Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Garden Trials (and Tribulations)

I have a confession.  I am a terrible garden planner.  Actually, I'm a pretty good planner, it's the execution where my skills are lacking.  I always end up with way too many seedlings and have to abandon my well thought-out garden plan just to fit everything in.  


This year I decided to call it research.  I planted everything we had to conduct my own garden trial - to determine which varieties do well for us and which ones just aren't worth the trouble.


We ended up with 18 varieties of heirloom tomatoes and six varieties of peppers, among other things, and the preliminary results are in.

Costa Rican Pepper



Alma Paprika Pepper



San Marzanos - lots of blossom end rot



Cherokee Purple



Brandywine Pink



Heirloom white cucumber


Speckled Roman - several plants are affected by blight



Summer Squash - borer got one plant so far (fingers crossed on the others)



Figs



Tomatillos



Red Pear Tomatoes - first harvest on the third try



Nasturtiums - nope, I haven't tried them yet!