New England Gardener

By mid-September, I’m all about harvesting and not much else in the garden. I overlook weeds and watering and only ponder insect infestations if supper is threatened. But experience has taught me that it pays to take a few minutes to review the season’s successes and failures before the leaves fall. Taking notes now will prevent me from attacking the garden catalogs like a sailor with scurvy come February.

As you know, I started the season with seed suggestions and a 10′ by 10′ layout from the great gardeners at Johnny’s Selected Seeds here in Maine. For the most part, their varieties and succession planting ideas worked well, but I will make a few changes next year based mostly on personal preferences. (Click on layout to the right if you’re curious about what I grew.)

Working with their plan encouraged me to try some new veggies. I’ve discovered that I like chard and LOVE summer squash. We’ve been doing ratatouille with squash, zucchini, basil and (sigh) canned tomatoes for the last month in my house. Even the little guy likes it. I’ve also concluded that for me, kale will go back to being an ornamental plant. Are we sure it’s food?

I had bad luck with some transplants. Neither my cuke or basil seedlings fared as well as the plants that were sowed from seed into the garden. Next year, I won’t bother starting those indoors.

The peas, beans, lettuces and spinach have all been delicious. All will be invited back.

Thanks to the confines of the 10′ by 10′ space, I found I was much more disciplined about succession plantings. In the past I tucked veggies all over my garden beds and sometimes forgot about them. Not this year. Even in mid-September, every inch of the Just Add Water garden is still producing. Beans are coming up in the tomato graveyard. New rows of lettuce and spinach are launched next to the beans. I tucked in some discounted celery and cauliflower seedlings where the peas once grew. Those will be harvested in the coming weeks. The buds on my brussel sprouts are starting to swell. And the chard, carrots cucumbers and squashes are growing like gangbusters.

Regrets. I’ve had a few. I’ve already said too much about the tomatoes, but that was the nadir. I also regret not planting several crops of carrots. Johnny’s layout called for only a mid-summer planting, but in my house, raw carrots are served at every meal. Next year, I’ll start sowing carrot seeds as soon as the ground is warm enough. That reminds me, I plan to lay black plastic down next spring and purchase a soil thermometer. I definitely would have forgotten that idea over the winter!

What lessons does your garden have to share? If you’re like me, you won’t remember them in February and by then your garden won’t be in the mood for conversation.