Happy New Year to all.
Each year, the seed catalogs begin rolling into the mailbox in December. I use the holiday period to begin planning my garden and generally start ordering in January. In this posting, I'll let you know what changes I'm making to my garden plan for 2011.
A Mix Shift:
In the past, I've concentrated most of my gardening efforts on vegetables. These efforts have resulted in an annual surplus that I've canned or frozen. Since I have the luxury of gardening in a greenhouse in the winter, I have the opportunity to reduce my summer vegetable production and shift the space to something else.
In 2011, I'm going to do just that; as an experiment, I'm going to try some small-scale grain farming and also devote more space to growing potatoes. Here's what new in the mix shift:
More Grains and Potatoes:
- Overwintered Hulless Oats - I planted a small amount of hulless oats in the Fall. These should provide a harvest in June.
- Hulless Barley - Barley is a very fast maturing grain. I love it in soups and will plant a small amount in mid-March with the hope of a harvest at the end of May.
- Flint Corn - Everyone loves sweet corn and I'll be planting plenty of that in 2011. But for the first time, I will also try growing a flint corn variety called Longfellow. This is an heirloom variety that goes back to colonial times. Planted at the end of May, I hope to have a small harvest of corn which can be ground to make fresh tortillas in September.
- Potatoes - I had good luck with Irish potatoes in 2010, but my first attempt to grow sweet potatoes was a disaster. Last year was unusually cold and my sweet potatoes also got hammered by a cold snap that resulted in a small and sad harvest. While we may not have quite the same cold summer in 2011, I think our cool Northern California nights will never be ideal for sweet potatoes. I may try these again in the future, but for 2011, I'm going to turn over the space to several varieties of Irish potatoes including:
- Maris Piper - the traditional potato for fish and chips but also makes great mashed or baked potatoes.
- Yellow Finn - a buttery flavored main season potato.
- All Blue - a deep blue colored potato. I think the kids will love them!
- German Butterball - a storage potato that is a Rodale Gardening favorite
Fewer Squash:
Last year, I tried many new varieties. All were good but they produced more squash than the family could really use. In 2011, I'll grow both fewer varieties and less plants.
- Whats Out:
- Black Futsu - This is a good squash with a meatier texture than others. I found it to be only a moderate producer.
- Blue Hubbard - a total loss for me in 2010 due to the weather and powdery mildew.
- Scallop Sunny Delight - I like this variety that normally produces large quantities of yellow patty pan squash, but I find it to be very subject to powdery mildew and I would rather substitute Zucchino Rampicante as my summer squash variety.
- Waltham Butternut - produces delicious, sweet squash but I'm going to try a hybrid variety called Metro PMR as a replacement due to powdery mildew problems.
- The keepers......
- Boston Marrow - a lovely squash for roasting or for "pumpkin" pie. Sadly an easy casualty to powdery mildew. I'll grow just one of these in 2011. If it survives, one will be more than enough; last year I harvested a 28 pound monster squash from one plant.
- Glaeuax D'eysines - a delicate squash with an almost cantaloupe-like perfume. Not a high producer, but worth having in the garden. Also susceptible to powdery mildew
- Zuchinno Rampicante - My favorite new vegetable of 2010. This squash produces in abundance and can be used as both a summer and winter squash. If I could only grow one variety, it would be this one.
- Metro PMR - This is a hybrid butternut variety that is resistant to powdery mildew. Powdery mildew was a major problem for me in 2010 and so I'm going to give this hybrid a shot in 2011 to increase my yield. This is my back up in case the above more sensitive varieties take a hit.
- Cornell's Bush Delicata - a nice small sized squash that's also resistant to powdery mildew.
More Tomato Varieties But Fewer Plants of Each:
Many of my neighbors last year got relatively few tomatoes due to an unseasonably cool summer. I fared better because of my greenhouse but had trouble with blossom end rot and cracking - both of which are caused by temperature stress to the tomato plants. I'm keeping most of the varieties I planted last year so I can better evaluate which ones I want to keep on my list for the long-term.
Here's what's "out" in 2011:
- Oregon Spring is a tomato variety that was bred to handle cooler temperatures and produced tomatoes in a short amount of time. This variety did as promised, but I was really not impressed by the flavor. In my opinion, they are not much better than what can be purchased at the super market.
- Cherokee Purple - This is a good variety that I would grow again, but my tomato choices in 2010 were so skewed to "black" tomatoes like Japanese Trifele and Paul Robeson that I'm dropping one black tomato variety and adding some other colors for variety. I'm also going to grow fewer of each plant in favor of adding more varieties.
- Black Cherry - gone for the reason mentioned above, but a good producer that I would recommend if you want a cherry style tomato.
The repeats for 2011 include:
- Brandywine - I'm going to try the Liam's strain of this variety since it is said to be a heavier producer.
- Tomato Riesentraube - tons of delicious cherry tomatoes.
- Japanese Trifele - a huge producer of delicious black tomatoes.
- Snowberry - one of my favorites of last year, this variety produces yellow/white cherry tomatoes with a nice balance of sweet and acid.
- Paul Robeson - great flavor and good production make this one to keep. I did find it was very susceptible to cracking.
- Black Krim - a delicious black tomato.
New tomatoes for 2011:
- Stupice - an early heirloom variety that is my replacement for Oregon Spring.
- Green Zebra - these take 100-110 days to mature but are well regarded by many gardeners and so I'm going to give them a try.
- Arkansas Traveler- A red heirloom that's over 100 years old. Known to be good in hot weather.
- Wapsipinicons Peach - A yellow heirloom from Iowa.
- Cosoluto Fiorentino- A Tuscan heirloom tomato that is less well ribbed than Cosoluto Genovese and is reputed to have both high acid and high sugar content.
- Bonnie's Best - a canning type tomato.
- Defiant - a very hardy and resistant hybrid from Johnny's Selected Seed that I'm planting as an insurance policy against another year of bad weather. I'm sure this will not be a stellar tomato, I'm hoping for "good enough."
- Orange Icicle - an heirloom variety from Russia that is new this year from Baker Creek.
Cucumbers:
Last year, I grew three varieties of cucumbers - Beit Alpha, an all purpose cuke, Delikatesse a large pickling variety and Hmong Red, a huge orange specialty cucumber that I grew for fun. Only Beit Alpha will be a repeat for me in 2011. I found this thin skinned, middle eastern cucumber to be a total pleasure; Beit Alpha produces large quantities of sweet cucumbers that have so thin a skin that they don't need to be peeled.
Out:
- Hmong Red - this is a very unusual variety that produces a very large, sour tasting, orange/red cucumbers. Last year, I posted about a lovely summer cooler that I made with this variety. But it is not a slicing or a pickling cucumber that will work well in more traditional recipes. This is something that I might add back into the mix in the future, but it's not going to be a staple in my garden. Out for 2011.
- Delikatesse - This German heirloom did well for me in 2010 but I want try some other varieties.
New Cucumbers for 2011:
- Solly Beiler - a cucumber variety from the 1930, this little cuke was developed by Amish preacher Solly Beiler. These are generally harvested small and made into pickles.
- Fin De Meaux- an heirloom French cucumber that is used to make cornichon, those adorable little pickles that get served with pate.
Other Casualties in 2011:
- Watermelon - The cool summer made growing watermelon a challenge but I did get a few pretty mediocre melons. No one liked these melons and they ended up in the compost bin. Given the space requirements, I'd rather turn the real estate over to my grain trials.
- White Icicle Radish - OK but I like Saxa and French Breakfast better.
- Purslane - Not interesting enough in my opinion.
In a future posting, I'll provide a full list of the varieties in my 2011 garden.
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