I know we aren’t quite ready to say goodbye to the garden yet this year, but I thought I’d still summarize the things we learned so far:

1. Give Yellow Squash & Zucchini as much space as possible, we thought we learned from last year, but it still wasn’t enough. Next year, they get their own plot completely, so they don’t overshadow anything else.
2. Bush beans grow just fine from seeds, but you have to space plantings, because they eventually just poop out from exhaustion.
3. Snap peas really need a good support system to grow, a cheap plastic fence won’t cut it.
4. Tumbling Tom tomatoes grow kind of like a bush on the ground — they aren’t that tasty, and are a pain in the neck to maintain.
5. If someone grew acorn squash before you, and some of the seeds got in the ground, you’ll get an acorn squash plant (this was a pretty neat surprise)
6. Even really tall tomato cages are not enough, you need cages, plus stakes, and then maybe they won’t fall over.
7. Weedblock doesn’t stop this insane weed that travels along the ground, and sprouts roots as it goes.
8. Arugula grows like a weed, which I thought was fine because it’s usually delicious, but once it gets really hot out, it gets really bitter. We are going to try to plant a fall batch.
9. Machete + hose = leaking hose

A summary of the crops:

• Zucchini/ Yellow Squashes – By far the best crop, we ate a ton, gave some away, and we have a lot frozen for use in veggie lasagna or zucchini bread later
• Tomatoes — Still need to do better with these. I think they need more space, and definitely need more support. More research.
• String Beans — Awesome, so easy to grow, and so many string beans
• Snap Peas – Good, just gotta get better support for next year, and these also could use staggered planting, too.
• Mesclun Mix – Pretty darn good, except for the arugula problem above
• Carrots – Still TBD, but we did thin them this year, so we are optimistic
• Collard Greens (randomly acquired from an old man with an extra seedling) – Great, low maintenance, and pretty tasty, too.
• Peppers (bell, poblano, jalapeno, mucho nacho) - So far, not great, but there are still some a-comin.
• Ichiban Eggplant – This did ok, didn’t yield quite as many as I’d hoped and had some issues with ants, will try again though
• Celery – Worked out good for our purposes -it was nice to just break off a few stalks when you wanted tuna or chicken salad
• Cucumbers – definitely an improvement from last year, but 1 of 2 plants died early on so didn’t get as many as I hoped.
• Asparagus (randomly acquired from our garden neighbor) – Epic Fail. I think the transplantation was just too much.
• Watermelon / Cantaloupe – Epic Fail. I think only because they were next to the squash and had no sunlight. We’ll try again.
• Scallions – Epic Fail. Didn’t even pop out from seeds.
• Acorn Squash – Surprise bonus, popped up from last year’s leftovers. Not ready to harvest yet, lets see how they taste.

At home in pots on the deck, I planted parsely (flat & curly), cilantro, summer savory, thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, tarragon, dill, echinacea, and sage. Everything did great except for the dill and echinacea, which was eaten (not by us), and the rosemary, which (i think) is just a slow grower.

In the process of reading about additional methods to preserving herbs for winter months. Next year I’d like to try sunflowers and maybe corn. Overall, this year was much more successful than last year, and we actually ate most of the good stuff we produced (though some went to waste, we could still do better with that). I’m pleased.

UPDATE: Fall batch of Mesclun mix was successful, up to the freak Halloween snowstorm of 2011. Carrots came out deformed again– still not sure what happened. Acorn squash didn’t really ripen to a good eating status, the vine was damaged and I don’t think it got to its full potential. Also, peppers didn’t end up great, and when we cleaned up the plants, we found their roots were still confined to their peat pots so we are going to try removing them completely to see if they do better. Also, we ended up with an elongated pumpkin that we originally thought was just a vine for the acorn squash. We used the pumpkin as a decoration during the fall months and kept some seeds to try to grow one on purpose this year.