Perenials vs Annuals

The results are in.

We’ve tallied up the scores.

The winner for best production in 2016 is…perennials! By a long shot.

The kitchen garden was left to its own devices for far too long.

The broccoli barely produced.

Don’t even get me started on the peppers.

Granted, the cherry tomatoes are producing well, but we’ve only picked a few ripe tomatoes…most of them are still green.

On the upside, this may be the year we get brussels sprouts. The heat hasn’t killed the plants and I see little sprouts sprouting.

The perennials, on the other hand, produced, produced and produced some more.

We are still picking blackberries and we have several gallon and pint bags in our freezer already.

We’ve made blackberry pie, dipped them in Cool Whip and we are going to make blackberry ice cream…and maybe blackberry wine.

The grapes have doubled their production from last year. I’m not sure what we are going to do with them…but I’m thinking it might be fun to experiment with making our own grape ice wine or maybe blackberry/grape juice.

The aronia are just about ready to pick and I want to try making some jam this year…or maybe chokecherry wine.

Hmmm. Icewine, blackberry wine, chokecherry wine…there seems to be a common theme.

The mint has gone completely insane. I don’t want it to take over the vineyard but it smells so good and it keeps the weeds down. I need to harvest it and dry to use for tea.

The hops, despite the beetle attack, are getting big and have popped up everywhere, tangling with the grapes and kiwi.

The perennials are the clear winners of this year’s production competition. But I can’t really blame the annuals for their failure.

We focused so much on our trees, shrubs and fight with the Japanese beetles that the poor tomatoes, peppers and broccoli were left defenceless.

Next year, I’ll be sure to give them a head start.

Annuals have lost
Perennials take the win
Poor, sad tomatoes