BEANS: We planted five kinds- "Derby", "Tendergreen Improved", and "Contender" (all green bush beans); "Royal Burgandy" a purple bush bean that turns green when you cook it; and a pole bean called Chinese Yard Long. I think for me, the only variety I would not re-plant is Contender- though prolific, the other varieties were more slender and straight, which I liked better. I have planted Blue Lake 247 and Soybeans in the past as well... I'd like to try Soybeans again. We planted two rows of beans, but ended up with one row total, as the animals seemed to like the beans the best and ate them consistently all summer.
SQUASH & OKRA: Boy o boy have we had a lot of squash. We planted FIVE kinds (three pictured)- "Yellow Summer Crookneck", "Early Prolific Straightneck", "Dixie Hybrid" (all yellow), acorn squash (plants), and zucchini squash (plants). We used "Emerald" okra. We planted a whole row of squash which was way too much- next year we should plant a half row, and only the Dixie Hybrid seed. The other two produced well, but were thick-skinned- Dixie Hybrid was perfect. We only had 4 or 5 zucchini plants, and they did not produce well- next year we should plant a half row and from seed. This year we had a row and a half of okra, which was also too much, about a half row would be fine.
CUKES: Second only to the squash has been the cucumber production... we planted a full row of cukes, and had seeds for three varieties: "Straight Eight," "Marketmore 76," and "Sumter." I am not positive, but I think somehow Sumter got planted twice and Marketmore got left out- we had it at the beginning and end of the row with Straight Eight in between. I loved all the cucumbers and would probably still do a whole row, but only 1/3rd pickling cukes as originally planned- we've had a LOT of pickles.
BEETS, RADISHES: We had a lot of success with the radishes, not much with the beets. We planted "Champion" radish, and "Detroit Dark Red" and "Tall Top Early Wonder" beets. For some reason the radishes came up like gangbusters, but the beets we had to plant twice and still didn't get many- I think perhaps they didn't like the heat... not sure. They like sandier soil, so we may have to add sand to their row next time maybe?
TOMATOES: This I will have to check and update later, as we bought plants, and many different kinds. The ones I remember are: "Boxcar Willie," "Mr. Stripey," "Sweet 100," "Old German," "Amish Paste," "La Roma," "Roma Plum," "Big Boy," and "Early Girl."
CORN: At first we planted two kinds, Black Corn and some heirloom white corn given to us by Dad's cousin. The black corn did not come up very well, but what we got was super sweet- the white corn really produced but was not great table eating corn. We've planted a fall crop of sweet corn and popcorn- looking forward to that!
MELONS: We planted about two thirds of a row with two kinds of watermelons, cantaloupe, and honeydew. All have really done well for us so far though the watermelons have been prone to splitting when the water fluctuates. Next year I think we should plant a full row.
PEPPERS: We planted many different kinds of peppers, here are a few that I remember- "Big Bertha," "Sweet Banana," "Baby Bell," "Poblano," and "Worlds Hottest"
ODDS N ENDS: We have a few stray extras here and there- sweet potatoes and eggplants... The eggplants have done alright, the sweet potatoes are not up yet!
Now, for things that didn't come up at all!
LETTUCE & SPINACH: We planted a whole row of lettuce and spinach, and it didn't even sprout. We painstakingly REPLANTED the whole row, and barely got a few leaves here and there- I have had lots of success in previous years with lettuce and spinach, but I think it may be because those spots did not get full sun all day long. Being that both plants like cooler temps, we will try again in the fall garden.
We got two "planting strips" for the kids- 15 foot tapes that contained seeds. They were fun to plant, but we didn't see a sprout from these!
