November brings in Thanksgiving and the first snow.
I have a lot to be thankful for. As the year ends and we withdraw from the growing season it gives us time to think inwards and review the experiences we had over the past year and in the past in general.
The 2024 season was bountiful with just a few failures.
$1.00 a Seed Brussels Sprouts.
I wasn’t going to plant Brussels as no one really ate them. However, a request came late after I ordered a garden full of seeds. I had to go looking for Mart-L and find a vendor who still carried them. They were pricy, additionally, so was the shipping. The cost was over 20 bucks for 24 seeds. Luckily all but one germinated. The cost came out to be about a dollar a seed. After three years of experimenting the best variety to plant in NH, in our soil, is Mart-L. Look for varieties that tout 1 1/2″ sprouts.
A memorable harvest – the tomato row.
We constructed three giant tripods with a crossbar and grew the vines (indeterminate) up a nylon string. The Dr. Wytch’s did great as usual. New to this year was the Hogs Heart Paste and Bonny Best. Bonny being nicely shaped and somewhat abundant and the hogs less susceptible to blossom end rot. Yellow brandywine did well as red did ok. Disappointing was the purple cherokee I heard so much about. There was a good harvest but there was a lot of cracking
First Year Cauliflower
PLanted Robber variety and did well in both MA and NH. Initial planting don’t in spring and used shade cloth throughout hot days. After first harvest I pulled the plants and replanted remaining plants left in cells/small pots in shade. Next year the plan should be to plant from the cells every two weeks, unless I want to freeze or pickle and need a large harvest.
Good Mother Pole Beans
The experiment was to see how many dried beans we could harvest and store. The vines grew over ten feet before flowering but eventually produced two and a half quarts of dried beans on about 6-7 plants. Next year I plan to double the row size for the bean.
Mellons
We grew three varieties: Minnesota midget – did well, Kajari (an Indian melon with orange flesh)- not planting again, and watermelon. Minnesota averaged about 8 inches round, though the varmints chewed a few. The watermelon did well with several small and one much larger than a basketball. The problem is that when fully ripe we’re well into September/October and no one has a carving for watermelon. I would try again if I had the space, and start the plants indoors then transfer to hoop house before setting in the garden. Melons and cukes ideally should be planted into the ground no earlier than June here in NH.
Everything else did OK. I could have done better on the beets, which were planted in succession of the potato row, if I had been more attentive to trapping out the voles. We could use a couple of cats or try harder to attract birds of prey.
Thanksgiving Harvest
On our menu this year we had potatoes: red maria and Katadin mash-up, butternut, Brussels sprouts picked fresh from the garden, onions, celery (fresh for the garden) in the stuffing, and, pumpkin pie made from frozen puree. We probably could have had wild turkey if it was turkey season, as there was a group of eight wandering around. Soon we hope that the apple trees will start producing.
