It was a good year for salsa at Ramsgate Manor. It was also the first year for my garden in full sun. Last fall, we had a 70+ year old Oak tree removed that was struggling with a disease. We decided it was best to remove it rather that spend the money to repair it. And the garden reaped the benefits. Here’s the breakdown of the tomatoes and peppers from the 2013 growing season.

Tomatoes

• Early Girls: 228 (8 plants)
• Patio: 172 (8 plants)
• Mega: 9 (3 plants)
• Celebrity: 76 (3 plants)
• Roma: 127 (8 plants)
• Large red cherry: 1042 (8 plants)
• Rutgers: 170 (8 plants)
• Better boys: 98 (4 plants)

• Total tomatoes: 1922
• Total tomatoes (without large red cherries): 880

Peppers

• Camelot:71 (8 plants)
• Big bertha: 80 (8 plants)
• Red peppers:33 (4 plants)
• Orange peppers: 25(4 plants)
• Jalapeños:17 (1 plant)
• Flavor bursts: 24 (4 plants)

• Total peppers: 250
• Total peppers (without jalapeños):233

Grand total

• Total yield: 2172
• Total yield (without large red cherries and jalapeños): 1113

You can take a look at the garden layout and the total numbers on my Google Drive spreadsheet.

It was a spicy summer

In the midst of July, we were overwhelmed with tomatoes. We didn’t know what to do. So we sliced and diced and made some salsa. The biggest batch we’ve made to date—over 30 pints. We were rocking the pineapple, mango, and pineapple & mango salsa batches. Of course, the freshness of the pico de gallo salsa can not go unnoticed.

It was a great season for the garden. Lots of early summer rain and not too many hot days. Looking back, I would probably avoid the mega tomatoes and the flavor bursts (they were smaller than the bell peppers). The large red cherries overtook the garden, literally over 8-feet tall. The Rutgers were pretty tall as well, so I might need to do some re-arranging.

I had some early season bottom-rot on the tomatoes, which I learned that I needed more calcium in the garden. A few egg shells at the base of the plants resolved that pretty quickly. Other than that, the garden pretty much took care of itself. Occasional watering and grooming and we had a record year. And the salsa was delicious.