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May 30, 2020 in Garden trends

How does your garden grow? ~ our 2020 Vegetable “Victory Garden”

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Tom and I went nuts in the garden this year. We planted like maniacs. With Tom and the kids home from school, the timing seemed right.

We also made some power moves by replenishing our raised beds with much needed amendments and adding garden soil and compost to low spots. The slower pace of life is suiting us.

How about you? How is your garden?

Did you find that you planted more, less or about the same as other years? Year-to-year comparison is easy because I keep a handwritten garden journal noting what was planted.

It helps me reflect on how I did for the season~ if I planted too much of one crop and not enough of others. It also allows me to consider spacing and crop rotation for the following year. Did I allow enough space for plants to grow; is it time to rotate? 

Usually I cram in way too many plants and my garden becomes a massive jungle!

In retrospect, I acknowledge mistakes. Wish I could have a few do-overs! I’ll share those insights at the end of the post.

This is the rundown of what I decided to plant for my 2020 Victory Garden. Let’s compare notes! What did you plant?

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Our garden is not glamorous but highly functional!

How much space do you have to plant?

No matter how much space I have to plant~ I always want and crave more. My main growing area consists of three raised garden beds that measure about 16 feet long and 4 feet across.

You’d think this would be plenty of space! But it’s never enough. Tom and I know we are lucky having about a 1/2 acre lot in suburbia. We have more “land” than most of those residing in our neighborhood.

Ten acres would be great. Imagine how many blueberry bushes one could plant? But I digress.

I planted the week of May 18th to be on the safe side. No point in planting if frost kills all your transplants.

But the weather where I live has been super weird. We had snow in early May but toward the end of the month hit a few days of 93 degrees.

The forecast for the upcoming week is 60’s. Who can figure this weather out? Not I!

Today is the rundown of what we planted in the space we have.

Of course we grow for our immediate family, but we also hope to have excess to share with extended family, friends and close neighbors.

So if any one crop seems overkill, that’s my reasoning.

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Garden Bed #1

  • 12 Supersweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes
  • 12 Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes
  • 2 Celebrity Tomato Plants
  • 2 Early Girl Tomato Plants
  • 2 Pink Girl Tomato Plants

Garden Notes

Bed one consists of 30 tomato plants with the bulk being the 24 cherry tomato varieties. For this bed I used all starter plants.

I would have used seeds but unfortunately my seeds didn’t grow as quickly as I had hoped. Those are being saved for bare spots and plants that don’t thrive.

And yes, I love tomatoes! Especially cherry tomatoes. They taste like candy, do they not? The Supersweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes in particular are marvelous but the local garden center sells out of those first.

I was only able to snag two packs so I supplemented with the Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes~ still good!

In a perfect world, Tom and I would have a DIY PVC cage for each plant. Some day, he’ll find a way to make one for every single tomato plant!

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Celebrate celery!

Garden Bed #2

  • 2 Celebrity Tomato Plants
  • 2 Early Girl Tomato Plants
  • 2 Pink Girl Tomato Plants
  • 6 Lemon Boy Tomato Plants
  • 8 Celery Plants
  • 1 Row Burpee Green Been Seeds
  • 1 Row Royal Burgundy Bush Purple Beans
  • 6 Cucumber
  • 13 Yellow Zucchini
  • 13 Green Zucchini
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Garden Notes

You plant what you love and eat…right! So more tomatoes in this bed. And it’s time we celebrate celery, one of my favorite crops to grow. We eat a ton of it and it takes up little space. Nice and vertical!

How about you? Ever plant celery? I’ve been told by several people that they’ve stopped because it gets buggy and doesn’t thrive. I confess that’s my experience with trying to grow broccoli and Brussels Sprouts so I’ve given up for the time being.

I only planted two rows of beans this year. All from seed. One green and one purple. I hope I don’t regret it! But last year I planted 4 rows and it got to be too much work picking them.

