My 2024 Veggie Garden

Gardens

It was the year of Tomatoes. 

My first Roma Tomatoes.

Well, we won’t start there.

Spring of 2024  I planted 3 types of Tomatoes, Pot-a-Peno Peppers, 2 kinds of Lettuce, Green Onions, Bean, Peas, Cucumbers, and harvested my best Garlic yet.

Getting ready to make fresh Salsa. Lemonboy Tomatoes, Roma Tomatoes, Pot-a-peno Peppers, Garlic, all from the garden.

My Beans and Peas were complete failures, so strange.  Been growing both successfully for about 10 years.  I did try new varieties, but I think in the end maybe just too much sun in their new location. 

Pot-a-peno Peppers go outside a little later when the nights are warm so had to get creative about finding sunny indoor spaces. Had to hand polinate the plants since no bees in the house.

Cucumbers I’ve never done well with but managed to get a few decent specimens this year.  Also, a new variety. 

Diva Cucumbers.
One of the indoor spaces for seedlings.

The Peppers did fantastic so I think next year I will add a second variety.  My Dad has put in a request for Hungarian Peppers so will see what I can do.  Found a new favorite Lettuce, Buttercrunch.  I think it’s the same as the Boston Lettuce you get at the supermarket.  Anyway, a winner.  Spinach I’ve had no success with at any point so just won’t try again.  Green Onions are so easy and great for salsa.  Definite keeper.

Buttercrunch Lettuce…my new fave.
I raise things up so the dogs won’t pee on them and the rabbits who sneak under the fence don’t eat my greens.

There are so many awesome local farmers to buy from in the summer (check out my friend Noah at New Caledonia Farm) there is no sense fooling around with things that don’t work in your own garden.  I’m not a farmer as much as I joke around so for me, I just want to plant a few things that require little effort and produce well in my plot.

First time I covered the Garlic with straw and it worked great.
Garlic scapes are lovely in stirfrys.

So, Tomatoes, oh my.  For some reason I decided to try Roma.  Well, they sure were eager to please!  One packet of seeds turned into hundreds of Tomatoes for me, as well as healthy producing plants for about 6 friends and neighbours. 

I underestimated how much support indeterminate tomatoes would need. Kept trying to add more stakes and tying plants up with string. It really was like a part time job this year! But so fun.

When they first started to sprout, I figured if I had too many plants, I would just sell a few plants.

This is a very small sampling of my seedlings. Totally lost control of my plantings.

People don’t want their plants until the first full moon in June when they can put them in the garden it turns out.

So started to desperately turn people into gardeners, whether they were willing or not.

Then I realized I did not have enough containers for the plants I was keeping.  Oh yeah, remember I also had two other varieties to find space for.

Decided I needed a box planter built but was short on cash. 

The planter box is fantastic. I lined the bottom with dead branches that were starting to soften up and some topsoil from the yard and then used good potting soil and compost for the top layers.

Since I ended up with about 400 tomatoes, the cost of lumber and soil has paid off already!

Tiger Lilies and Tomatoes. Love mixing veggies into my flowers.

I learned a lot about Tomatoes. I had only grown determinate varieties in the past, mostly Cherry tomatoes, and this time I planted two indeterminate varieties from seed. They sure do grow big! One of the things I learned is to plant them a little later, and when they are ready to put in the soil they have to be planted very deep. These are basically all roots that I left exposed. It all turned out just fine but will be great to refine the process next time.

All these little sprouts at the bottom are basically roots and should have been planted deeper.

I ripened a lot of them in the window to keep a step ahead of the earwigs. My first ripe tomato had an earwig inside it so I immediately pruned them back and every morning did an earwig check. I figured out what it looked like when they had laid eggs and picked them off every morning. Worked like a charm!

Lots of Tomatoes ripening at once I had friends who wanted green tomatoes too so that helped. Was constantly trying to decide what to keep and what to give away. Some even went to our local Community Fridge which really made me happy.
When the Earwigs lay eggs they cover them with a bit of leafy material so you know where to pick the eggs off.

I’m writing this post in January 2025 because I spend so much time gardening there is no time for blogs…haha…and it’s almost time to buy seeds again and start all over. 

Can’t wait to have fresh veggies from the garden again…yummmmm.

Salsa complete with green onions from the garden.
First time cooking with fresh Tomatoes. Life changing!
Tomatoes, lettuce, cukes all from my garden.

One of the primary reasons my garden was so successful this year (in addition to the awesome weather), was the huge population of bees on my property. I leave a lot of my property wild and have tons of pollinator plants. We do get bees who visit from a local beekeepers hive, and also many varieties of native bees. I’ve started identifying them and learning a lot, but that’s a whole other blog I will have to find time to write one day.

Next month is February and the crocuses will be up. The days are getting longer. I’m getting excited, hope you are too.