Tag: peppers

2023 Container Garden Recap

Our patio container garden had a “solid” year all-around: 173.1 pounds of produce from 9 EarthBoxes. Which comes to about 6 pounds per square foot of container space. The trees in and around the garden continue to expand, at some point soon we may need to go to fewer boxes and smaller (determinate) plants.

Here’s how everything did:

Cucumbers: 1 box, 4 plants, 34.6 pounds. We grew “Marketmore” cucumber plants. The cucumbers started early and stayed productive until late. This was a relatively good year for “attractive and straight” fruit too.

Carmen Peppers: 2 boxes, 12 plants, 16.0 pounds. We located the peppers in a relatively sunny/premium location. The plants grew taller than usual and we had fewer problems with bugs and most everything ripened. The basil is not getting its spot back.

Tromboncino Zucchini: 1 box, 2 plants, 18.6 pounds. It was a solid year for the zucchini as well. Mid-season we got this:

I think the hand pollinating helped (again). An old toothbrush is now a permanent part of the gardening tool kit.

Black Krim / Carbon Tomatoes: 1.5 boxes, 3 plants, 28.5 pounds. The three plants mostly intermingled and it wasn’t worth figuring out which was which. We grew two Black Krim but one of them didn’t do well at all and was dead by mid-September. I have no idea what caused it so hopefully it was just rough handling. Ten pounds per plant is fine, and the Black Krims tasted amazing, as usual.

Tigeralla Tomato: .5 box, 1 plant, 12.2 pounds. The Tigerally did “fine”. They ripened fairly late. It’s fun to have colorful tomatoes though this year they were pretty “meh”.

Oregon Spring Tomato: 1 box, 2 plants, 20.7 pounds. The Oregon Springs were a top performer again. They started early and the taste and yield were both very good. Highly recommended.

Roma Tomato: 2 boxes, 4 plants, 42.5 pounds. Romas always yield well for us, and even the unripe fruits all ripened after harvest.

We also grew four basil plants in one box in the middle of the garden. They produced way more than we could consume so the neighbors got a lot of our excess basil. The EarthBox directions call for six plants per box, but I think the yield winds up being about the same with a little more space per plant.

Finally, we had one box of 20 Fortex (pole) beans, yielding fistfuls of pods all summer.

Considering we didn’t pay a ton of attention to the garden it went pretty well.

Container Garden Update — September 24, 2023

The annual Seattle rains started yesterday afternoon. I wanted to stay relatively dry while harvesting, so I harvested all the Really Ripe Things last weekend and The Rest Of It yesterday morning.

A front view prior to last weekend’s harvest:

From the house side “back” of the garden:

The remaining peppers:

The “Ripe” harvest. It’s 9 pounds of peppers and 37 pounds of tomatoes, mostly Romas (20 pounds) and Black Krim (12 pounds):

Yesterday’s “Rest Of It Harvest”:

As for the under-ripe tomatoes — we’ve had good success the last few years by spreading them out on cooling racks near a heater vent in the kitchen and letting them ripen for 2-3 weeks. I think it’s the combination of air-flow and warmth that does the trick.

Finally, one straggler that I found doing the final clean-up:

It’s a nice discovered reward at the end of the process.

Container Garden Update — July 2, 2023

It’s been a very mild summer. When I compare notes with people it feels like our garden is behind most everyone. The flip side to that is it’s the start of July and the lettuces and cool season herbs are still doing well.

A picture with a different angle, from the deck:

An overview from the front:

Something happened to the asparagus between last year and this year. About a third of the crowns either died off or (optimistically but unlikely) refused to come up. I don’t have an explanation for it — I’ve been adding compost every year and I didn’t do anything differently that I can think of. I may leave it alone next year and see what happens.

