Garden rememberings....

Things I should remember for next years garden:

Tomatoes: The bamboo stakes and figure-8'ing the twine worked really well but you need to keep twining up the entire season. You also need to use a different stake, perhaps rebar, as the plants get heavy late in the season when loaded with fruit and cause even the most sturdy of bamboo to snap under the weight.
Brainstorm with bf to establish a planting pattern so we can get to the toms at the back and the bottoms of the plants. Don't plant pear tomatoes because none of us will eat them. The Genovese Costoluto's are nice but not producing much. The Amish Paste did well as did the Sausage and the Japanese tomatoes. The Brandywines are doing ok as a plant, but the production on them is quite poor. If you allow them to ripen on the vine, they rot right away.

Squash: Don't plant anywhere that gets shaded in any way, shape, or fashion. They just don't grow well no matter how little shade they get. Also, don't water the leaves at all, unless in the morning when the water can burn off. It's causing mildew this season and that sucks. The zuchinni's were planted out late this season and died after I left one zuke on the vine for seed. Save a zuke late in the season for seed so you get more the rest of the season. Plant only one summer squash because bf gets sick of them quick.

Peas: Same as squash - no water on the leaves at all. These mildewed as well and died shortly after. It was those couple of days in July when we had foggy mornings and sprinkles (who'd have thunk it would rain in California in the summer?)

Luffa: It didn't bloom until this week, very late in the season and quite a small plant. At the time of planting, it was the same size as the cucumber, however the cuke didn't do anything until July and then it sprouted like crazy and now shades the luffa too much.

Sunflower: My beautiful red sunflower did quite well, but it's too bad the seeds I planted around it never sprouted. Start this plant indoors and transplant it out later.

to be continued...