Whew! What a busy summer it has been. It's been nearly impossible to keep up with life between being slammed at work, our busy summer plans (what wasn't canceled), and trying to find time to breathe that unfortunately my blogging has been unintentionally put on the back burner. For a more detailed past and future updates, make sure to check out my IG. I hope you all are staying safe and growing lots of goodies!
2020 has been my "makeshift" year of gardening. I had previously hoped to get a greenhouse and raised bed with a row cover built but hey, it's 2020, nothing has gone quite as planned (am I right?!?).
As a recap, what I have planted is listed below by date of planting with how they produced so far. I would say this year has been an "okay" growing year. It definitely could have been worse but could have been a lot better. I had lots of success with starting my seeds inside but several things were not happy being transplanted. I planted another round of seeds on June 24th and so far everything is doing fairly well, especially for being a little delayed in being planted. Leafy greens take the cake this year for being the happiest. I ended up moving my two portable plastic raised beds into my greenhouse and everything is SO MUCH HAPPIER growing in there. I even noticed a new baby squash growing a couple of days ago. This has solidified my plans in building a greenhouse next year. I also purchased some mature tomato plants and one jalapeno plant. I have probably about 15-20 tomatoes growing between the two plants. I HAVE NEVER HAD THAT MANY BEFORE! At this point in my high altitude gardening path, I will most likely continue to purchase my tomato plants versus trying to grow them from seed. I may change my mind at some point, but I have enough other "attempts" at growing from seed that I want to complete first.
As for my flower beds, I extended the original one that was added before we bought our house. I planted several colors of delphiniums, balloon flowers, bleeding heart, lilies, salvia, phlox, lewisia, lupine, dianthus and I'm sure I forgot a couple others. I also put in another bed in the backyard that has two peonies, a clematis, and a wisteria. I will most like continue to expand what is in this bed next summer. Along the front of our house I had planted a few perennials this past summer and ran out of time to finish it before winter. I cleaned out all of the grass between the existing columbines, cone flowers, balloon flowers, and Russian sage and added some lupine, delphiniums, poppies, and dianthus. Along the side of our house, I planted some iris bulbs that were previously established in our zone and I ultimately will add some more flowers to that bed next year. Around the corner from the iris bed, I planted some Nebraskan grown salvia (that we will see if it is makes it in our Zone 3 climate). I nearly forgot about another raised flower bed that I added some locally grown nasturtiums to the poppies that I planted last summer.
I have decided that ultimately I will probably only start some yellow squash, zucchini, and cucumbers inside next year. I have not found that it is worth starting carrots, radishes, beets, turnips, and other root veggies inside. I'm still on the fence about starting my leafy greens indoors. My goal for next year is to try to grow more of my annuals for my outdoor flower pots. As of now, I'm thinking about cosmos and petunias, but likely, there will be more. I also plan on trying to grow more things from bulbs like dahlias, gladiolus, day lilies and maybe even some begonias. I was gifted 5 lily bulbs this years and those have been one of the best flowers for me this year. I hope they come back next year.
List of Seeds planted in April 2020:
Beet-did not like being transplanted
Bellflower-two survived transplanting but have not bloomed
Carrots-did not survive transplanting.
Cauliflower-never matured after transplanting
Cilantro-never sprouted
Cleome-survived being moved in the greenhouse but has not bloomed
Columbines-0 results (typically takes 1-2 years to product)
Cosmos-0 results
Cucumber-one 2 inch baby cucumber
Femish Poppy-Was happy in the greenhouse but unfortunately was missed during watering when we had someone water while we were out of town
Grand Rapids Lettuce-transplanted well and is ready to be consumed as a yummy salad! More has been planted.
Green Zucchini-ones transplanted into temporarily bed never "took off" one is growing in the greenhouse
Grey Poppy-no great results
Jalapeño-0 results, what I thought was a pepper was another plant (HAH)
Kale-did not survive transplanting, more was planted in July
Kohlrabi-0 results
Mint -0 results
Radishes-transplanted okay but never matured into a round shape
Romaine-transplanted decent and is ready to be consumed as a yummy salad! More was planted.
Spinach-did not do well with transplanting but a 2nd round was planted and is doing AWESOME
Sunflower-3 grew but unfortunately were missed during watering when we had someone water while we were out of town :( I was able to save the maturest one but it hasn't bloomed.
Supreme Poppy-Again was so happy in the greenhouse but unfortunately were missed during watering when we had someone water while we were out of town
Turnips-transplanted okay but never matured into a round shape
Yellow Squash-no production but plants were happiest in greenhouse.
May 17th
Potatoes: 4 plants sprouted. Two are decent sized two are not maturing as I had hoped.
Seeds Planted June 24th (I transplanted a few grown lettuce varieties and squash that I started inside by seed)
Romaine-doing well
Grand Rapids Lettuce-doing AWESOME
Spinach-doing AWESOME
Early Wonder Beets (2 brands)-all sprouted growth has been slow
Detroit Dark Red Beets=all sprouted growth has been slow
Carrots. all sprouted growth has been slow
Seeds Planted as a "bumper crop" in mid July
Sugar Snap Peas-several have sprouted in the greenhouse, some in makeshift bed
Kale-several sprouts in greenhouse
Radishes-all have sprouted, slow growth
HAPPY GROWING!
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