GARDEN 2015 - UPDATE 1

FROZEN - Not just a great movie, but, a garden as well.

Pine Tree Press | Garden Update

As expected the garden is frozen solid. The only sign of life, or previous life, is the broken down stems from the brussels sprouts plants - which are surprisingly still a vibrant green colour. With the daily temperatures hovering at around frostbite-in-one-minute levels there is no hope of anything growing. However, the recent cold snap has the citizens of the PUTP longing for the warm days of summer and the fresh things from the garden. This has inspired both a planning session for the 2015 garden and the analysis of the 2014 garden.

One sad looking brussels sprout plant

Still colourful...and possibly edible

These brussels sprouts have been put in the deep freeze

 

2014 Analysis

A first for the Place Under The Pines - a December harvest! Over two cups of brussels sprouts were picked off the still standing plants in early December. They were roasted up and eaten for dinner.

The brussels sprouts were one of the few plants to have any success this year. However, their total production did not get anywhere near expectations. Overcrowding is suspected to be the main cause of this underproductivity.

Two major stories tell how the 2014 garden did. 1) The Raspberry BOOM 2) The Zucchini ZOOM

2014 - BY THE NUMBERS

Raspberries: 13 - 42

As shown by the chart to the left, the production of raspberries skyrocketed (for lack of a better word), from 13 cups in 2013 to 42 cups in 2014.

An increase was expected due to the addition of some new canes, but, nothing this large. Based on previous years, this particular type of raspberry plant seems to peak in its third year. 2015 is the third year for a majority of the new plants, which has experts suggesting an even bigger haul this summer.

Zuchinni:  26 - 0

The truly tragic garden story of 2014 was the zucchini. Last year a record of 26 good sized zuch's were harvested. This year - zero (see chart to the left).
This is an unheard of number, where even five years ago when garden knowledge and plant care was very, very low, zuch's sometimes seemed to be the only thing that would grow.
Overcrowding was ruled as the problem. The 2014 garden was crammed past capacity as gardeners 'pushed the boundry' of recommended spacing between plants. Zucchini require space and sunlight. Both of which were restricted due to overplanting. One lone straggler flowered, but, the fruit rotted soon after as it pushed up against the boards boxing in the garden. 

The rest of the garden did produce at median to poor levels. Tomatoes were late this year and hit by frost, the early lettuce was delicious but it bolted quickly, beans grew but were not in high demand by many of the citizens, the eggplant died, and the strawberries grew very well but were tasteless and mealy. Again, the suspicion is that overcrowding and possibly poor soil conditions are to blame.

The plan for 2015 is to significantly scale back on the number of plants to prevent any overcrowding. Additional fertilizers, compost, and any manure that can be obtained will be added to the soil.

Suggestions for 2015 plants include:

• Carrots

That is it for suggestions so far. Feel free to send suggestions the Ministry of Urban Agriculture or comment below.

Hoping for more scenes like this next fall.

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