Vegetable Seed Score & Garden Recap: A Winning Season

I still remember the joy and hope I felt when I made my seed order list and garden plans back in January. Don't you just love making garden plans? Here now is the score card for how those seeds performed, and a garden recap for my first growing season back on the prairies. All in all, I would say that my first gardening year back in a zone 3 (after 15 years of being away) was a huge success.

Did everything thrive and be it's awesome self? No, of course not. That never happens, no matter where one gardens. There are always curve balls from mother nature, or something else. However, for the most part, more things thrived than didn't, so it was a big win.

WE saved a bunch of sunflowers and can happily say that the birds are now thoroughly enjoying the seeds.

If you are new to the blog (welcome!), here's the scoop. Up until fifteen years ago, I lived, gardened, and worked (at a large greenhouse) in the Edmonton area. I am very familiar with growing potager style food gardens in a zone 3.

But then, we then moved to Vancouver Island, a gardening zone 7, where I opened up my own wee greenhouse business, grew lots of food, turned the acreage into a wildlife friendly potager, and ran workshops to teach folks grow their own great, organic food. A whole different gardening world.

Last summer, we moved back to the prairies, back to my home town and Zone 3 gardening, where I am still growing food potager style, and gardening, but not on an acreage this time. A lot of relearning to do and changes to make.

This is something that we learned this summer after growing crops in both areas. I thought the fence line was sunnier!

So, I am thrilled with the way this first growing season went. The hardest part was less the weather and timing (though not all of that was perfect, by any means, hah!) but more knowing the different zones in my yard. After watching things grow this summer, I now know which areas get 8 hours of sun, which areas only get 6 hours. We've already changed things about and added new beds to take better advantage of these different growing spaces.

Here is the vegetable seed score and garden recap ... a seed report card, so to speak. Some veggies were just fine, some were exceptional. In general, I put most of the results down to the soil. We just had a really bad batch of soil in the greenhouse and around the patio.

(To see the original seed order list, find that here.)

Beans	Kentucky Wonder-Pole Bean - RENEE	A	I grew just one tower with 5 plants winding up the spiral. They produced well, were juicy, sweet, tasty. Best of all, I got to them before they grew long and woody, so they were perfect.
Beets	Deep Cylinder - T&T	A++	These beets were long and fat, made great sliced pickled beets! Some were a foot long! Stayed sweet, did not get woody.
Beets	Lutz Green Leaf - HH	A+	These round beets were huge, big and fat. We used them for roasting, mainly, some were pickled. Tasty!
Brussels Sprouts	Long Island Improved - OSC	A	Grew nice big sprouts, stalks were nearly 2 feet tall. I lost 3 to root maggots early in the season but was able to save the other 3. Whew!
Carrot	Atomic Red - T&T	A	These grew long and straight, great colour. I like having the different shades when roasting, for presentation, but the dogs did not like these as much as the oranges.
Carrot	Red Cored Chantenay - OSC	B+	These carrots were in with the pumpkins, did not get as long and fat as usual.
Carrot	Triton - OSC	A++	These were amazing. Dogs loved them, we loved them. Long, straight, tasty!
Celery	Tall Utah - OSC	A+	Nice fat stalks, easy to grow, did not blanch, has great flavour.
Cucumber	Chelsea Prize - RENEE	B	These were grown in poor soil so did not do as well as usual. Were very late to produce but did great when they finally started.
Cucumber	French Gherkin - RENEE	A	I will grow these again and again. We made them into 'quickles'. They were crunchy, prolific, so tasty.
Cucumber	Green Fingers - RENEE	A	As with the Chelsea, this came down to location. The soil was poor so the vine did not grow tall, did not produce as well as usual.
Cucumber	Persian Gherkin - T&T	A	See the other gherkins above. I am so glad I tried these this year. I will be growing lots next year to make pickles instead of quickles.
Eggplant	Morden Midget -HH	A	This plant was flowering, thriving, fruiting, lots of eggplants on it. Sadly, I placed it on top of an anthill. Before I noticed, it was overrun with ants, aphids, and wasps. Was not salvageable.
Onions	Red Wethersfield - HH	A	Really great red onions for storage. Grew to medium size. Great flavour.
Onions	Yellow of Parma - HH	A+	Large yellow onions, great for storage. All the onions grew really well, easy to grow, cured well. Are very 'hot and spicy'.
Peas	Tall Telephone - OSC	A	Only grew one tower of peas this year but they produced really well, on long vines, for a long time. We had regular rain till July so they thrived.
Pepper	Golden CalWonder T&T	B	Plant did not get very tall this year, gave me 7 peppers so just a mediocre year. The peppers themselves were thick walled and sweet, tasty.
Pepper	Yummy Belles - RENEE	B	As above. Gave me 13 peppers, nice thick walls, tasty, but did not grow very tall, nor produce as much as I would have liked.
Pumpkin	Mini Mix - T&T	C	Only got one white mini this year. Yes, planted in the same poor soil as the cucumbers, but ugh! Just one!
Pumpkin	Howden - OSC	A	I got 5 lovely big pumpkins for Hallowe'en, plus a lot of small ones that I removed for time's sake.
Pumpkin	Musquee de Provence - OSC	D	Was a dud this year. Not one female flower, not one pumpkin.
Potatoes	Norland Red	A+	Grew well, were sweet and tasty. These are my favourite tasting spuds.
Potatoes	Jazz Banana	B+	Not as big as I would have liked but were nice and tasty.
Zucchini	Raven - RENEE	A+	Had a terrific zuke year.
Zucchini	Incredible Escalator - RENEE	A	Love the way this one grew. Keeps the p/m away as it is airier. Zukes grow straight and long as they are hanging from a trellis. Easier to see so can be picked before they become enormous.

