Our garden in 2020:

Snow peas

I started these early, spread out daily over a month. They did well for a while, but were badly damaged by heat before they finished producing. This was an unusually hot and dry year. Melons planted near them as they matured did not do well.

Melons

Two varieties, both started indoors, then transplanted to the greenhouse and clipped to strings to grow vertically. We lost a few to grubs, but protected most with cardboard collars.

A major reason to try melons was to keep nightshades out of the greenhouse for a year to reduce diseases.

PMR 51

These were almost untouched by powdery mildew, and yielded many fruit around 2kg (much larger than the advertised 2-3 lbs). Harvest was about 30 kg of good fruit. They turn distinctly yellow when ripe, though they may have been ripe a little before.

Emerald gem

These suffered from mildew near the end of the season, and yielded about 17kg of good melons. It was much harder to tell when they were ripe, as they remain green.

Delicata squash

We probably harvested about 10kg of this, though we didn’t track it as carefully. Much easier harvesting, as they do not overripen on the vine. They probably didn’t need to be in the greenhouse. Leaves pretty much destroyed by mildew by September, despite two treatments of sprayed diluted milk.

Zucchini

Planted late, outside, and only four germinated successfully. Produced nicely. Of course.

Cherry Tomatoes

All volunteers that I allowed to grow outside the greenhouse. Tied to an improvised hoop support as they grew. Fairly light production, but they were of unknown genetics and largely neglected.

Apples

Mostly failed to flower.

Sour Cherry

Flowered, set some fruit, but not a lot

Apricot

A few flowers, no fruit set. Heavily pruned before the season.

Pawpaw

Large flower production, small fruit set, almost all fruit dropped when small. One cluster of 3 full-size fruits remaining.

Green Gage Plum

Produced a handful of plums, all good.

Other plum

Set a large number of fruit, which I thinned out drastically, since it has dropped most of its fruit in other years. It kept and ripened most of the remaining fruit, but still dropped quite a bit.

Peach

Set rope through curved EMT conduit to try to pull the tree upright, with good success. Thinned fruit greatly, since this tree overproduces when it should be trynig to grow. Got about a dozen good peaches.

• garden
• 2020