It hasn’t been all grasshoppers and plague this year. While I didn’t originally intend to plant as much as I did, but the Covid-19 situation kept me home so the garden turned out better than expected. And even though grasshoppers were thick, there were fewer pest problems with some species. 

Passion for purple

My pet project this year was my purple garden. I love the color so I wanted to see what vegetables I could grow in that hue. I planted carrots, lettuce, bok choy, peas, tomatillos, cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, cauliflower, basil, and tomatoes. The bok choy was super cute, although it bolted earlier than I anticipated. The kohlrabi was terrific, the purple carrots are delicious (and beautiful), and the tomatillos are nearly as tall as I am. The purple tomatoes are lagging a little bit, but that seems to be par for the season. As long as it doesn’t become cold too quickly, we should have some ripe ones before long. 

The interesting aspect about the purple cauliflower and cabbage is I do not have nearly the numbers of cabbage moths or loopers as I have in years past. I’m not positive there is a correlation between the purple color and lack of pest pressure, but I was pleased. 

Success with peppers and summer squash

As I mentioned, it’s not all grasshoppers and plague. Peppers did fairly well this year, despite having a cold start to the summer. My favorite, the Italian sweet pepper ‘Carmen’ is growing well in the greenhouse. I should have taken photos of the beautiful, red peppers I harvested from the plants, but I ate them too quickly! There will be more before the first frost. I picked up additional peppers, including jalapenos, and we’ve been enjoying those, as well, even if they don’t have much heat for some reason. 

Planting Zucchini in the Fall for Last-Minute Summer Squash

Summer squash was off to an interesting start. We harvested small ones early in July, although they had a hard exterior, more like winter squash. As summer progressed, they grew more like standard zucchini. Many bags have been grated and frozen to make more zucchini cake like my son baked in the solar oven just last week. 

Tomatoes: Slow and steady

At the beginning of the gardening season, I intended to plant three tomato plants. We don’t eat a lot of them, but I really like dehydrating them, so I thought that would be enough. But like any gardener, I couldn’t resist a few more. By the end, I think I planted nine. The yellow pears are producing like gangbusters, and while the larger tomatoes are a bit behind, we should have a good crop if the frost stays away. 

Despite grasshoppers and plague, a bounty of potatoes

Potatoes are the ones I really look forward to harvesting. I dug a couple of hills this evening, and the Norkotah variety, a russet type out of North Dakota, looks nice. I haven’t dug the Yukon Gold potatoes, but the plants looked terrific throughout the summer. (Well, until the grasshoppers did a number on them.) On a side note, when I finish digging the potatoes, I’ll seed buckwheat as a fast-growing cover crop. 

So even though it was a challenging year, it wasn’t all grasshoppers and plague. Yes, there were obstacles such as snow in May and cold stretching into July, but it’s amazing how quickly everything kicks in once conditions improve. Now we’ll just keep our fingers crossed that the snow forecasted for the higher elevations stays there, and we avoid an early frost. If that works out, it will be an above-average gardening season in the books.