Kitchen Garden 2008
I walked away from blogging this past year, but I can honestly say that you didn't miss much. It was a short season; the beans and sweet peas did really well, but dahlias and tomatoes were a bust. Vital statistics for this season:
* Last frost: May 20th
* First frost: October 12
* Duration: about 130 days (30 less than average)
* MVP: 'Royal Burgundy' beans, with sweet peas a close second
* Best Rookie: Dahlia 'Ruskin Andrea'
* Most Promising Rookie: drip-irrigation hoses
* Headed back to the minors: 'Santa Cruz' oregano, eggplant, okra, 'Red Samurai' carrots
It's been a challenging year outside of the garden, so a lot of my post-season tasks fell by the wayside. Most prominently, the dahlias tubers didn't get dug up or stored, and with eighteen inches of snow and two weeks of below-freezing temperatures, I may have to restart my collection from scratch. We'll see if anything makes it.
Gardening tasks currently on my list:
* Forcing daffodils, hyacinths, and an amaryllis indoors
* Bleaching last year's cloches and pots
What I'm looking forward to in 2009:
* More fruit, including currants and gooseberries for jam
* 'Merlin' beets (I really enjoy growing beets now)
* 'Sharry Baby,' an oncidium that I'm determined to buy at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show in February
It's all snow and ice outdoors, but hey, I can dream! Happy new year to all!
