Garden Recap 2010

Delicious Amarillo Carrot!!

This garden year started with a bang. Remember the notorious skunk incident of 2010?? How could you forget! Yes, I started out trying to evict the pesky ground hogs from the Groundhog Love Shack that is our shed. I ended up accidentally capturing a skunk. This triggered many events, in no particular order: panic, despair, calls to the fish and game department, trusty internet research, more panic and despair, long debates about whether I should try the sheet method recommended by the F & G guy or try and, uh, 'dispatch' it, my brother-in-law requesting front row seats for said event, calls to various pest control operations, Dog the Bounty Hunter showing up to remove the skunk, an unhappy husband at the cost of removing said skunk, and Dog the Bounty Hunter going AWOL with my borrowed trap, which he returned after over a month of incessant calling. We later got rid of our groundhog problem which has been nice! I only found one tomato with teeth marks the entire season. After that saga, it could only get better, right? Things went well this year in the garden. I planted cabbage for the first time, and I got a few heads of cabbage out of it. Next year I will plant it earlier so that all my plants will produce!


The tomatoes and peppers did pretty well this year. I planted orange, yellow, purple, green and of course, red varieties. I have discovered that the Green Zebra tomato is one of my favorite tomatoes ever. I babied a Brandywine plant that didn't want to grow, and it produced one lone, but incredibly delicious, tomato. Violet Jasper? Well, they look cool and taste gross. I won't be planting them again. Now my freezer and cabinets are full of roasted green chiles, pickled peppers, salsa, dried tomatoes, canned tomatoes, frozen tomatoes, and even my very own.....homegrown and homemade ketchup! (I realize making my own ketchup from tomatoes I grew myself puts me in the 'that-lady-needs-to-get-a-life' category, but I really wanted to a) try it, and b) have ketchup that doesn't have a ton of sugar/corn syrup) Its been a fun year of experimenting with new things. I have tried fall planting this year, with kale, cabbage, radishes, and spinach. We'll see how those go. Last year, I grew 117 pounds worth of veggies. This year, my goal was 200 pounds. So far I am at 214 pounds!! (Yes, I weighed everything. And yes, I am sort of nerdy that way) Next year I think I might hope to hit 300 pounds. I better start planning now. That's half the fun!