Hits and misses.

[argosgirl]

My tomatoes were incredibly productive this year - as evidenced by the amount of canning I did and the number of bags in the freezer. I ran into a bit of blossom end rot but some epsom salt and calcium tabs stopped that. Yellow and royal burgundy beans did great, green beans not so much. The green beans got eaten by ants, had to be replanted, and really didn't produce until a month or so ago. The kale/lettuce/etc. did well in the spring then I got to busy to replant (though some kale is hanging on). Cucumbers and pumpkins went crazy. It's the first year I'll have nice orange pumpkins before Thanksgiving. Corn was slow and nearly impossible to pick at just the right time, turnips and rutabagas got infested, peppers were slow producing thanks to early trimming by the chickens (before we put the fence in). Potatoes did okay - I like the kennebecs better than the yukon golds for production. Will try Kathy's tip for the brussel sprouts when I get home!

[Skinny rooster]

Interesting how the general weather affects gardens, we are spread out over quite a large area and yet many of you had the same results this year as I did. I only planted three regular size tomatoe plants and one cherry tomatoe plant and yet I got box loads of tomatoes, I was giving away boxes of them. Another hit was some tomatoes were trying to grow from last year's seeds, I let one grow and it had orange tangerine sized tomatoes that were really good. My potatoes were also a miss, many marble sized potatoes I think it's my fault for not watering them, I usually have too many so didn't give them a lot of attention. I plant sweet red peppers now, I find they produce better than just the green peppers, I discovered the trick is to get them in the ground early, there was a HUGE difference between them and some I planted two weeks later. I kept having to resow spinach as the heat made it constantly bolt. Snow peas were good until they suddenly dropped dead in August. Pumpkins are too good, too large to handle properly. Burgundy beans did well late into the season. I think less is more, I planted a lot less this year and with all the extra room and heat most things did really, it even got a bit ahead of me so I will cut back more next year. I used the coreless carrots, that is a miss for me, they rot easy and don't store well, I recommend using the regular carrots.

[WLLady]

Just grab the top "knot" on the plant and twist, the stem should break off. The sprouts should be visible just the the place where the leaves attach to the stems...and bumps. As the leaves yellow i break them off to let the air in....it will take a couple weeks for the sprouts to plump up. Once the leaves are all yellow just strip the leaves off and use a short knife to cut the sprouts off, or bend them to break them off

[windwalkingwolf]

Oh, another note or three...in previous years I've grown a zucchini called "black beauty" and been very happy with it. This year I tried one called "spineless beauty" It's pretty much identical to Black Beauty, and is NOT spineless. Plus, there's never been a garden here before this year, but like Tom, the squash borers found my zuke plants. And fruit. But not until August, so I had lots of good fruit, plus once I figured they were all done and wilted, I took off all fruit still growing, and then they perked up a bit and set more, so I will probably plant them again next year, despite being SO NOT spineless lol
And, my day-neutral strawberries are also still strawberry-ing. Just planted last spring, very delicious and sweet, and good-sized berries too. A variety called Seascape.
Also, I love growing huge vegetables, so a few years ago I got some Romeo seeds (world's biggest paste tomato), but had a heck of a time with them until this year. I call them the "Ten-dollar-tomatoes" because the seeds were fairly expensive, germination was poor, the plants were picky about light source and amount, and each tomato has very few seeds with which to try again. Not many ripened before frost this year, but most that did are monstrous, bigger than my hand, and all meat. The flavour is not as good as my favourite stand-by, Super Italian Paste. In fact, they're a little bland, but they will make good paste, and lots of it! But, for anyone thinking of trying Romeo, tomato cages won't hold the plants, the sheer weight of the fruit toppled a sharpened 2 x 4 pounded almost two feet into the ground.

[Nickyn]

This is my 'helpful' counter surfer. He is very good at stealing tomatoes and low hanging apples and pears!