My summer 2025 garden is officially done. With the exception of the pepper plants (that are still cranking out a few peppers here and there) we've harvested everything. Yesterday we pulled up and discarded the worn-out plants and gave everything an initial tidy up. I know those of you from even slightly more northerly climes are probably scratching your heads right now, so let me explain. By this point in the summer, the intense heat and humidity have started doing a number on pretty much all vegetable plants. Our last frost date is early April, so we plant out very early. The plants have been growing and producing for three months already, and now with day after day of sweltering heat, they're just giving up the ghost. I don't blame them. I'd be ready to die out in this heat day and night, too! Plus, the f*cking stinkbugs have shown up and tried their best to attack and ruin the last of the tomatoes. (I seriously hate them, much more than the hornworms which are much easier to control).
So anyway, the garden is mostly kaput. I've kept careful notes, and this morning I sat down to "compile my data" :) Here are my results and takeaways from this year's garden.
Tomatoes:
This is always the most important part of the garden to me. I love good tomatoes eaten fresh, and when there's extra there are lots of things you can do with them. Since I really hoped to have some extra this year to can, I tried something different. Instead of growing all heirlooms (which taste great but often struggle with production in this climate) I divided my tomato-growing space in half: room for 8 heirloom indeterminate plants that I started from seed, and 5 bushy young determinate plants I bought at Lowe's. Determinates, of course, set a lot of fruit all at once, early in the season, and then they're done. Perfect for having big batches of canning tomatoes that are ready by the time our hellish South Carolina heat scorches the garden! Check out my results:
Determinates
Bush Goliath:
2 plants,
28 individual fruits
Total: 10.55 pounds
Better Bush:
1 plant
10 individual fruits
Total: 2.61 pounds
Heatmaster:
1 plant
11 individual fruits
2.86 pounds
Roma:
1 plant
24 individual fruits
5.05 pounds
Determinates
Eva Purple Ball
3 plants
43 individual fruits
10.05 pounds
Hillbilly Potato Leaf
3 plants
8 individual fruits
2.95 pounds
Berkeley Tie Dye
2 plants
14 individual fruits
2.45 pounds
All told, I ended up with 36.5 pounds of tomatoes! And that's not counting the one cherry tomato plant that's given us probably around 2 pounds of fruit (I didn't keep track of those)
Yesterday I also finished up some canning and preserving! I'd already made 6 12-oz jars of salsa and 6 half pint jars of pickled mixed peppers, and I added 2 12-oz jars of pickled jalapenos and 2 12-oz jars of pickled cowhorn peppers. I also whipped out the dehydrator and made a big jar of dried tomato slices and dried cherry tomatoes. I also dried some tiny, fiery tabasco peppers and crushed them into a jar for pepper flakes.
Excellent harvest!
ReplyDeleteNot bad!
DeleteWell done Jennifer. That picture of all your jars reminds me of when I did the same. What a pleasure it is to have all that in the store cupboard.
ReplyDeleteI'm planning to go to the farmer's market next weekend to buy bulk of fruits and veggies I don't grow. I'd like to freeze and can some peaches (they're wonderful this time of year) as well as purchase a box of cucumbers to pickles. My cucumbers were an abject failure this year.
DeleteYour garden gives you so much joy, and in turn, you share it with us. Love the idea of you having all that goodness to pull out of the pantry when summer is just a memory.
ReplyDeleteWe've calculated what we've spent on the garden this year (soil amendments, fertilizer, seeds, seedlings) vs. the cost of buying 40+ pounds of tomatoes and peppers, and we actually saved a tiny bit of money. Even if we'd only broken even, when you consider the fresh air, exercise, and fun the garden gives us we'd be happy!
DeleteA successful and fruitful harvest.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping to improve year after year!
DeleteI use a dehydrator, too! What a great tool for preserving all sorts of veggies. And, up here in Central PA, my tomatoes are only just starting to grow, though one is in the process of turning red.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever dehydrated tomatoes? This is my first year doing that. I really enjoy super thin, crispy dried apple slices in the fall. :) What do you use yours for?
DeleteYou certainly did a good job of keeping track! Glad you had such success this year!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ellen!
DeleteI am so impressed! I would never think to keep track of productivity. We're still getting some tomatoes and tonight I'm making a Caprese salad. Looking forward to that.
ReplyDeleteYour jars of what you have preserved are nothing but gorgeous! Good on you!
Thanks Mary! I'm keeping careful notes because our climate (like yours) can be such a challenge for a summer garden, and I want to know which varieties/what methods/etc give us the best results. We're hoping to continue to improve each year so that eventually we'll be able to get really nice harvests and save on food costs.
DeleteYour canned goods look wonderful, I love all the colors! Nice job! Seeing all your tomatoes lined up in the windowsill takes me back to my childhood and our family farm. We harvested so many tomatoes every summer, to this day I can't believe what I pay for them in the store. Really nice Jennifer :^)
ReplyDeleteAww, I love this comment ApacheDug! I've always seen people finishing ripening tomatoes on windowsills. When I was a kid it was always kitchen windowsills, buy my house has a centrally located kitchen without a window. That's our dining room window. :)
DeleteI wish I could give you a few homegrown garden tomatoes!