I will try to list what grew well for me this year and what went wrong. successes: Cucumbers, I planted 4 Cukes, 1 in each corner of my tomato house. They are still going. One day I harvested 6 kgs of cukes. Beans, I never had so many beans and they seem to be getting more and more. Aubergines, Enormous plants and loads of fruits. Capsicum: The long Italian sweet peppers. Salad: So many lettuces. Basil: So much basil. Brassicas, pumkins, courgettes were also good. failures: My biggest failures were definitely my broadbeans and peas. I planted them in november last year and they were doing great until late frosts at the end of april. I was saved by the fact that I planted more peas in the beginning of April. Tomatoes: My tomatoes outdoors didn´t do well at all. Luckilly we built a tomato house. I planted about 50 tomatoes in too little space. Very difficult working with them. Next year, I will only plant 30. They are still doing well inside the tomato house.
My garden did well this year, despite cooler than normal temperatures and higher than normal rainfall. My tomatoes, peppers, basil did poorly. They didn't get the heat they wanted. Zucchini did well. Kale did amazing this year, and is still producing. The bunnies took a lot too! Beans were a long time coming ... I had to sow them 3 times due to bunnies. Once they finally got growing they did well. Beets, onions, carrots did great! Garlic was amazing! Cucumbers did well - had more than we could eat. Cucamelons not so much. It was an amazing year for my perennial crops too ... asparagus, black currents, blackberries, rhubarb. I had pears on my pear tree for the first time EVER!
Chapeau Fido, You have really accomplished a lot there. I am interested to know which broad beans you used. The type that I use are the Acquadulce Claudia. I used to plant them out in november of the preceeding year of harvesting. They would come through the winter alright and be ready to harvest before the black fly aphids came. Later, I realized that if I planted them in february or so and kept them in the greenhouse until or so that I could miss the frost and still crop before the aphids came. I do not know how your weather or seasons there are, but there must be a solution. If it is any consolation--I cannot grow toms outside here AT ALL either, so I put all my efforts into a successful season behind the glass. Good luck next season with those problem crops.
I have never seen people plant peas in winter up here. I tried, but in future I will plant in march or april. Tomatoes don´t grow well here either. I think it must be the huge difference between the daytime and nightime temperatures. My broadbeans are also aguadulce.
You know Odif, I got tired of planting the broadies in november when I noticed that a different sort "Express" in march simply caught up with the Aquadulce and they bore flowers and beans at exactly the same time. Now I just plant my broadies in root trainers here at home on the windowsill and set them out in april or so...after a good hardening-off on the balcony. The weather and seasons cause challenges here...but i think that gardening in the mountains has its own sets of challenges. You seem to have really good success there.
Heck y'all..i had too much heat for everything including people!! My toms suffered as you know but I am going to grow some hydroponically on the patio this winter in a patio greenhouse. My mammoth jalapenos are taking off...so are the poblano and bells..ive been hand pollinating with an electric toothbrush. Going to attempt radishes and carrots in soil, but the normal bok choy, lettuce, kale etc will be grown hydroponically again
Sjoerd, the main challenges are the late frosts and unpredictable weather here, also the big day-night temperature range. Wildlife can also be a challenge. When do you start your tomatoes off Sjoerd.
Hiya Odif, I start seeding the toms in March normally. I say "normally" because we upped sticks this winter and as a result, began with germinating very late this year and noticed the difference during harvest time. The seeds arrived very late as well, which didn't help. I have an odd manner of planting strategy and so I like to let the plantlets become long and leggy. So then--I sow in march and then plant out in the greenhouse beginning of may.