Instead of sad asparagus, here’s the first cucumber. Or the second, I didn’t see the one hiding on the right when I took the picture:

Romaine lettuce – “Slow Bolt Mix” from Territorial seed. I had the date that I seeded these written on a white board. The white board has since been erased by someone being helpful. I think it’s been 3-4 weeks? Bird netting to keep the squirrels from digging:

The basil. We originally started with one EarthBox and the basil did so well that it turned into this garden post many years later:

The Fortex beans:

The Tromboncino zucchini. We’ve harvested two decent-sized specimens so far. Pollinating the flowers with a toothbrush may be helping:

The indeterminant tomatoes (Black Krim and others) and the determinates to the left (Oregon Spring and Roma):

A closeup of the Oregon Spring tomatoes, which are always the earliest and most prolific. There are more than a few hiding:

The Carmen peppers:

Looking ahead – hopefully the weather does historically normal July / August things around here and the garden picks up. The trees around the property have grown to the point that we’re never going to see the harvests that when we first started gardening, but we should still be able to freeze plenty of veg to carry us through the winter months.

Container Garden Update September 25, 2022

To paraphrase Yogi Berra: It’s getting late early around here. Our oak tree that always confirms the season is just starting to turn to fall colors and the garden is basically done.

On the 12th it became clear that the bugs were threatening to impact the pepper harvest, so we pulled what was left of the peppers:

Clockwise from top left: Oregon Spring, Roma, Rattlesnake beans, Black Krim, Purple Bumblebee (cherry tomato), tomatillos and cumbers, Cherokee Chocolate tomatoes, Carmen peppers, King of the North peppers

The next week we harvested another sheet tray of ripe Romas. (not pictured)

As of the morning of the September 24 the garden looked like this:

L-R Front: Rattlesnake beans, Roma, Oregon Spring, Roma. Middle Left is the other tomatoes with cucumbers on the right. Back left is tomatillo and Tromboncino with Fortex beans on the right.

A closeup of the “better looking” Roma box on the 24th:

The Purple Bumblebees on the 24th:

The tomatillo and Tromboncino shared a trellis. I think it worked out well. Our Tromboncino yield is up relative to the last couple of years and it didn’t seem to impact the tomatillos one way or the other. Yay pollenators:

Then after “picture time” we harvested everything except the tomatillo and Tromboncinos. We left those two boxes with the hopes we’d see a little more output. And the yard waste bin was full so that was a good stopping point.

The Rattlesnake and Fortex beans that we’re saving for seed or dried beans for eating. We’ve been harvesting the Fortex all summer in addition to what’s pictured:

And the last somewhat unripe harvest — it’s around 30 pounds of tomatoes:

We’ve had the most success with ripening not-ripe tomatoes on the floor of the kitchen on cooling racks. The kitchen is generally warm, and when the furnace starts up there’s a heater vent that provides good air circulation.

I feel like 2022 was a better year for the garden than 2020 or 2021, though the shade trees continue to grow and are gradually going to force us to reduce the size of the garden or just accept that the yields are not going to be what they were ten years ago. The wildfire smoke was minimal, and July and August were relatively warm and clear.

Next post will be the How Much Did That All Weigh? I’m curious to see if my perception of yield matches reality.

Container Garden Update — July 10, 2021

The weather has been cooperative North of Seattle so far this year. No overcast and rainy May. No smoke filled skies from wildfires. We’ll start seeing Harvests Of Things in the next 10-14 days, which is right on pace with when it’s been nice outside for most of the summer.

An overview pic from the “front”. The camera is pointed mostly East, slightly North:

That’s tomatoes on the left, peppers in the center, and basil on the right. On the back left are the Tromboncino zucchini, on the right are cucumbers, and behind the cucumbers are pole beans.

The first cucumbers are nearly ready:

We had a day in the 100’s recently. The basil absolutely loves that, though I’m guessing concrete and the garden area must have been over 110 degrees:

Last year we made a big bag of “Italian Seasoning” with oregano from our raised beds and the basil. I see another big bag or two in our future.

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