Time of reckoning is bad news for spuds, peppers

As far as preparation for winter goes, my vegetable garden is far better off than I am. I couldn’t tell you where my winter gloves and hats are, but all of the garden beds have been cleaned out except for one where kale and beets continue to grow. Compost — mostly the product of last fall’s yard cleanup — has been spread over the beds, and one full 4-by-8-foot bed is fully planted with garlic.

It’s more than twice as much garlic as I’ve planted in the past, but part of the winterization process is a time of reckoning for what makes the cut for next year’s garden. Since garlic stores so well, there’s no danger of any going to waste, and since I’ll harvest it sometime in July, I’ll be able to get at least one more crop of something else in that bed.

Other vegetables will not be so lucky.

Potatoes, I’m looking at you. Spuds take up a good amount of space in the garden and I find it hard to properly hill them up in a raised bed. What I end up with is a bunch of tall growth that flops over, making it impossible to walk between beds. When I found myself staking my potatoes this summer, I vowed it would be the last moment I spend on that frivolousness. You can buy a pretty delicious, organically grown potato at the farmer’s market for far less than what it cost me for my meager harvest.

I might use the space currently occupied by my pathetic spuds to grow more winter squash. The last two years, ‘Baby Butternut’ squashes — at least half the size of a traditional butternut squash and therefore perfect cubed and roasted as a side dish — have sustained us well into the new year. This year I also grew Honeynut squash, which looks similar to butternut but is even sweeter. It was not as prolific as Baby Butternut, but a side-by-side taste test proved it the winner.

I’m also re-evaluating my relationship with peppers. I love growing them, but it’s time I face the fact that they don’t really love growing in my garden. An average summer not far from Lake Michigan is just not hot enough to give them what they really want. Sweet peppers are, by and large, an exercise in futility for me, and I just don’t know how many hot peppers I need to grow. Frankly, I’d probably be better off growing them in large pots on the south-facing patio where they can bake away.

One candidate for next year’s garden is ginger, which I’ve previously grown in pots. It might not be the most practical vegetable to claim a place in the garden, but it is a beautiful plant and that counts for something in my garden. Plus, I won’t have to worry about propping it up in a jury-rigged tangle of wood stakes and twine.

It’s good to have a plan while memories of this summer’s garden, including pathetic potatoes and puny peppers, are still fresh in your mind.