gardening review

This was our first year growing a vegetable garden, and you might not be surprised that we were maybe a little overly ambitious. Also unsurprising, our results were very mixed. Here's how we did, in order from the most to least successful:

• Shallots: Now this is the ideal plant for me. Almost no work: all we had to do was stick them in the ground, water a couple of times a week, wait until the stems dried up and pull them out. We have enough shallots to last for months, and I have another set ready to plant for a winter crop.

• Swiss Chard: The plants grew big and healthy. We ate chard at least once a week until mid-summer. At first using no pesticide seemed like the right choice because we knew we weren't eating any toxins. Then the bugs took over. Now the chard plants are still there, but all the leaves are lacy with bug holes. This weekend I'm going to pull them out.

• Poblano Peppers: It took a while but these guys are going like gangbusters. Four plants are producing more than we can eat. We're going to have to make a sauce and freeze it or something. My only gripe is that the peppers are smaller than the ones in the store, and can be hard to peel.

• Beets: They did great in early summer, but when I replanted the seedlings didn't come up. I'm not sure if the heat killed them, or if they did come up but were immediately eaten by rodents, or if improper seed storage was the problem. I got a fresh packet of seeds so we can try again now.

• Tomatoes: We planted many varieties and results varied wildly. By far the best producer was the Super Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. It's still in overdrive, with lots of fruit and even new flowers! I don't know how long it will keep going; I guess the cold weather will shut it down. With the full sized tomatoes we had major problems with cracking. Over the winter we're going to try and figure out what caused that. But I think in general we'll move away from heirlooms and grow mostly hybrids.

• Zucchini: A massive producer until the squash bugs took over. (At the same time the plants developed some kind of fungus on the leaves, but the bugs were so bad that we'll never know if the fungus would have slowed them down.) Then we made matters worse by spraying the plants with insecticidal soap which must have been mixed improperly or something, because it burned up any leaf surface it touched. We pulled them out over a month ago. Next year we will research pesticides and be more vigilant about stopping the squash bugs before they get entrenched.

• Annual Herbs: The basil did well all year, and is still going strong. The parsley and cilantro took a big hit early in the year when the seedlings were all eaten by rodents. We bought plants to replace them, but the cilantro again got eaten up. We did end up with one parsley plant, which was plenty for our needs. The parsley is indestructable too: last month it was eaten down to little nubs by swallowtail caterpillars, but it bounced right back and looks healthy again. I just planted more cilantro & am crossing my fingers that it survives this time. The rodents and caterpillars ignored our epazote, which grew huge. Unfortunetely, we didn't use it much either.

• Tomatillos: We were totally unprepared for the size and sprawl of these guys. They took over the neighboring bed and encroached on the driveway. They also produced tons of fruit, but by the time it was ripe the bugs had completely taken over. I don't know if we ever got more than a handful of usable tomatillos.

• Yellow Squash: Total failure. Two plants which never produced any fruit and quickly became a squash bug farm. I don't even like yellow squash that much, so we're going to skip it next year.

• Pumpkins: We had a dozen seedlings that seemed to be doing well, but they all died while we were in Florida. I don't know if they didn't get watered while we were gone, or if they were victims of the killer insecticidal soap, or what. I have to admit this one breaks my heart. I was so excited about growing pumpkins. I'm friends with these two little girls, and I was going to scratch their names into two young pumpkins. So that when the pumpkins matured, their names would be embedded in the skin. What a bummer. At least it was a surprise, so I don't have to disappoint them.

Looking over the list, it's clear that our main problem was fighting pests. Not to put too fine a point on it, we were totally unprepared. Next year I'm going to research in advance, and be more open to non-organic products. After all, what good is an organic insecticide if it kills my plants faster than the bugs do?

Water was another problem. The bank along the driveway was ideal in terms of sunlight -- over 10 hours of full sun in high summer -- but with raised beds built up on a slope, it was hard to keep the plants adequately watered. I never realized there was such a thing as too much drainage. This fall we're going to build raised beds in the yard. It will be more level so water won't run off as fast. If we're feeling really ambitious we'll put in a drip irrigation system too.