Reflecting back over this past year I can not complain about the garden.

 

Our family will be enjoying the harvest from the garden throughout the winter as the freezers, and cold room are full of vegetables that were grown in the garden. We had a bountiful crop and this in part was due to the weather, as well as the organic fertilizer that was placed on the garden in the spring. The organic fertilizer is something that we have been using for the past couple of years and will certainly do it again next spring.

 

 Another thing that we will do again next spring is plant the cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and brussel sprouts into 6-8 inch sized pots and then in mid to late June transplant them out of the pots and into the garden. This certainly prevented the plants from dying due to the maggots which attack the root system. By planting them into the garden later, we missed the cycle of time when the maggots normally would be active. Another suggestion would be to place a crop cover over the brassica's during this time preventing the flies from laying their eggs on the soil.

 

Crop covers are also an easy and organic way to prevent maggots/worms from infecting carrots. By placing the crop cover over the carrots early in the season you prevent the carrot rust fly from laying its eggs on the soil. The crop cover can come off in mid to late July when the fly is gone. I am thinking of doing this next season because when we harvested carrots this fall we noticed worms in some of the carrots. Usually you don't notice the damage until it is too late and nothing can be done, so by being proactive and placing the crop cover over the carrots in late May and June the problem should be remedied.

 

In the greenhouse at home this summer we planted some eggplants in large 5-7 gallon pots. These are the same pots that we use to grow our tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in. This was the first time we tried this and it was a great success. We grilled them on the barbeque and really enjoyed eating the freshly grown eggplant. Eggplants need a lot of heat and so the greenhouse was the perfect place to plant them. They should also do well outside in pots if they are placed in a southern location. The plant itself is a good looking plant with huge leaves and the shiny purple eggplants that hang off of it look like tasty jewels! We will certainly be growing eggplant again next year!

 

This fall when we were emptying out the outdoor flowering baskets and digging out the dracaenas (spikes) for next year I was thinking that there must be an easier way of saving the dracaenas from one year to the next. When we dig the dracaenas out we re-plant them in large grower pots and place them in the back greenhouse where the temperatures remain just above freezing and then in the spring take them out of the grower pots and replant them in the outdoor decorative containers. Another option would be to just bring in the entire outdoor container with the dracaenea growing in it and store it, but this can become very heavy, as well as take up more space. A third option which we will try at home next summer is to keep the dracaena in the grower pot and place it in the larger outdoor planter. First add some soil to the bottom of the outdoor planter so when the dracaena filled pot is placed in the larger container it is level with the top outside rim, and then fill the rest of the outdoor planter with soil. This way you can still plant geraniums, petunias, and other annuals in the outdoor planter and in the fall, all you have to do is pull out the annuals and take out the pot with the dracaena growing in it and store it over winter. This will be less stressful on the dracaena as well as the gardener who does not have to dig it out anymore. This should work and every few years we well transplant the dracaena into a larger pot when it becomes root bound.

 

If you had any successes, or failures in the garden this past year that you would like to pass along, please let us know.

 

We would like to wish everyone a very joy filled Christmas Season and may 2011 be as good or better than 2010!