
Tomatoes
Brandywine – always a winner even if it takes 1,000 days to ripen in the Pacific Northwest “Summer”.
San Marzano – a stinker in my garden. Will never plant again. Got so much blossom end rot, and I probably only harvested about 15 all summer. From 2 plants. It’s probably great in other climates.
Heinz – fantastic (and I need to apologize because I labeled it a stinker in this post. And it wasn’t. I had the wrong tomato). Great yield, and a super deep tomatoy tomato. Yep, that’s right. A tomatoy tomato. It gave my homemade tomato soup a very deep color, and the flavor was great.
Indigo Rose – a rose by any other name would suck as much as this plant. Like the Heinze, it could definitely be my garden and our summers, but I hate this tomato. It didn’t taste any different than any other tomato, and it took forever to ripen. Oh, and you only know they’re ripe if the bottom of the tomato turns pink. But if you move the tomato a bit to see if it is ripe, the stupid thing falls off the vine. I’m pissed at myself for wasting space in the garden for TWO of these plants.
Flamme – this is from the farmer’s market, and is hands down my favorite tomato ever. It is the first to ripen, it never splits, the flavor is amazing, and it tastes delicious in anything and everything. Sadly, I can’t find these seeds anywhere, but the lovely lady at our farmer’s market sells the plants 3, for $12.
My cucumber plants never sprouted, but that is my fault for trying to plant the seeds directly in the ground. I’m so starting them in seed beds next year.
I also screwed up and planted my fall seedlings too late to actually get in the garden beds, so I had to purchase all my seedlings from a hardware store. Oh well, next year shall be different. That is what I tend to tell myself every year. It’s either optimism or insanity.
Only time will tell which one.
Hi Sarah,
I just came upon this post, and asked my girlfriend Katie, who owns/runs an organic farm near me if she had any flamme seeds, and she does! Check out her link if you’re still into these…i realize it was 6 years ago…but what the hell… thought I’d give it a shot 🙂
http://www.gardenhoard.com/tomato-jaune-flamme-seeds.html
Thank you so much! I bet she loves them because it is best.freaking.tomato ever.
I was able to snag some from a vendor at our farmer’s market. You should try growing some!
We had Flamme tomatoes in our garden this year and they were our favorite too!! YUM! Seeds came from High Mowing Organic Seed Co (online).
Also, could not keep up with my sun gold (yellow/orange cherries), although they split alot.
Emma’s were very tasty
Not impressed with the purple Cherokee (maybe didn’t let them ripen enough- very bland and mealy).
silver Fir were our first to produce and had good taste… although we bought the plant on a whim as an ornamental (you’ll understand when you see the leaves) since we were out of space in the garden and put it in a big pot… so minimal production given the root ball space.
Same blossom end rot problem in the gilbertie paste (on the Cape, so similar moist weather to OR).
Someone shared their Sudduth Strain Brandywine tomatoes with me – Best! Ever! I kept some seeds, but I will look for the plants next year also. We had a horrible year of drought, but my Sunsweets kept producing regardless and were quite good. Thanks for the tips on what to try next year. Oh, and I suck at gardening, but the Fengyuan Purple Eggplant I have is still producing! They are long, thin, don’t have to peel, not bitter. I had a horticulturist hook me up with that.
Mmmmmmm! I wish I could have shared some of our rain this summer with you guys!
I know next to nothing about gardening, but it looks pretty awesome to me! Since I’ve been buying sugar pumpkins, I’d kill to have a haul like yours!
You did well.
Blossom end rot is caused by not enough calcium getting to the tomato. Save all your egg shells over the winter and crush around the tomato plants. Also, even if there is enough rain/water, the calcium may not be delivered to the plant. So, there are two problems, maybe. You can give the plants lots of calcium, but if there is no precipitation or watering or not enough, you can still get blossom end rot.
I loved the rundown on what works.
I know for us it was the lack of even moisture. I don’t really water my garden, and I knew it was a risk with the romas, but I’m too lazy to water!
Flamme is an heirloom and you can collect your own seed or buy it here. http://store.tomatofest.com/Flamme_Tomato_Seeds_p/tf-0175.htm
Good post. Most of my larger tomatoes didn’t do well… at all and I live on Whidbey Island. I had cherry pear tomato and Pacino’s (also an Italian very yummy large tomato) coming out my eats. The Pacino’s are and Italian heir loom that is grown in Italy a lot apparently and I can see why. The flavor is fantastic and if our weather cooperated I am sure it would just keep growing and producing. If I ever get a green house I am putting one of these in it.
I keep telling myself that “next year I’ll learn how to save seeds”…so maybe next year! ;-D
I love Whidbey Island!!! I’ll check out Pacinos next year. It will be easy to remember – Pacino was in the Godfather, and The Godfather is Italian!
Thanks for the garden recap- good info as I plan for next year’s veggies here in Maine. Like you, I always say, “next year will be different!” Let’s hope I stick to that in the spring!
You can collect seeds from one of your own Flamme tomatoes to plant next year. I haven’t done it myself yet, but I’ve been reading about it alot lately. 🙂
I know, I know, it’s on my list of things to do. Maybe next year!