End-of-Season wrap up: recap your year

~NB~

What did you plant?

What worked?

What didn't?

What will you do next year?

My garden underwent a major renovation this year. Most of my plants are new installations.

Summer was ALL ABOUT WATER, trying to get everything established.

I grew one patio tomato in a large pot. I got my moneys worth, then it became a headache (blight or something). I also successfully established a lawn, but have no plans to keep it (I plan to lay stone and build a patio).

Looking ahead, I'm most interested in how many of my tropicals will survive winter here in zone 7. Some of them are killed outright by the temperatures or winter rot. Then, I want nothing more than beginning the stone work.

+j+k+

It was hot. My garden suffered and did not produce. Hoping for a tad cooler and wetter year in 2012. The end.

TootsieK

We went through a huge landscaping project last fall, so this year was mostly about seeing what came back and did well from those plantings. 

These things came back really well: Knockout roses, Rozanne geranium, catnip (too well), daylilies, gaura, dianthus, periwinkle, speedwell.  Did okay: liriope, cupid's dart, bachelor button, monarda, campanula "Cherry bells."  Hmm: my 6-year-old clematis which still has never bloomed.

Perennials and annuals planted this year: Silver Mound artemisia (which struggled because of all our rain); cleome (I didn't know it smells like skunk!), French lavender, snapdragons, hosta transplants from a friend, six rhododendrons, two dogwoods.

Next year we'll continue clearing our overgrown woods and fill any holes in the flower beds.  I'm hoping the periwinkle will continue to thrive and make a healthy groundcover in an un-mowable patch.

nitaw

What did you plant?

Flowers: Vinca, marigolds, zinnia, lantana,  petunias, summer snapdragon.

Raised Beds: Peppers (Jalapeno, Hot Banana, and Marconi)

Tomatoes: Roma and Early Girl

Okra: Clemson Spineless

Squash

CucumbersWhat worked?The summer snapdragon (Angelonia)  was an instant hit for me. It held up very well in my full sun flower bed and produced blooms like crazy. It needed NO special attention from me. And it was fabulous in flower arrangements. I will certainly buy it again.

Okra, and Roma tomatoes did well. I still have some Romas producing now. I hope to harvest them Friday as we have a cold front coming in that might bring some frost. 

Cukes and Squash did well until the bugs got them. I hate bugs.  

What didn't?Petunias are the devil. I hate them. They simply don't work in my front garden. I don't have time to trim them back for a new flush of blooms. Once I plant it, it needs to be ok on its own with minimal attention. So, I'm over petunias and I will NOT be planting them again. 

Marconi Peppers didn't really produce, nor did the Early girl tomatoes. I think the heat was the culprit.

What will you do next year?True grape tomatoes. I was disappointed that the tomatoes were mislabeled and I got Romas instead of the grape roma variety.Summer Snapdragon (Angelonia) is coming back next year. Beautiful plant and easy to care for. Winner! 

WendyGR

After a successful vegetable garden last year, I was so disappointed when our new beds didn't work out. we added some new ones and they didn't get as much sun as I'd hoped. Also even though the dirt was sold as a compost mix for gardens I think I should have added some actual compost to it.

Some of my seeds never came up which was kind of a bummer. Next year I think I'll do more from plants or start them indoors. 

juno

We've been renovating inside, so I didn't plant much at all.  Some carrots, some lettuce, a few roma tomatoes and peppers.  Everything else is established, so it was mostly just watering occasionally. 

The apples just wouldn't stop coming, and the lemons FINALLY started producing after 5 years.  But we skipped summer (again), so I didn't get much produce out of the peppers and tomatoes. 

Next year, I hope to build a raised bed for my veggies with a chicken wire bottom (for golphers) and a copper border around the top (for slugs/snails).  It took me for.fvcking.ever to get any lettuce or carrot starts because of the slugs and snails, even with mounds of Sluggo.  I also hope to rip out our front sidewalk strip.  The native beach strawberries did a little too well out there.  They overgrew everything else and don't look particularly nice (just overgrown).  I'm thinking elfin or wooly thyme. combined with some more lavender.

ootmother2

You have to understand that I'm just working with a city patio, about 8 x 30 so what I plant is limited.  I do have full sun from sunrise until almost 2 PM.

My basil was incredible. Must be a weed because it grew no matter what the weather was.   Give it water, it grows.

