Merry Christmas to whomever may end up reading this.
This is my first post since July. The family is in a lull from post-present hysteria while the kids are playing with toys and whatnot so I figured I'd try to do a post for a change.
This year was WET. Just for reference, as of late November Baltimore had received 22" of rain over the yearly average and had broken the previous record for rainfall established in 2003. We've had more rain and a little snow since then.
We also didn't get a ton of heat. Our typical summer alternates between very dry and marginally wet, but extremely hot and humid throughout. Although we had temps over 80 pretty reliably, we generally didn't spend a lot of time in the mid/upper 90's (as is typical) until August.
Garden
Tomatoes
Unfortunately, our tomatoes were very sad this year. Last year Wifey did a lot of canning of tomatoes; this year was the opposite. Thankfully, we were able to harvest a few of her grandfather's heirloom tomatoes. We saved seeds from those.
We learned we didn't like the Black Vernissage tomatoes. Too hard to figure out whether they were ripe or not.
Beans
The purple pole beans did quite well this year. We saved seeds from them to reuse for next year. Thankfully, I planted them relatively early this year allowing them to get reasonably established before the deluge began. They were a real topic of conversation at the farm market and at the farm stand where we "tithed" veggies.
The green beans really struggled, however. I planted the entire gallon bag of seeds I'd accumulated from the previous year with most rotting in the ground. I should have considered mounding the soil up where I would plant them for better drainage. This practice is recommended in a book I have about gardening in Colonial Williamsburg (VA). I ended up getting quite a few beans, but they weren't as prolific as if even a majority of the beans had grown.
Cantaloupe
I built a small arbor for them to climb at some point. They did, but all the rain eventually rotted the roots as well as the single cantaloupe that reached harvesting-size. Worth trying again.
Tomatillos
The tomatillos were pretty prolific despite all the rain. We harvested a lot of them and Wifey was able to make a few batches of tomatillo salsa for our tacos al pastor. Very enjoyable! Worth growing again.
Pumpkins
The baking pumpkins turned out reasonably well. They vined out aggressively which eventually became somewhat invasive. We harvested about 6 pumpkins which made for good pumpkin bread. Worth growing again in a smaller number particularly if I could figure out a way to trellis them.
Peanuts
The peanuts grew somewhat, but rotted in the ground. Not really worth growing again.
Cucumbers
The Edmonson cucumbers are really strange-looking. It wasn't obvious from the catalog pictures. Although they were a decent size, they didn't have a ton of flavor. Probably better to try another variety. We were able to barter some at the farm market, though.
Peppers
Once again, the bell peppers didn't do anything. For one, they were shaded mightily by the tomatillos. The rainfall couldn't have helped, either.
Wifey planted two starters of jalopenos in the front bed. They did quite well. Don't know why.
Okra
Holy cow did we get a lot of okra. Wifey fried some and we froze quite a bit to go in soup or jumbalaya. I also saved a lot of seeds from when I was pulling out the plants.
Strawberries
Our strawberries really didn't do
much. Possibly due to all the rainfall. We're not sure they're worth
the space they're taking up.
Orchard/Yard
Pear
We only ended up with a single pear this year. We got a lot of rainfall right after the flowers came out. As a result, most of the flowers came off the tree. The single pear was a good one, though.
Figs
Once again, no figs we could harvest. We did end up with some very small ones toward the end of the season. I'll chalk it up to having to regrow all the above-ground growth due to last year's extremely cold winter.
Apples
We didn't harvest any apples this year. Similar to the pears, we lost a lot of flowers due to rainfall. The few apples we did get had a number of rot spots.
Blueberries
We were able to get some blueberries this year. Not a ton because the bushes are still small, but some. The deer nibbled on some of the new growth reminding me that I need to cage those plants in.
Peaches
We bought two peach trees for the orchard. Unfortunately, I didn't put up deer netting in time. They ate all but three of the peaches on the trees as well as lower vegetation. The peaches that survived rotted on the trees.
Persimmon
We bought and planted a persimmon tree
this year. I put up deer netting as soon as I lost the peaches so the persimmon fruit was saved from the deer. I lost a few of them due to rot, however, we were able to
harvest and eat 3 or so. Tasty.
Quince
Wifey saw someone online was giving away quince plants. We took them off his hands. I'm not sure if one or both survived the transplant. We'll see in the spring, I suppose.
Kiwi
I built the structure for a kiwi arbor and bought 6 kiwi starters. Unfortunately, all but one of them died. I'll retry the experiment in the spring.
Mulberry
I bought two mulberry starters. Each is quite small, but seem to have made it through the rainy year.
Elderberry
I bought three elderberry starters. One was assaulted by tent caterpillars (which traveled from nearby black walnut trees), but seems to have survived.
Raspberries
We got a very few raspberries this year. The canes are all still getting established. Interestingly enough, the ones I got from a friend at work are sending out volunteers nearby. Great news!
Inherited Peach Tree
We learned that the dwarf peach tree we inherited when we purchased the house is some sort of Korean variety. A woman at our old church was very excited when she learned what it was and made some sort of peach "wine" out of it.
Inherited Japanese Dogwood
We have learned that an unknown variety of dogwood in the front is actually a "Japanese Dogwood" or "Kousa Dogwood." The fruit (which it grows in abundance) are edible, apparently. Unfortunately we didn't learn this until the tail end of the fruiting season.
Hickory
Technically not a fruit, but regardless I'll write it up here. No hickory nuts this year. From some reading I did the other day, I've learned that hickory trees generally don't produce nuts except for every other year.
Black raspberries
There are some residual inherited black raspberry canes by the woods line here and there. We got no fruit this year. I'm not sure if it's because of the rain, because we'd never pruned them (until this fall), or something else. We'll see what next year brings.
