Megan's Thoughts about the 2011 Garden

It's hard to believe that it is almost a year ago that Jennifer and I first began thinking about growing an heirloom garden. I remember the excitement around Christmas last year when we first thought of the possibility of growing heirlooms, and by March we already had our seeds ordered and delivered to us. Ever since mid-April, we've been growing those vegetables, babying our pepper and tomato plants in the beginning, and actually harvesting things like tomatoes and beets in late summer, and even harvesting pumpkins from the garden at the end of October.

For the most part, I agree with Jennifer's observations about the vegetables. I was disappointed with the patty pan squash as well, but I'm pleased we got at least one, and to be fair, it was probably just a bad year. Next year, however, I would like to plant zucchini in its place. I particularly like the looks of the Ronde de Nice, which you can find on the Cottage Gardener website. As for Jennifer's other observations, I pretty much agree with them all and I'm excited to see what next year holds for us with the growing.


The radishes were another thing I wasn't overly impressed by. Perhaps the most successful radish we grew was the French Breakfast radishes, and they were very pretty too, but they weren't all that productive, even if they grew slightly better than the others. Jennifer and I will be growing these again, just because we still have seeds, but I'm interested in trying other kinds of radishes too. I'm interested, for example, in something like the German Giant radish.


We also grew banana peppers and Crookneck squash, so even though they were just store-bought starter plants, it's worthwhile taking the time to mention them. I can honestly say both plants did very well and I would have nothing against planting them again if we ever have some extra space in the garden again. The Crookneck squash were particularly abundant. I think Jennifer and I might take a break from them though, to make room for some new varieties.

Although the garden is done now, Jennifer and I are going to try to keep up this blog throughout the winter, and keep you up-to-date on what our plans are for the growing season in 2012.

Thanks for reading!

Megan