Robbins Farm Garden

This year’s weather gave us mild spring temperature swings, a hot summer with little rain, and a gradual cooling through fall. It was a great year for asparagus, beets, carrots, lettuce, okra, onions, parsnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and tomatillos. It was less than a great year for our tomatoes and beans (bush, pole, lima, runner, and soy).

Work began with seedlings indoors in early March, followed by work at the garden in early April. There were no large infrastructure projects, though the Jerusalem artichoke bed was dug, replanted, and lined with metal edging. With the park playground completed, the Friends of Robbins Farm Park’s regular schedule returned with Spring and Fall Cleanup Days and Field Day. The Friends also had a Town Day booth in September, complete with a basket from the garden.

New crops this year were: garleek, dahlias, salvia, and snapdragons. We tried new varieties of beans (Red Tail, Amethyst), beets (Chioggia), Brussels sprouts (Speedia), collards (Top Chop), lettuce (Kagraner Sommer), marigold (Petite Mix), onion (Wethersfield), parsnip (Warrior), fall pea (Sugar Ann), peppers (Aji Cristal, Aleppo, Altiplano, Criolla de Cocina, Goddess, Round of Hungary, Sargento), potato (Carola), specialty radish (Pusa Jamuni), salad turnip (Tokinashi), tomatillo (Pancho), tomatoes (Chef’s Choice Yellow, Golden Jubilee, Midnight Roma, Mountain Spirit, Woodstock), winter squashes (Mambo, Red Kuri, Seminole), watermelon (Blacktail Mountain), and zucchini (Long White of Palermo).

None of this would have been possible without the skill, ingenuity, persistence, and genuine good cheer of our amazing gardeners: Alan, Anne, Bev, Brian, Carol, Celia, David, Elisabeth, Lisa, Maddie, Martha, Mike, Nicole, Pamela, Shakti, Steven, Suzy, Tim, and Wendy. Thank you all!

Egyptian Walking Onions did great this year!
Garleek did well in front of the okra in perimeter and raised beds. Grow again, maybe planted more densely.
Garlic planting extra cloves between rows worked well for early “green garlic” harvest. Regular harvest may have been a little late. Consider growing more Georgian Crystal. Move location in bed to accommodate shift in kohlrabi in next bed.
Onions and Shallots did well this year; no loss of seedlings and less mildew; very nice harvest – hooray!
Onion sets did well this year. Planting a little farther from the edge and weeding well made a big difference.
Leeks were amazing – Megaton rules!
Scallions germinated well, but could have been planted less densely for easier harvesting and faster growing. Don’t forget the fertilizer.

Broccoli 1^st crop had better color, but heads were small and irregular with good side shoots. 2^nd crop did great.
Brussels sprouts did okay, but possibly stunted and had some leaf curling. Variety probably good. Try planting 8 plants vs. 9 to give them more space and fertilize more. Research for next year.
Cabbage 1^st crop did well, though a few were quite small. 2^nd crop did well, both varieties good. More insect damage this year.
Cauliflower 1^st crop had some good heads and some button-heading, underwhelming. 2^nd crop did well. Consider experimenting with other varieties?
Collards new variety seems good, but got off to a slow start. Consider starting indoors with the kales next year and plant with 6-to-a-row spacing.
Sprouting Broccoli did okay, but maybe should be harvested twice a week early in the season. Try another variety and evaluate?
Kales were started indoors and did so much better! Both varieties did well.
Kohlrabi 1^st crop was great; 2^nd crop was shaded by kale plants and didn’t mature. Shift to sunnier side of bed and remember to fertilize when seeding second crop.

Carrots were the best yet! All 3 plantings germinated well (definitely use straw again to cover freshly-planted soil), were well thinned and produced healthy roots.
Celery one plant did poorly; others all did great. Blanching boards worked well.
Parsnips germinated really well (with shredded straw on soil) and gave us the best crop in years! Didn’t thin as an experiment, so most harvested were not large; left a fair amount to overwinter.

Asparagus provided a good harvest, but might require a mid-week harvest in peak season. Plants were shorter and bushier this year. North side of bed more robust than the south.
Corn thinned to 1 stalk per spot with slightly wider (15”) rows. Grew well, but wildlife ate it all this year. Try growing a smaller variety that is less attractive to wildlife next year?
Edible Flowers: Dahlias were grown from seed, and were amazing! Nasturtiums (self-seeded and seedlings) did well. Salvia grew well and was a nice foreground planting height, but didn’t have great flowers for cutting. Snapdragons were good, but maybe look for a variety with longer stems. Zinnias grew well but the flowers were too small.
Marigolds produced good cut flowers, but plants were too large to grow with other crops. Find a more compact variety with good flowers for cutting.
Okra grew in regular bed and raised beds this year. Slow start due to cool spring, but all plants recovered. Strong harvest, but seed head marked for saving mysteriously disappeared.
Saffron produced but wasn’t as robust this fall. Consider digging and replanting in June.
Sesame was given a small space next to Jerusalem artichokes. Some seedlings didn’t survive after planting in garden. The remaining plants were destroyed by wildlife. Maybe we shouldn’t grow for a while.
Sunflowers did well. Saved seed.

Arugula did okay. Consider a more vigorous, slow-to-bolt variety? Maybe grow in the shade of another crop?
Bok Choy spring crop (only Prize Choy) and fall crop (Prize Choy and Shanghai) did well.
Lettuce was the best yet! All beds were beautifully tended for all-season harvests. Good mix of heat-tolerant varieties. Still having some problems with seed germination year to year.
Malabar Spinach did fine. Grew on tomato frame again.
Mustard very good, do again.
Perpetual Spinach was painfully slow getting established and didn’t do as well as Swiss chard. Consider replacing with white Swiss chard next year and grow all Bright Lights in Swiss Chard bed.
Shiso grown from volunteer seedlings again. Did very well in interior of tomato bed.
Spinach did okay, but not as good as last year; covered with insect screen for leaf miner.
Swiss Chard took a long time to get established, but had no leaf miner without being covered. Consider starting seedlings indoors at same time as beets and/or kales.