On Sunday I planted 15 Roma Tomato plants using the same spacing as last year which seemed to work well. I mixed compost, lime pellets and fertilizer together and added a few trowels of it to each of the plants.

On Monday, Memorial Day, I rototilled the bed for the peppers, after scattering lime pellets and fertilizer on the surface. I had previously spread a bag of peat moss on the surface.

I planted the following:

• 8 Yellow Banana Peppers
• 8 Lady Bell Peppers
• 4 King Arthur Peppers
• 4 Valencia Peppers
• 4 Melrose Peppers
• 8 Gypsy Peppers

I planted a Marion Heirloom Tomato which finishes the Tomato planting. Also I planted some long-season Basil seeds in the herb garden by the deck and 9 Basil plants in the herb garden along the fence.

I had to work on Saturday, and the week had been so wet that I was only able to get a few Tomato plants in on Sunday. I planted 2 Heirloom Tomatillo Plants and a Park’s Whopper Hybrid and a Celebrity Hybrid.

Tomato Bed.

Home Depot was having a sale on their large vegetable plants, 5 for $10. which is about 50% off. It appears that the grower was overstocked because of the cold, wet spring.

So, I decided to do all large tomato plants this year, except for the Roma tomatoes, since I dry most of those and early harvest isn’t important.

Here’s what got planted:

• 2 Early Girl Hybrids
• 1 Big Boy Hybrid
• 1 Big Beef Hybrid
• 1 Heinz Super Roma Hybrid
• 1 Red Beefsteak Hybrid
• 2 German Queen Heirloom
• 1 Mr. Stripey Heirloom
• 1 Cherokee Purple Heirloom
• 1 Black Prince Heirloom
• 2 Lemon Boy Hybrids

Hot Pepper Bed

In the pepper bed by the back fence, I worked in manure and mushroom compost and planted:

• 4 Hot Hungarian Banana Peppers
• 4 Jalapeno Peppers

Leafy Greens after a couple weeks of growth.

I took Tuesday off to work in the garden, since the weather was nice and I am a couple of weeks behind in planting.

I cleaned up the leafy greens bed and spread 4 bags of manure and 4 bags of mushroom compost and some pelletized lime on the surface and then manually turned over the soil. I then rototilled the bed.

Here’s what got planted:

• 2 rows of spinach plants
• 3 rows of kale plants
• Arugula from seed
• D’Avignon long radishes from seed
• Easter Egg radishes from seed
• Lettuce Lolla Rosa from seed
• Pak Choi from seed
• Mustard greens from seed

Herb Garden off the deck.

I planted the Herb gardens this weekend, except for Basil, which from past experience shouldn’t go in until the end of May or beginning of June.

I worked a couple of bags of manure and mushroom compost and some lime pellets into the soil, since the b eds by the deck have been in use for a number of years.

By the deck I planted:

• Dill
• Thai Basil
• Oregano
• Rosemary
• Summer Savory
• Marjoram
• Parsley
• Curly Parsley
• Chocolate Mint

The Chives and Garlic Chives survived quite well, but my big Sage plant and the Oregano in the top planter didn’t survive, so I won’t plant either of those in this garden again. I’ll plant those in the new herb garden by the fence where they will have a better chance of survival.

I also planted two Cherry Tomato plants and two Grape Tomato plants in the pots by the deck.

In the herb garden by the fence, the Tarragon survived as well as a couple Sage plants. The two lovage plants that I planted from seed last year that took forever to germinate, are coming up strong and a few Dill plants are popping out.

I planted in that garden:

• 6 Oregano plants
• 6 Thyme plants
• 2 Sage plants
• 8 Swiss chard plants

Horseradish roots after a couple hours of washing.

It is fortunate that Easter is late this year, because with the lingering cold weather, I would never have gotten the Horseradish out of the ground if Easter had been much earlier. I did the digging on Holy Thursday and the weather was around 60 which made the digging and washing a little easier.

We did the grinding and bottling on Holy Saturday and again the weather was warm and fair so I was able to do the whole process on the deck which is definitely easier on the sinuses and the eyes.

Collard Greens & Kale, still going strong in Mid-November.

Collard Greens have a mild cabbage flavor and can be used almost anywhere you would use cabbage. We are coming up on Thanksgiving next week and as you can see, they are still doing well. This was one of the few bright spots in this year’s gardening effort.

I’ll have to work them into the Thanksgiving meal somehow.

I haven’t blogged much about the garden this summer as the harvest was fairly disappointing. The Arugula, radishes and lettuce in the spring started the season off well enough, but the rain and damp cloudy weather caused poor performance on the rest of the summer crops.

The tomatoes were all affected by fungus and other than the Romas, the yields were poor, as most of the plants are dead by now. The German Queen tomatoes produced a few really large flavorful tomatoes and should be a good variety for future years.

The peppers were the wost I’ve ever had with the plants developing to less than one half of their normal size. The banana peppers had acceptable yields, but green pepper yields were very poor with some plants not even producing one normal sized pepper..

The zucchini plants had a brief  burst of fruit before they finally gave up the ghost, but their season was only a few weeks.

Collards and kale did well. The Arugula lasted long, but the plants weren’t all that hearty. The lettuce Lolla Rosa yielded well and lasted a long time before bolting and getting bitter. planting it between the tomatoes was a bad idea as it was much slower to mature than what the seed packet stated and grass got mixed in with it and was impossible to control. It probably contributed to the demise of the tomato plants.

The maiche and other exotic greens barely germinated and didn’t do well. Planting the lettuce and arugula early didn’t really elp with an earlier crop as they really didn’t take off until the weather warmed up.

Even though the plants look terrible, the Roma tomatoes have yielded well. I picked several colanders full, and dried them in the oven. I froze the dried tomatoes and we’ll have them throughout the winter. I froze at least a dozen bags with at least a dozen halves per bag. This was one of the few bright spots in the garden this year.

The denser planting of the Romas worked out well and I’ll continue that in future years, even though the plants were almost dead as I harvested the tomatoes. The damp cloudy weather did all of the tomatoes in.

I picked four small Early Girl Tomatoes today. That’s about 73 days to maturity instead of the promised 53 days. The cold weather in June probably didn’t help. The rest of the tomatoes are still green, so it will be another August harvest.