2018 how did your garden grow?

[WLLady]

tomatillos...my worst nightmare. planted about 7 maybe 8 years ago. i'm STILL finding them EVERYWHERE. in the lawn, in the garden, in the field, in the pasture. you think they won't self seed...however, the birds will take those seeds and drop them everywhere....ha ha. "nothing will self seed mwahahahahah".....lol. i'm reserving the "i told ya so" for next year LOL. my tomatillos were easily the size of a nice field tomato. and tasty. but sticky, needed washing. i did make salsa etc with them. yummy.

my garden has done amazing. i have pumpkins that were supposed to be 10 pounds, easily 50 right now. and the summer squash we are finding are perfect for us and the chickens. cucumbers need to go for relish this weekend, there's possibly 50 of them....on 2 plants. and all the butternuts, acorn, hubbard squash are doing incredible. i managed to nuke the squash borers early enough (i buried the stems early on really deep so the plants survived the borers i guess). the leaves on all the plants are HUGE and up to my waist in the garden! the beans are crazy-bushels of them, but getting some downey mildew of some kind...and rust has been bad this year with all the dry hot and then humidity lately. my peas were a total bust. nothing sprouted. but i had free range chickens i think liked the seed. my sunflowers are easily 15 feet tall and full heads.....garlic was a bit small but yummy. need to get ready to plant the fall stuff! lettuce is on the 3rd crop, had some just wonderful heads....and strawberries. and asparagus (all done now but was awesome). the raspberries-loads of them. our grapes are so loaded they pulled down the trellising....so another job to do. and they're ready to pick now! bird netting was put over them a couple weeks ago, and seems to have worked. watermelons are crazy-supposed to be 10 pounds, and the smallest so far is 21....there are about 10 out there....we've been giving away halves to the neighbourhood LOL. this weekend is beans for the freezer, relish, cowboy candy (oh, the peppers are AMAZING too). and the cauliflower is ready. my brussel sprouts however, did not enjoy the heat and dry early on. doubt i'll get anything productive off those plants.

potatoes were mostly harvested already, but the ones that were slow to finish also need harvesting this weekend-all done, and awesome yields. been super happy with them. and they're tasty too, had some for dinner last night! all in all a wonderful garden season. and i think it's because last year i mulched with chicken coop bedding and will tilled it all in this spring.....everything is huge!

[Ontario Chick]

Not a bad garden year here, good tomato crop considering the plants I started out with.
Very good cucumber crop, nice Swiss chard stil growing well, second harvest of Boston lettuce just a starting to form heads.
Planted only 12 hills of potatoes, so just starting to harvest one hill at the time, of the Yukon "whatever" as the tops die off, one meal per hill. Hope the red ones have better yeald.
As an added bonus this year as last, found couple of Crabapple shoots, so will have some Crabapple saplings to grow out for next year planting, maybe in the sand rink that his fast growing over, will be my crab apple orchard :)

[windwalkingwolf]

If I end up with a lawn full of tomatillos, I'll be ok with that...maybe they'll crowd out all the darn thistles

[Killerbunny]

Tomatoes, great - best for years. In Orillia our toms were always good but this area not so much. Potatoes OK but because of the weather smaller sized. Zucchini - yellow, doing very well in one spot the other got beetle about 2 weeks ago. Beans have been fantastic, still picking and freezing. Peas not so good this year. Now the watermelon - I had one small one growing and then DH cut the grass, he did not see the watermelon - oops! Pumpkin dreadful but we don't eat it so it was only for the chickens. Corn - we got 4 edible ears.

[WLLady]

this weekends chore
ketchup, cowboy candy and relish

[TomK]

My garden did really well this year....aside from the comment about the beets on the other thread it has been a bountiful year...tomato yield is huge, late in ripening a bit but wow!...Amish Paste, Black Plum and Ernies Plump are the backbone wih some Beefmaster, Green Zebra and Banana Legs thrown in for good measure...and a couple of plants of Fantastic Tom patio just for fun...I even found an actual dwarf Tiny Tim and it is loaded with tomatoes and only a foot tall...hilarious
...three kinds of potatoes, Russian Purple, Red Pontiac and (supposedly) Yukon Gold but i think the tub was mislablelled at the nursery so I am sure they are Russets (bummer) but a great crop on all three types, I won't be running out this year
...cabbages both red and green yielded well and i am trying my hand at making saurkraut this year...and the brussel sprouts are just now forming well
...red and yellow onions and the garlic did really well....I remembered that onions are thirsty and hate competition so they got extra attention neede this hot dry summer
...the seed i had saved for zucchini from last year's crop didnt germinate when i started the seed so i rushed out and found some seed....got eight plants going but wow, slow ...wrong time to set them into the ground...just getting a few small zucchini now and i wanted a bunch for the birds....
...planted a totally new area this year for the gourds, squashes of all type and cantaloupe...forgot the pumpkins all together ...yesterday i went out to do a routine chk on things...huge Hubbards, vast amounts of Butternuts and Acorn...Cantaloupes galore and wait for it....about 15 huge zucchini....wth?...how?...where?...oh nevermind, here ya go girls...
...the chard came back,,,the carrots both, Nantes and multicoloured will be a good crop and i will get about a half yield on the parsnips ( did anyone else have poor germination on the parsnips?)
...peppers are slow and wont be quite as bountiful as usual...they took forever to get going so i am hoping for a long autumn before the frost hits..we will see...but timing the peppers and cilantro and tomatoes so that they all come on at about the same time has been a challenge to say the least...have to seed cilantro in stages just for that...
..oh and by the way, everything is heritage varieties and totally organic...

[labradors]

You seed cilantro in stages? Who'd a thunkit? I ADORE cilantro and have a huge patch that usually self-sows itself (except this year when I rotated the garden end to end). I make salads with cilantro instead of lettuce, but it's so sad when it's over and gone to seed .

[Ontario Chick]

I had a poor to nonexistent germination on parsnips, convinced I missed something, reseeded month later and babied the nonexistent parsnips for another month and then gave up.
Not sure what is going on with parsnips and would have been convinced it is something I did, until I spoke to a market gardener, who said they gave up on parsnips, because of a history of poor germination. I would forget them all together, but love them roasted and they are so expensive in the store.

[Killerbunny]

I love parsnips but have never been able to get them to germinate. Roasted with cream and feta is good! Also I have managed to kill off my mint, honestly!

[WLLady]

first batch of ketchup processed. relish just finished and the cowboy candy got done yesterday. more ketchup to go but not right now. grapes first!!