Stars of the Garden 2024 – Part1

Once again it’s time for my annual review of what did well in the garden this year, and what didn’t. I’ll start with a recap on the weather, since those conditions certainly have a big influence on home and community gardens everywhere including here at Happy Acres. According to my records, in 2023 we got 46 inches of rain, which is about normal for our area. In 2024 so far we have had 46 inches, which again is about normal for us. We had a wet spring, and spotty rain throughout the summer and fall months. Looking at the month-by-month totals helps understand the garden performance more than looking at the overall total, and is one reason I keep records of precipitation. I have been a volunteer weather observer for the CocoRaHS organization for over 10 years now, and share my data with that organization as well as use it myself.

2024 rainfall

late June harvest

As usual, the garden this year gave somewhat mixed results, with some crops doing quite well and others not so well. After looking back at our harvests, I can report that one star worth mentioning was lettuce! I grow it in the greenhouse for much of the year, except for the hottest months. I plant a variety of types, mostly leaf varieties but a few heading ones as well. Hyper Red Rumple Waved and Sea of Red are two red leaf varieties that did well this year. Starfighter and Grazion were the biggest and best green leaf varieties. So far this year I have harvested 25 pounds of lettuce and other salad greens, and the winter crop is now coming on in the greenhouse for our use.

Hyper Red Rumple Waved lettuce

Starfighter lettuce

I did an experiment this year and grew a few lettuce plants in the summer months. I set out several varieties of plants in early June in a bed behind the greenhouse, where I could keep them well watered. They were grown in full sun with no shading, though they did have wind protection. I began cutting the full sized plants in early September, and two of the best performers were Tehama and Cherokee. Both are summer crisp types, and made for delightful salads. I plan to do more experimenting next year, and perhaps get them in the ground a bit earlier.

Tehama lettuce

Cherokee lettuce

The container grown eggplant was another star performer. I grew Fairy Tale, Gretel and Icicle – all three AAS Winners, and they kept us well supplied with mild and tasty eggplant all summer long. Which is a good thing, since the ones I planted in the vegetable garden struggled to get established and suffered from the dry growing conditions. We love these small fruited varieties roasted or grilled, and they wound up on more than one open-faced eggplant sandwich this year. I harvested 26 pounds of eggplant this year, which is quite a bit more than I got in 2023.

eggplant harvest

open-faced eggplant sandwich

The spring planted brassicas took advantage of our abundant rains in April and May, and mostly did quite well this year. I had plenty of cabbage for fresh eating and for making sauerkraut. And the big Kossak kohlrabi did well also, which I use for fermenting into kraut and kohlrabi ‘pickles’ my wife enjoys eating throughout the year.

Quick Start cabbage

Kossak kohlrabi

Broccoli was almost a complete bust though. I’ll have to assess how much space I want to allot for this crop in the future. I do want to try the AAS Winner Purple Magic again, as well as Burgundy which usually does well for me in spring. What I did get of those two was pretty and tasty, and worth giving another try for sure.

Purple Magic broccoli

Burgundy broccoli

I’m going to break up the report into two parts since I have a lot of veggies I want to mention, including tomatoes, peppers and sweet potatoes. So I’ll be back soon with Part 2 of the 2024 garden recap!