2022 Garden Summary
With two years of gardening experience in our new home in Portland, I’ve had the opportunity to see a couple of seasons play through and looked forward to honing my skills in year 3! We had a waterfall installed over the winter, which really boosted the number of backyard birds - they love to bathe, drink and play!
We had snow. In April. In Portland. What the heck? This late arrival stunned many plants and prevented them from blooming this year, including all of our kiwi vines, the honeycrisp apple tree and even our huge jasmine. Even with the late snow, this was a very productive year in the garden. Our tomatoes did outstanding and it was such joy to see numerous other things grow from seed to harvest.
I also began the OSU Master Gardener program this year and our garden was part of the Certified Backyard Habitat tour.
Snow?! In April?!
April 11, 2022 - ❄️ Um, what? It snowed last night and is forecasted to snow for the next three days. In Portland. In April. My plants are so confused! I suited up at 6am and ventured into the garden… I jiggled all of my fruit trees/vines/bushes and the roses to relieve them of snow. These plants were not expecting the heavy pressure on their new and tender leaves. 🥶 Fingers crossed these plants bounce back after this week and still have a productive year. I feel so badly for the bees that started waking up to spring - hopefully they found a warm burrow. 🐝
UPDATE (Sep ‘22): This snow had a profound effect on the garden this year. This late arrival stunned many plants whose tender buds were just forming and prevented them from blooming this year, including all of our kiwi vines and the honeycrisp apple tree. Only the jonagold apple bloomed and fruited, and the jasmine and clematis, which usually bloom in April, delayed flowering by two whole months.
Tomatoes
This year I planted 10 varieties, half of which were in my lineup last year. I started all my seeds in January, which may seem early to some, but it works for me in Portland. I like for my tomatoes to get nice and strong and a foot high when I transplant them in the garden late spring. I start them inside, then move them to the greenhouse where they are lovingly potted up every few weeks.
This year's varieties:
Ananas Noire
Pineapple
Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye
Gold Nugget
Green Zebra
Oregon Cherry
Costoluto Fiorentino
Oregon Star
Banana Legs
Oregon Spring
January - Tomato seedlings are going strong, just two weeks after sow date.
March - things are lookin’ good in the greenhouse.
April - potted up into 2 gallon pots.
Moving tomatoes to the garden in Portland is a risky business. Late May is usually the target. But this year I went for it in April! (for half of them)
My husband is an engineer who a couple years ago built a garden sensor station and app that collects info on soil temp, air temp, light, etc. It may still be cool in Portland, but this time last year my tomatoes were in the ground with night temps the same they are now and soil temps only a few degrees cooler. Knowing those details about our precise space nudged me to plant one set late April - because last year the tomatoes did great, even in spite of the heat bubble. But I did wait until mid-May to transplant the rest in the garden.
Okay, so I’m a little nuts. I had 29 tomato plants this year. 😬 Next year I’ve promised myself I’ll have no more than a dozen. (We’ll see) But this year I started 10 different varieties from seed, half I love and half new to me. So it was a bit of an experiment. I put one of each variety in 5 gallon grow bags and the rest were in raised beds. They were all promoted to the garden gradually since late April, and are in different locations. All an experiment with timing and temps after the crazy weather this spring. -BUT- by early June I had tomatoes forming on nearly half of my plants. 🤩
June 28
July 12
July 26
August 9
This year I made tomato sauce!
Garlic
Garlic might be my very favorite thing to grow! I sow in October and harvest the following summer, providing 9 months of growth and interest throughout the year. It’s as ‘set it and forget it’ a crop as you can get. This year I planted even more than last, close to 100 bulbs.
This year’s varieties
Purple Glazer
Premium Northern White
Mt. Hood
Elephant Garlic (not true garlic, but still!)
Some folks harvest the scapes once they’ve formed, which are yummy and allow the plant to put a little more energy into a slightly bigger bulb. However, I leave most of my scapes as the bees absolutely love the flowers!
August - cured and ready!
Gallery
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