Mint grew very well.  Unfortunate that it was an experiment and I had no use for it.  No mojitos here ;(

Tomatoes, so so.  I thought I had purchased beefsteak and they turned out to be cherry tomatoes that didn't produce fruit until a couple weeks ago.  They were well worth the watering, gettting rid of fungi and fussing over.  They're still producing, we haven't had a freeze yet and it's in the low 60s today.

Flowers were a disaster.  I planted too late, only inpatience (sp) and some stalk purple flowering plant.  One planter bloomed, the others died.

I think  will try again next year.  I've only been trying for 2 years so this may work yet!

goldenjes

What did you plant (or build, in my case)?

For eating:  6 varieties of squash, eggplant, 12 tomato plants (7 types), heirloom purple carrots, regular carrots, several lettuce varieties, 6 pepper varieties, 3 basil types, 4 new mint varieties, 2 rosemary plants

Other:  we did foundation beds along the back wall of the house (W/NW facing) which is where the herbs grew.  For the most part, that worked ok.  Need to add some evergreen & flowering perennials next year -- unless I'm plant sitting my MIL's massive geranium collection again.  (Those looked amazing in my beds)

We just finished a 20' flagstone path by the driveway in front, which looks good & hopefully will hold up when the heavy snow melts this week.

We are mid-way through two 20' retaining walls in front (first course or two is laid) and need to finish those before the ground freezes, and plant the winter rye seed on dirt.  Also finish planting the xeric shrubs in the newly-made bed in front, and 2 more red twig dogwoods if I can find anymore.

What worked/didn't?

Tomatoes:  The Romas weren't great - I only got 2 buckets from 4 plants.  The Sungold plant only yielded ~10 tomatoes.  The Supersweet cherry tomatoes went crazy - we couldn't keep up, and I'm making sun dried tomatoes with the rest.  The Early Girl and 4th of July varieties also did great.  The Juliet plants barely produced anything, which I usually use for making sun dried tomatoes.

Peppers:  Habaneros:0  Jalapenos:15  Anaheim:12 -- one plant each.   "Fooled You" (2 plants): about 20 total.  Small sweet peppers: 8 per plant (3 plants).  Chocolate beauty bell peppers: 9 (one plant)

Carrots:  Heirloom purple: 0  Regular: 7  (not good)

Lettuce: Not great, even early in the year.  A couple spinach, some butter crunch, and 3 romaine.

Zucchini:  5 (one plant)

Squash:  Buttercup: 20? (went crazy, took over garden)   Butternut: 0  Pink Banana: 1- 34 lbs! and another baseball bat sized.  Pumpkins:2 (for show only)   Acorn:6  Spaghetti:5

Eggplant: 0 - finally produced tiny fruit around frost time.

The basil varieties did great.  I loved the cuban & boxwood basil plants because I they were tasty & so easy to use.  Small leaves=no cutting. 

The chocolate & apple mint did great (choc is amazing in fruit salad), but the mint julep died.

What will you do next year?

Build raised beds for peppers, lettuces, eggplant, peas, carrots, etc.

Grow the buttercup squash in back & let it go up the fence.

Make sure the Romas have better sun exposure.

Major project:  demolish cement walkway in front and extend the flagstone path.  Possibly build front porch & move existing roses

pdxmouse

This is long, but I'm saving it for my gardening diary this year. Sorry! 

What did you plant?

Edibles: tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, chard, beets, peas, lettuce, chives, basil, sage, oregano, nasturtium, strawberries, broccoli, ground cherry, mint

Ornamentals: lavender, cosmos, snapdragons, wallflower, salvia, clematis, maiden's tears, love-lies-bleeding, sunflowers, fuchsia, begonia, oriental poppies, ajuga, a flat of aubrieta from the discount bin, a few groundcovers that didn't take

What worked?

Tomatoes. We only got a handful last year, so this year I packed the beds with 12 varieties. Even with a wet year and a nasty bit of blossom end rot, we were still chasing down the neighbors with bags. (And they chased us down with their grapes, winning!)

Direct sowing. I had a horrible time with doing my own starts indoors, so I was doubtful. So easy (as long as I watered and it was warm). I did everything that doesn't require a greenhouse that way.

For the ornamentals I focused mostly on direct-sow annuals. We're working on a project in the back, so I only had time to fill in a bit around the edges. Luckily I got the bones in last year so it didn't look too shabby.

I tried plants I generally think of as old-fashioned (cosmos, fuchsia, begonia) and found I love them.  

