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Ahh, May. I can finally feel the warm sun on my skin, plants are blooming, and its time to get my veggie garden going again.
Last year, during the height of the C*VID pandemic, my husband and I built a veggie garden in one weekend! We weren’t sure what to expect. I was convinced I had a black thumb, and was kind of nervous I’d kill everything in a week.
Yeah… that didn’t happen. It actually was a huge success! Not me tooting my own horn, (toot toot bitch) but we yielded hundreds of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and squash all the way through October. I was floored, and pretty much everyone who knew me was also floored.
There were plenty of mistakes made along the way, and with this year’s planting season upon us, I’m sharing what I did wrong last year, and how I’m switching it up this year!
My biggest mistake
Like I mentioned before, we really started this veggie garden on a whim. So while there was some cursory research done to see what plants had the best chance of thriving in our area, that was pretty much the extent of it. We planted everything with the recommended spacing, but didn’t really account for just how big the plants would get.
My biggest mistake hands down was not giving my plants a trellis, cage, or support from the start. I was drowning in cucumber vines before I thought to trellis them. My tomato plants were just about tipping over before I made them cages. My pepper plants were collapsing under the weight of their own peppers before I got supports for them.
Did this impact my overall yield? Probably not. But it made it hard as hell to navigate the plants, and more than a few cucumbers turned hulk-sized because they got lost in the chaos.
This year I fully intend on building the proper structures for each type of plant beforehand so I can guide them to grow where I want them to.
For my cucumbers I’m hoping to build an arch style trellis that I can walk under, with plants growing from each end. This will give them plenty of space to grow without getting tangled, and hopefully look very cool as well.
Crops I hated, and some I loved
We were only certain about a few crops we wanted to plant… everything else we picked basically for fun.
The crops we were 100% on were:
Tomatoes: cherry, beefsteak
Cucumbers: Straight 8’s, pickling
Squash: zucchini, yellow
Peppers: bell, jalapeño, habanero, sriracha
Herbs: basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley, sweet mint
The rest of the crops we planted:
Tomatoes: early girl, better boy
Peppers: ghost
Salad: gourmet mix, kale, broccoli
Fruit: strawberry
Herbs: chives, dill
I was so excited about growing all of these crops! Salad all summer? Yes please.
How’d it go?
Here’s the breakdown of how everything actually turned out:
Tomatoes: I chose beefsteak because I love putting big slices of tomatoes on… everything. I also thought that the bigger the tomato, the better for canning. That was incorrect. For sandwiches, they were great! But for canning (sauces, diced) they were too seedy. The cherry tomatoes were perfect! But we had 2 plants and that is 1 too many I think. The early girl and better boy were total crap shoots. I don’t know if it came down to poor placement or what, but they just did not impress me.
Cucumbers: OMG. Obsessed with pickling cucumbers. They are smaller and have a tougher skin than the cucumbers you buy for salad (straight 8’s) and have such a nice crunch to them. We ate them solo as a snack (salt + pepper = A+), tossed them in salads, and pickled the hell out of them. We got sooooo many from the 2 plants it was amazing! Our straight 8’s…. not impressed. The name is very literal – they will be straight and measure around 8″. None of ours were that successful, and frankly I just preferred the crunch of the picklers. We will not be re-planting these this year.
Peppers: The bell peppers didn’t have a fair shot. They got overshadowed (literally) by our squash plants and took forever to produce peppers because of it. The ones we got were so cute and delicious, but not worth the space in our garden to replant. The habaneros were SO HOT. I took a bite of one because I grew it and felt I needed to and had deep regret instantly. I actually made an incredible mustard from them, so no regrets. The ghost pepper plant was sadly mauled in a bad storm we had and never got to produce anything. Our jalapeños were unstoppable. I could not pick them fast enough – it was overwhelming. And fun fact: did you know sriracha peppers are just RED JALEPENOS because I did not. So including the actual jalapeño plants, I unknowingly just planted 12 jalapeño plants. Yikes.
Squash: We planted 2 yellow squash and 2 zucchini and it was perfect. We ate them in a million different ways and we will be planting the same amount this year as well.
Herbs: They all did really well! I was blown away by the parsley and mint. The parsley grew so well it ended up looking like a tree, and the mint took on a mind of its own and started growing everywhere. Pro tip: plant mint in a pot in the ground to keep the roots contained. I pulled the plant at the end of the season and currently have little mint plants sprouting up all over the place. The chives were an excellent mid-season addition to the bunch and survived the winter! The dill did not fare as well and was eaten almost immediately by something.
Salad: I had really high expectations for the salad but ended up disappointing myself. The kale had bugs almost immediately and it wasn’t worth the space it took up in the garden (though I did made a FABULOUS kale chip with the surviving leaves). The gourmet lettuce was great for about a month and then went rogue. If I were to attempt lettuces again I wouldn’t get a “mix” and I would also probably pot them to save space. The broccoli was the biggest waste of time! It kept flowering! I don’t know if it was human error or if the plant just wasn’t cut out for this zone but damn. I was so angry at it haha.
What I’m changing
The 2021 growing season is upon us and I am EAGER to get started. I made a few changes to what we’re planting this year that I’ll break down for you now. Keep in mind, this is only my 2nd veggie garden growing season so there is still a lot to learn. I will likely still make mistakes, but at least I’m documenting them for you guys 😉
The layout
Last year I went by spacing needs and sun exposure, and really nothing else. While that worked incredibly well for most of my plants… not so much for others. This year I plan on also planting them by height. Granted, I could have never predicted just how tall my squash and zucchini plants would get (at their peak the leaves touched my hip!), but they literally overshadowed all my pepper plants.
The crops
As mentioned before, there are some crops from last year that I will not be planting again.
-I’m eliminating the beefsteak, early girl, and better boy tomatoes for San Marzano. According to my research these are best for sauces, canning, etc. The cherry will stay the same.
-I will not be planting any straight 8 cucumbers this year; instead focusing on exclusively pickling cucumbers. (The bread & butter pickles I made last year changed my life)
-No bell pepper this year. Instead, I’ll be planting (less) jalapeño plants, banana pepper, and some kind of chili pepper (TBD).
-Squash and zucchini will stay the same
-Since the mint forced its way back into my garden, I will be keeping that. The chives are also around from last year. I will be adding dill, basil, rosemary, and thyme.
-I’ll also be planting garlic this year! I was originally going to plant them this fall and overwinter them, but decided to start some this spring as well. I’m excited to see how these fare!
Ready or not…
I’ll be spending lots of time the next few weeks working on layout and planting! I’m excited to see if my modifications make a noticeable difference in how this veggie garden progresses, but only time will tell. Are you planting a veggie garden this year? What are you most looking forward to? Let’s chat in the comments!