And I’m a bean snob. I only want the young and tender beans. Once they’ve grown too big, I won’t eat them. So if I delay in harvesting, all is lost!

There’s also some smallish yellow tomatoes to give my salads a little more color!

I used starter plants again for the tomatoes as my seeds are slow to grow. Same for the celery.

Through trial and error, I’ve discovered that zucchini, beans and cucumbers are best sown directly in the ground after all danger of frost has passed.

In fact….drum roll please….over the course of the season seeds sown directly in the ground have actually overtaken in size starter plants. The plants from seed have been healthier and quicker to grow big producing a bigger crop.

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Garden Bed #3

  • 12 Roma Tomatoes
  • 6 Red Bell Peppers
  • 6 Yellow Bed Peppers
  • 1 Sugar Baby Watermelon
  • 2 Golden Jenny Melons

It’s been a few years since I’ve grown any Roma tomatoes. I use them for canning and sauce making. But I wasn’t up for it with three young kids and one being just a baby the last few years.

But I’m back. The hope is that these 12 plants survive and thrive and produce enough to tempt me to get the Victorio Strainer out for some serious sauce making.

I’ve had success with peppers but learned over the years that the longer you leave them on the vine, the more color comes out. So I wait as long as I can to pluck.

And nothing is more satisfying than plucking peppers. Let me tell you! The key to big peppers for me has always been checking my pH and many times adding lime to the soil. My peppers went from puny to humongous.

Just for fun, I planted 1 watermelon and 2 cantaloupe from seed. My expectations are low. Very low. I’ve never successfully grown either (bigger than the size of my fist) but my 8-year-old was eager to try.

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Isn’t the basil so cute?

Other plantings…..

Herbs! They make the world go round adding bold flavor with few calories.

In one raised bed planter I put in a whopping 3 rows of Italian large leaf basil, one row each of cilantro, thyme, chives and parsley. All from seed.

My seeds are slow to grow this year. (Or was I slow to plant…more likely!)

Since I use more basil and parsley than anything else, I ended up buying 8 starter basil plants and 4 starter parsley plants. This way I don’t have to wait until August to harvest any fresh herbs.

Oregano and dill spring up naturally all around the perimeter of my yard so there’s no need to plant from seed or buy starter plants.

And garlic. In the fall, Tom planted garlic in any place he could not holding back! Garlic in our landscaping. Garlic in the perennial beds. Garlic on the edges of the blueberry patch. We were desperate for space.

I used the remaining raised planter for lettuce. Eight starter plants and the rest from seed. Good eating!

We also have roughly 25 strawberry plants and 10 blueberry bushes. There’s also 2 pears trees and 2 apple trees on our property. All of which produce quite well!

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We love our PVC trellises but Tom hasn’t had time to make one for every tomato. Until then, we hold onto the wire ones. Could they be any more bent up?

Garden mistakes….

And I do keep a handwritten garden journal to keep me on track and accountable.

It reminds me in subsequent years what I did right and what needs improvement for the following year.

Biggest mistake thus far has been trying to plant too much from seed. I spent way too much money and time on seeds way too late in the season.

Sad because my cherry tomato seeds from seeds look healthy and fabulous but they aren’t big enough to plant in my beds. The reason? Our growing season here is super short.

By the time they produce fruit, it will be November~ too late! We’ll get a hard frost before then and I’d end up with zero crop. No good!

So now I have roughly 30 healthy seedlings/almost starter plants that I’m going to try to give away. Want any?

I also wish I had planted some eggplant. But since I’m the only one who eats it in my family, it seemed pointless.

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The garlic Tom planted in the fall is doing well next to the worm tubes!

How about you? What are you growing this year? How much space do you have to plant?

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about laura sproull

about laura sproull

Hi! I'm Laura and hail from Western New York. I consider myself a lifelong learner who loves gardening with a 360 degree view. Thanks for stopping by!

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