* (HH=Heritage Harvest), (RENEE =Renee's Garden Seeds), ( T&T Seeds), (OSC Seeds)

Everything in the tall raised beds grew really well. They were/are amazing.

These were my main growing beds, where I grew the majority of the veggies. The beds were lasagna filled last fall (straw, twigs, branches, grape vines, leaves, garden clean up debris) and then topped with about 10 inches of compost this spring. The soil sank 6 or more inches this summer, as the lasagna stuff composted down. This did not affect the veggies at all, although most all of my companion flowers were hidden beneath the veg. The bees found them just fine, luckily. We have filled up the beds for next spring, ready to roll again.

The garlic, cucumbers, baby squash, beans, and peas, were all grown around the patio. The soil here is very poor, which affected how they grew. You know what they say, feed your soil to feed your plants... I'm working on it ; )

The covered tomato bed was a wild jungle of food. What a fun experience that was! Food and flowers everywhere. Here is the tomato seed score.

Tomatoes (Slicers)	B	Greenhouse	Did not produce a lot of tomatoes but were good size and tasty. Bloody Butcher.
Tomatoes (Slicers)	B	Raised Bed	Hidden by pumpkins so did not get enough light. Nice sized tomatoes, lots of them, but late.
Tomatoes (Pastes)	B	Raised Beds	Well. These were an enigma. They produced really well but only 1/3 ripened. No BER, all perfect. Heinz 2653 and Martino's Roma.
Tomatoes (Pastes)	B	Under Cover	Indeterminate paste tomatoes did not make as many tomatoes but they ripened. Elizabeth and San Marzano.
Tomatoes (Beefs)	B	Under Cover	Huge, lovely tomatoes, produced well. Pink Berkeley Tie Dye the clear winner for production and flavour.
Tomatoes (Beefs)	B	Greenhouse	As above. Lovely big tomatoes, all did okay, but the Pink Berkeley was the earliest and best producer.
Tomatoes (Cherries)	C	Greenhouse	I only grew the Red Fig this year as it was one of my favourites on the island. It fruited lots and well, ripened early, but the tomatoes were not sweet, were not good.
Tomatoes ( Cherries)	B	Under Cover	Another Red Fig tomato. This one was a bit sweeter but did not taste like they did on the island.

Tomato seeds = Yonder Hill Farm, TomatoFest, Baker Creek, Heritage Harvest, T&T Seeds. Here is the link to how and why I chose these tomatoes.

This year the tomatoes were a big trial to get to know where in this new yard to grow the best tomatoes. Tomatoes will grow and taste different in different climates. Not all the ones that grew well and tasted great on the island do so here on the prairies. For example, the Red Fig's that were so sweet and tasty there... not so sweet here. I will grow the Pink Berkeley Tie Dye again, the same pastes, but trial different slicers and more beefs next year. I'm going to lean heavier on Heritage Harvest Seeds as they are in a similar zone, but will always try new-to-me varieties, it's how I roll ; )

The Greenhouse - My most underutilized area this year, the part that needs more time on my part this fall and next spring. The greenhouse was basically neglected, ignored, certainly not used to it's full (of even half) potential. This is on my agenda to improve for next year.

What went wrong? The biggest issue was that the soil was very poor so nothing thrived. We got a poor batch of soil last fall. As an organic gardener, it is really hard to change things during the growing season as the mantra is to 'feed the soil, not the plant'. It is the entire foundation of organic agriculture, whether in a garden setting or a farm setting. So, once things were growing, other than an occasional water in with liquid seaweed or kelp, there was little to do and quite honestly, I gave up caring, hahaha. Pick your battles and all that.

The flowers were great this summer, both the zinnias and the potted plants. A+

The baskets were just okay - I give them a B+ this year.

The dahlias, however, were a bust. They were planted in the ground, beside the patio, where the soil was poor, so they did not thrive. They get a C this year.

Those potato beds (behind the potted plants) did okay, considering how shallow they are.

We moved those shallow beds to beside the fence and built news ones there that are deeper and a bit wider. This is where the zinnias will grow next year, some dahlias and cosmos, too.

The shallow potato beds were moved over to the fence line where they are open to the ground and will grow brassicas and who knows what next year. All the plants (flowers, cucumbers, mini squash) that were grown beside the patio, will be grown in these beds next year instead.

The bean tower was a big success. So many sweet, tender beans from this one bean tower.

The baby spaghetti squash from Renee's Garden Seeds grew so well, I will grow these again next year. They taste so great, too. Personal sized squash!

The baby spaghetti squash grew round on one vine and oblong on another. Both taste great though!

That was my first garden season in a nutshell. There were so many great moments, I can't possibly show them all, but it truly was a great and bountiful summer. I am already planning for next year.

Happy Garden Planning ~ Tanja