Meet the farmers: Shannon & Todd

When we last met with Shannon and Todd earlier this year, they were fresh off of a year of almost zero harvest from their perfectly situated garden.

It looked great. It got tons of sun. It had automatic irrigation. They loved it OH so much. And, yet still, things hadn't gone well.

But they were ready to do whatever it was going to take to get that garden growing. They wanted tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and herbs this summer OR BUST.

So how'd they do?

Um, "well", doesn't seem to cover it.

But let's hear it from the farmers themselves. They tell their story best.

So, you two, what was the deal with your garden? How come things weren't growing? 

Well, in hindsight, it was probably a combination of a number of things.  We bought our house a few years ago, and the spot where we decided to put our garden was so neglected that weeds wouldn’t even grow there.  We spent a couple seasons amending the soil with homemade compost, etc., but in a completely non-scientific way…We figured just putting what we determined was “good stuff” into the soil would automatically make things grow.  It most likely helped (nothing could have hurt that spot), but certainly didn’t deliver the results we were hoping for as far as garden yield…

We planted some vegetables that we bought at a local nursery, and roughly followed the guidelines for spacing, watering, etc., but really didn’t give any consideration to what plants complemented other plants in a particular growing space.  This would inevitably lead to one plant completely overgrowing another, or tomatoes growing too tall and bushy and shading other plants from the afternoon sun, etc.  We ended up with a lot of cherry tomatoes, but not much else…And there is only so much you can do with cherry tomatoes before you grow tired of them.  The other plants that did grow, just didn’t seem to pollinate, or when they did, didn’t produce very many vegetables.

Compounding the problem, we started off the season hand watering while trying to figure out what emitters and how much watering (frequency and duration) we should do via the automatic irrigation…The cutover invariably happened just as we were going on a week’s vacation, and we weren’t around to determine if the watering was sufficient or too much…

This year, Jessica came out, tested our soil, and gave us a list of amendments (type and quantity) to add to each bed based on what we were planning to grow.  She grouped complementary vegetables, herbs, and flowers into the appropriate beds, and provided a planting and irrigation plan (complete with emitter sizing) to get us going from the start…I think the results speak for themselves…It was great having more than just cherry tomatoes this year :o)

SO MUCH MORE. Also, no cherry tomatoes at all.

What did you do to fix the problem? 
My wife called Jessica at Indie Farms!  This is where I state I was somewhat reluctant at first in that I’m a pretty handy guy (having remodeled a couple homes, landscaped and irrigated several yards, built a cabin by hand, etc.) and do most projects on my own.  I figured I could certainly figure this gardening thing out without the need for outside help…based on my results from the previous year’s garden, my wife wisely called anyway :o)

Hard to argue with that.

With your garden all fixed up, what did you decide to grow?
With somewhat limited space, the hard part for us was settling upon something we all (most of us) mutually like that would also give us the most menu flexibility.  We decided on:

Armenian cucumbers
Asian pickling cucumbers
Jalapeno peppers
Anaheim chilis
Sweet bell peppers
Better Boy tomatoes
Pink Brandywine tomatoes
Lemon basil
Sweet basil

Did you have any favorite varieties? What made them great? 
LOVED the Better Boys and Brandywines…FULL of flavor and very consistent growers.  The Armenian Cucumbers were also flavorful and equally consistent. 

That's a lot of flavor, right there.

 
What was the best thing you did with your amazing harvests?
 
We made several batches of salsa -> included EVERYTHING from the garden … so yummy!!  We also made brochette, and cucumber/tomato salad.  We really just ate thing straight out of the garden, too.  Added to pasta dishes and salads.  Our picky toddler even gobbled everything up.  He had a lot of fun with “his garden.” 

That toddler can really cook.

What did you learn from this season's gardening and coaching that you'll use in future seasons? 
First thing we learned was to call Indie Farms.  Jessica’s vast knowledge, planning, and advice gave us a great garden with great yields!  Seriously!  

We definitely learned (contrary to what I thought growing up, and evidenced by our previous garden) that there is more to growing a successful garden than just tilling in some compost, planting some plants, and giving them water...especially with the limited growing space many of us are left with here in Silicon Valley.  

With two kids, two dogs, and both of us working high tech jobs, not a lot of time (or desire) was left to do all the reading and research on our own.  It is money well spent bringing in someone who knows what they are doing and can get you on the right track quickly…Confined by the traditional growing seasons, aside from waiting until next year, you don’t get a lot of time for do-overs in putting in your garden...and it is not a lot of fun spending time and effort putting something in that doesn’t grow or produce like you had expected…

Unless you expect it to do REALLY well. Which we did. And it did. Get all that?

 
With summer long gone, what are you doing this winter in the garden? 
Well, we pulled the last of our ripe tomatoes, peppers, and chilis off the plants at the beginning of November, and with some quick coaching from Indie Farms, we had our winter garden in place two weeks later.  We are growing:

Broccoli
Cauliflower
Carrots
Beets
Brussel's Sprouts
Mustard greens
Spinach
Romaine Lettuce

Will you grow a kitchen garden again next spring?

Absolutely!  With a little help…

I think they meant a different kind of help, buddy. Sorry. I'll still throw the ball for you.