I am in love with ajuga under my rambling rose. I'm going to find more places to put groundcovers.

What didn't?

I am not in love with said rambling rose. I didn't plant it and it doesn't seem to be disease resistant. Spraying in the PNW is pointless too. It has one more chance before I rip it out.

My eggplants needed more sun. And probably water. Maybe extra fertilizer too. Sigh. Such a finicky, delicious plant. 

I have a dry partial sun area that I cannot water easily that needs a groundcover. I also need to make a list of everything I've tried there so I don't keep repeating mistakes. I've tried corsican mint twice at least.

I had good results with direct sow, but a few missteps. Some of the early season stuff drowned in our unusually wet spring. Then I held off a little long before I tried again. So the sunflowers won't have time to form seeds, for instance.

The chard and beet bed has a bad case of leaf miners. The only cure seems to be to leave it fallow and hope for a harsh winter  

What will you do next year?

Finish the project in the back so I can start getting plants in there already. Although I'm kind of glad I had the extra planning time, I think I might have discovered a garden design technique that will work for me; rather than coming up with one monumental cohesive whole, divide the beds into a series of vignettes. I can do that, that's what I did without a plan (so wrong) in the front and I love 80% of it.

In the front there's a bed that comprises most of the unliked 20%. It needs structure and less bulbs. Which means I need to clear out more room for the bulbs I'm moving. Which might just mean an entirely new unliked 20%.

Less tomatoes. More attention to harvesting. More ground cherries. More attention to when to sow seeds (ie go by the weather report as well as the packet). More attention to what we actually eat. I'd like to try potatoes.

I'd like to put a path through the front. Nothing fancy, just a little walkway to divide up the beds. Right now three of them kind of blur together. 

-auntie-

~NB~:

What did you plant?

I did only a couple of pots near my front door. I bought them as hanging baskets, sight unseen by a kid raising funds for an earth slide Eagle Project. This was the year after a re-do of my front beds, so it was more about maintnance.

What worked?

My new knockout roses finally came into their own. The deer had been feasting last year and nearly destroyed them. My older peonies were fabulous. My black eyed Susans, mums, clematises and coneflowers rocked. My stewartia is doing well as is my Magnolia "Jane".

I was able to ward off deer using the old Dial soap under a perforated cup trick. It wrked well. I tried the cat droppings method last year which made my front entrance garden stink.

What didn't?

Backing off the Scott's lawn system to use less chemicals resulted in a crappy looking lawn. I will be doing the fall tx as soon as my snow is gone. I will also add more lime to sweeten the soil.

I planted a couple perrenial daisy varieties that never came back.

I hired a  recommended landscaper to clean the beds which was nice, but I think his men pulled my new peonies as weeds. And they trimmed my magnolia after I asked them to leave it alone. Grrr.

I turned lawn mowing over to DS, he's doing better but it was pretty awful in the early going.

What will you do next year?

I'll have the landscaper lay mulch only.

Hopefully I will get better flowers from the scouts. Last year they were an amazing assortment, this year they were a sort of Wandering Jew/tiny petunia mess.

pdxmouse

-auntie-:

My new knockout roses finally came into their own. The deer had been feasting last year and nearly destroyed them. My older peonies were fabulous. My black eyed Susans, mums, clematises and coneflowers rocked. My stewartia is doing well as is my Magnolia "Jane".

I remember the time the deer "trimmed" my moms roses. They came back so lush the next year she wasn't all that sad it happened. 

 

-auntie-:

I hired a  recommended landscaper to clean the beds which was nice, but I think his men pulled my new peonies as weeds. And they trimmed my magnolia after I asked them to leave it alone. Grrr.

I keep thinking about this every time my husband suggests we hire someoen to come in and help with the spring clean-up. I would be livid.

lmdbww

I did an interesting experiment this year with impatiens from two different plant nurseries. I watered and fertilized the same amount, and one flat that I got from a nursery that I normally go to were total duds. The other 2 flats got humongous and were bigger than my boxwoods!

The only new plantings that I did this year were coreopsis (which did beautifully). Otherwise I just split and moved a bunch of things that I already had. 

I also tried a tomato plant in a planter and it was a dud. I got maybe 6 good tomatoes off of it and they were small (even though the tag said beefsteak!).

Sadly we might be moving, so i'll be starting over with my gardens. This is the only thing I am sad about, i've put 8+ years of blood, sweat, and tears into them!