I would love to hear how other gardener's identify their plants. I mean varieties - I can tell the difference between swiss chard and a tomato - but what kind of tomato?!?
Every spring when I am starting plants from seed, I use plastic or wooden markers to keep track of what's what. This year, I planted four different types of sweet peppers to see which ones grew the best. But the plastic / wooden markers have all faded in the sun (or washed off with the rain) and now I don't know which is which.
I planted ancho peppers - I know those for sure. But I had three different varieties of red peppers ... Super Red Pimento, Ace Hybrid and a pack of some generic red peppers that I picked up last year. The ones in the main photo above are Super Red Pimento - but I only know that because I googled an image of them and they look the same.
As for these peppers below, no idea!!
Ah well, I don't suppose it matters. Now that I have the seeds, I'll grow them all again next year. But I really need a better system.
Check out Daphne's Dandelions to see what goodies home gardener's are harvesting this week. And here is the rest of mine ...
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| Spaghetti Squash |
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| Mixed bag ... I mean mixed basket |
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| I have so many potatoes this year!!! |
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| I got 4 cups of borlotti beans from 7 lbs |
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| Amish Paste (I think :)) |
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| Swiss Chard |
Nice harvest. I like the Red Pimiento , I'll have to try those. To keep track of stuff planted, I use a master plan. Since I plant in raised beds, I have a spreadsheet layout with each bed divided into squares. Each year I print a new, blank copy of the layout. and then map the planting list onto the grids. Then I take the plan to the garden and plant each variety where designated. I use a pencil so I can change when I ad-lib, which often happens. This has saved me many times. For example, I learned the hard way that a red Sharpie fades in sunlight, so the markers in my garlic bed were illegible. The map (I actually use two, one each for spring planted and fall planted crops) allowed me to remark the markers with a black Sharpie.
ReplyDeleteYay for the potatoes! And I love mystery veggies. My winter squash vines got so tangled up I had to trace one back to the label to positively ID it (I had never grown it before).
ReplyDeleteI actually love the mystery veggies too ... I've just been struggling with sweet peppers and wanted to know which were best. But I'm not really thrilled with either variety.
DeleteSometimes I'll make notes in my journal about which variety got planted where. I never remember. Though I do confess this is the first year I've been writing that kind of thing down. I do keep maps of the garden to plan rotations and occasionally I'll put variety maps on those too.
ReplyDeleteLovely harvests. I especially like the squash. I would be eating them fairly plain with butter and salt and pepper. Yum.
My biggest problem was with containers - they were in rows at one point so I knew which were which, but I moved them around a few times and lost track! And yes, I love spaghetti squash with butter and maybe a bit of parmesan cheese - nice and simple.
DeleteLove, love, love the peppers. I only grew two varieties this year but next I plan to have many more, especially hot peppers. I also found out the hard way that Sharpies fade in the sun. Now, at the beginning of the season, I print out weatherproof labels that I stick to the plastic markers. They don't fade in the sun & stay put even when they get wet & I can re-use them every year. Originally I did this for everything, but now I only do it when I have more than one variety that is difficult to tell apart, like tomatoes, peppers, alliums, etc.
ReplyDeleteI might look into waterproof labels ... seems the easiest option.
DeleteYay for the potatoes! I don't have any, didn't planted any, but I'll have some sweet potatoes later, keeping my fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteI would love to try sweet potatoes some time ... potatoes get a bit monotonous so sweet potatoes would be a nice change.
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