Looking for feedback for a first-year garden review

11 years ago

Hi -

I planted a garden this year for the first time in some 17 years and, generally, I couldn't be happier with the results. It consists of three 4x4' raised beds all in close proximity on a small-ish city lot and I followed the SFG method with a fair degree of attention.

I had tremendous success with several plants, including a couple of tomatoes (one in particular went nuts), celery (which I've read is hard to grow), lettuce, and poblano peppers, among others.

There were a few plants, however, that didn't yield very much and I'm looking to you for advice. I've tried to research these, but there doesn't seem to be a common thread to why these didn't produce. I'm hoping someone here has a tip or two...

1) Broccoli and Cauliflower failed miserably early on. Cauliflower never grew at all and Broccoli was a spindly little thing that I didn't get much from. It bolted pretty early, too.

2) A Red Roaster pepper and an Orange Bell pepper produced a whole two fruits each, and not until September. At the same time, my Poblano, Hungarian Wax, and Purple peppers produced like mad all season long.

3) My Tomatillo grew to be huge and flowered all season but didn't start to produce fruit until last week. This has been a long summer for MN; I don't think I'd get anything from it in a normal summer.

4) Finally, my Minnesota Midget cantaloupe looked promising but we only got four melons from it. It stopped flowering altogether around the end of July. The ones we got were great and I would love to have seen more come from that plant.

If you have any tips, I'm all ears. This is my first post here, but I've learned a ton from this site in the last year. I hope someday I can contribute back.

Thanks for any feedback!

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Comments (8)

IAmSupernova
11 years ago
2 things. I'm a first year gardener myself, but I literally have nothing to do but lurk these forums and read up on it. My reading as allowed me to comment on parts of your post.

1. Sweet peppers (more specifically bell) are temperamental at best, "difficult to grow" comes up often though... Can be doing everything right and get nothing in return, or so I've read.

2. (This is the one I'm confident in saying) Tomatillos are a pain in the $%#. All have a similar story.. Well would be similar at least until last week. The plants grow big and healthy, but just never seem to produce any fruit, the advice is always the same.. Wait. Seems like those tomatillos love to do nothing more than confuse and frustrate gardeners.
pnbrown
11 years ago
Bell peppers are heavy feeders and do best in a fairly heavy soil; every year I do some in light soil and they do so-so and every year I see them go nuts in heavy soil.
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ltilton
11 years ago
When did you set out your cabbage and broccoli? Might have been too late for them to do well. Or they could have been too crowded. People underestimate how large these plants can get, how much room they need, how much fertilizer.

It was a bad year for mildews on melons. This might have been your problem, but it's hard to tell with no description or photos.
Edymnion
11 years ago
Yeah, in my experience most sweet peppers are weak, probably from all the inbreeding required to get them to lose their heat. Even my best sweet peppers have tended to be small compared to what my hot peppers do. Bells especially I've had trouble with, to the point I don't even try with those anymore.
art_1
11 years ago
Cauliflower is a cool season crop and the best planting times are different than for tomatoes, melons, summer squash.

Bell peppers are slow growing from browsing this forum and personal experience. They might need just the right combination of moisture, temperature, nutrients and sunlight to grow well. Some say to plant them in small groups to shade each other from the heat. Hot peppers and other varieties of sweet peppers grow better for many.

Melons like heat and tend to do better in warmer areas. Planting times for mid-summer melons or covering the soil or raised rows/hills with something to warm the soil might help.

With so much success, you must be doing something right. Incorporate lots of homemade compost and mulch. Small changes for areas that didn't do well should work wonders. The experience of gardening shows why some produce is more expensive in the store.
kaptainkr
11 years ago
I had a good broccoli season in MN (NW suburbs of Twin Cities). I started the plants in early March and got them outside in late April. I also used all hybrid varieties that had very early days to maturity.

Tomatoes went nuts until it got too hot.

I've grown Minnesota Midget in the past and found good luck growing in self-watering containers and using Wall O' Water season extenders to keep them warm. I do give them lot's of food. I quit trying to grow all other melons. We just don't have the right weather (yet).

I follow the schedule below for seed starting and planting, mostly starting earlier than later. But I use raised beds and the previously mentioned Wall O' Waters so I do get a head start on most others.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant starting schedule
fruitmaven_wiz5
11 years ago
I think it sounds like you had a good year! My broccoli in southern WI bolted really early too, I think it was the weird May and June. I got them out on schedule in April but the weather turned summer-like too quickly. My later plantings did better, I set out some plants mid-June and got heads off them.
Peppers and tomatillos aren't the easiest plants to grow. And melons take up a lot of space for the number of fruit you get. My Sugar Baby watermelon only made one fruit (I admit, I set it out much too late, in mid-June.)
So, great job! Don't worry that all your failures are the result of inexperience, sometimes it's just a bad season for some things. For example, this is my first year growing sweet corn. What a terrible year to start that!
jolj
11 years ago
I agree you had a good year, real good for first time in 17 years.
My sweet & hot pepper do great, but I add fresh compost tilled in, then add compost every month. Just pull back the mulch & add more.
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Looking for feedback for a first-year garden review

Comments (8)

IAmSupernova

pnbrown

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ltilton

Edymnion

art_1

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fruitmaven_wiz5

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