Review ('08) Tomatoes, Peppers, Basil

Overall, we were pleased with the results of our first garden. Some crops did better than others. We tried to stick with the heirloom seeds we bought at Baker's Creek, but a couple of our plants came from the hardware store.

Tomatoes (about 16 plants)
We planted two varieties of tomatoes, both heirlooms. Brandywine is one of those all-time favorites, and we liked it alright, but our favorite was the Paul Robeson. Although not as large as the Brandywine, the Paul Robeson (a deep purple, nearly black tomato) is really tasty. We planted these two too close to save seeds, as they cross polinated, but we plan to keep them apart next year.

A friend gave us some old tomato cages. These are the kind of cages you see everywhere, wire circles , larger on top than on bottom. They stand about 2.5 feet tall, with 8 inches or so of wire pushed into the ground. At first, they were great, and made our tomatoes look tame. But as the tomatoes gained height, they overflowed the cages and spilled out over the top. For the other tomatoes, we made bamboo supports that stood about 6 ft. tall and looked a little like coverless teepees over the tomatoes. These worked pretty well, and stood up to the winds. We just read about another method, one where you weave non-stretching twine between posts, so we will try that next year.

Of the initial 24 plants, only 16 survived to fruit. A couple developed a strange rot that hollowed out the center of each branch, and we pulled these immediately. A few small transplants were eaten by something, rabbits probably.

Basil (about 8 plants)
Two types, Thai basil and cinnamon basil, were grown both among the tomatoes and in the freestanding herb garden. The plants in the herb garden grew much larger, I suspect because they had better sun. We didn't care for the cinnamon basil's flavor, it tasted "grassy" but drying it seems to have helped. Both varieties took off once the weather turned warm.

Peppers (about 4 plants)
The Chinese peppers were shaded in the garden, and I suspect the lack of sun hindered their growth. We got two peppers from that plant. The habeñeros (which were purchased from Ace Hardware... not an heirloom) did remarkably well in the herb garden, and held its own among the vegetables. They were, by most accounts, far too hot to eat. Wunderle planted his tabasco plant in our garden (bought as a start from the farmer's market, I think) which did so well that we decided it would make a beautiful ornamental and should be planted someplace outside of the garden.