Though the main event of my gardens ends up being tomatoes, with eggplants and peppers as a supporting cast, lots happens before those particular crops end up in the kitchen. The 2021 garden began with what was growing in my two raised beds, planted the previous fall, and other cool or direct seeded crops such as sugar snap peas, summer squash and bush beans. Following are more information about what I planted, when I planted it and my overall impressions of how it went.

Bales in place, March 28, guarded by Koda. The groupings of four bales to the left of him were for beans (front), and summer squash (rear)

Bean and squash bales prepped and ready to direct seed, April 11

Since they grow so quickly from direct seeding, I never start with pre-sprouted seedlings for beans or squash. The bean varieties for 2021 are three favorites - Jade (which I first grew in 2008, purchased from Johnny’s Selected Seeds), Fowler - my very first seed acquisition after joining the Seed Savers Exchange in 1986, from George McLaughlin, and Marbel, purchased from Johnny’s Selected Seeds in 1990, and a variety that I had to hunt for because it is no longer sold by seed companies. I received good seeds upon request from both Johnny’s, and the SSE (they returned a sample to me that they had in their freezer - which was actually obtained from me in 1990!).

Jade is simply a perfect green bean, for my uses. The plants are vigorous and quite upright, yield very heavy, and the beans quite long and straight, up to 7 inches long. Flavor and texture are outstanding. I love Fowler for the sentimental reason of it being the first variety obtained as a SSE member, but it really is special. It is more compact than Jade, but yields even more heavily. Beans are more in the 5-6 inch range and delicious.

Marbel is really something special. The plants, with lavender pink flowers, are more of a semi-vining (half runner) type, so there are beans to harvest all over the plant. Not quite as heavily yielding as the two above, what sets it apart are the very long, very slender beans - it is a filet type - that are dark green with lavender streaks that fade when cooked. It MUST be picked often, as it grows quickly; when it loses its very slender diameter it is still tasty, but needs stringing. It is our favorite bean for snacking on (we throw a big handful into boiling water, set the timer for 6 minutes, drain and then serve with butter, salt, pepper and chives - perfect finger food as an appetizer).

I planted one row each of the bean varieties, into the 3 inch layer of planting mix that topped the prepared straw bales. From that single planting in early May, we ate beans pretty much daily until the plants grew tired in late August.

three rows of beans in the quartet of straw bales, with Marbel evident in the center row by the pinkish flowers

Marbel beans showing their characteristic color

There is so much lovely characteristic coloring of dried bean seeds. Left, Jade (pale green), right Fowler (coffee bean brown), lower Marbel (beige background with dark purple stripes).

We planted too much summer squash, but we ate very well all summer, because it was utterly delicious. I chose four varieties; Zephyr, a favorite for years (and distinctive as being yellow with a pale green blossom end), and hybrids Dunja (smooth long green zucchini), Goldmine (slightly ridged yellow zucchini type with gorgeous white lines running the length of the squash), and Magda (a pale green cousa type that was more of a tear drop shape).

I direct planted 3 seeds of each into a 3 inch deep central mound of planting mix in the center of each of the four bales in the pushed together quartet. I actually would go with 1 or 2 seeds of each next year, as the squash yield was quite overwhelming. As with the beans, the early direct seeding provided us with squash for the entire summer. We had no issues with mildew or the squash vine borer. Dunja and Goldmine were so vigorous that they overwhelmed poor Zephyr (only one seed of which germinated), and Madga was the lightest yielding of them all. To my palate, summer squash tastes like summer squash - it is the preparation and freshness that most significantly impact the flavor. I found all four varieties equally fine.

Summer squash coming along, about a week and a half after direct seeding

Dunja hybrid zucchini - note the nice white flecks on the foliage

hybrid summer squash Goldmine - you can pick out the faint white stripes forming

There are two other early planted crops to discuss. We crave Sugar Snap peas, and seeded a whole row against our side fence, on which there is a trellis, and strings to create our own trellis. Seeds germinated quickly and well, the plants were vigorous and produced a good yield of sweet, succulent snap peas. We’ve found the tall growing, original Sugar Snap variety superior in all respects to the shorter, so-called bush types. Though they were delicious, the yield is never as heavy as we’d like; sugar snap peas are simply one of our favorite vegetables, and they seem to come and go in the blink of the eyes.

Last but not least are the plantings in our two raised beds. Last fall I planted Swiss Chard, a pale yellow green-leaf family heirloom collard, a family heirloom kale, some lettuce, and some garlic (just random bulbs, some from local farmers markets, some from Trader Joe). I planted the garlic in September, and was told it was too soon - but it all worked out great. After we ate from these beds, they were re-planted with micro dwarf tomatoes in early May - but that’s for another blog.

Raised bed #1 - garlic fronting kale and collards and chard.

Raised bed #2 (elevated) - more garlic, lettuce, kale and chard.

This blog kicks off a series of garden updates for 2021 - next I will start to tackle the tomatoes. Since I still don’t have my July-Aug-Sept pictures (thanks to my laptop-peeing cat), I will not be able to show nearly as many of the amazing tomatoes that the garden produced. The language I use will be adequately descriptive to give a clear idea of how things went.