Since we are basically done with Friday PhotoEssays for the year, I am going to switch gears a little bit and do a few more “Year in Review” posts to wrap up this year’s garden. We’ve already done the heirloom tomatoes, and today we are going to take on the Taste of India garden.

Cumin: We never managed to get the seeds to germinate. I don’t know if it was them or us, but we’ll have to give in a try another time.

Cuban Oregano

Ajwain/Cuban Oregano: This plant started as a tiny transplant that I thought for sure was going to bite the dust. And then it turned into this sprawling monster! Needless to say, it loved the summer. It did start showing cold injury once we got down to the 40s overnight. Unfortunately, I never got around to figuring out how to cook with it, so it was an attractive plant, but not overly useful.

‘Kesar’ Red Carrots: These carrots had huge tops, and the roots were decent sized as well. They were more purple than red, although a commenter did say that the name of the carrot indicated the more purple color than what we would typically call red. Unfortunately, we got a late start with them, since the seeds didn’t germinate readily. (Again, probably more us than them.) This meant that by the time we harvested, the carrots were pretty bitter due to the heat.

‘Samurai’ Red Carrot: More red colored than the ‘Kesar,’ these carrots also suffered from summer heat bitterness. Ugh.

‘Dulhan’ Pepper: This was a round, flat pepper that started pale cream/white and turned red. It was a sweet pepper with a little kick to it. It did fine, although by later in the summer it was getting too much shade from the trellises and didn’t produce very well.

‘Jwala’ Pepper

‘Jwala’ Pepper: This hot pepper did great, as most hot peppers are prone to do in Kansas summers.

‘Sagar’ Spinach: This spinach was a little bit slower to germinate than our regular spinach varieties, and the leaves were much more tender and succulent. I think that flavor-wise it was a little stronger flavored. Maybe a little more reminiscent of mustard or kale? It was no more heat/bolt resistant than other varieties, which I was hoping for. I’m curious to see how it compares to the other spinach when it gets cold next week, but I’m not expecting it to survive like our other spinaches.

‘Basanti’ Mustard

‘Basanti’ Mustard Greens: If you like mustard greens, this was a great, fast-growing variety. We had a hard time keeping up with it in the spring. It did bolt earlier than I thought it might, but we were really tired of mustard greens by then.

‘King Cobra’ Snake Gourd: The snake gourd plant was slower to get started in the summer, but it pretty much took over the world after that. It had really cool white flowers with nice fragrance. The plant itself was relatively productive, although we weren’t harvesting frequently to help keep it producing. We never got around to trying out recipes with these gourds, so it was more ornamental than anything.

‘Tagore’ Bitter Melon: The bitter melon plant did well initially, until it got swarmed under by the snake gourd. We did get some fruit off it earlier in the season, but then it quite producing. My best guess would be that was due to the snake gourd. Or maybe it just isn’t that productive. Denise did cook a couple of these, but we decided that it was a big hassle to cook with and that zucchini were tastier than the bitter melon.

Snake Gourd vs. The Garden

‘Poona Kheera’ Cucumber: This cucumber was quite productive in the first part of the summer and had decent flavor. It was pretty seedy, but that would be normal for this type of cucumber. Again, not much production later on, which I blame on the snake gourd.

‘Sambar’ Cucumber: Since this was the cooking cucumber that was harvested at the yellow stage rather than the green stage, the plants definitely didn’t produce as much as other cucumbers. Leaving maturing fruit on the vine usually limits additional fruit development. We got a decent harvest, but not spectacular. And they seemed to quit producing in the late summer. Dare I blame the snake gourd again?

‘Black Kabouli’ Chickpeas: The plants were attractive and the yield was okay, all things considered. We did have some caterpillar eating the peas out of the pods, which reduced the yield. Fun novelty, but not particularly productive for a small space. I still need to make up a batch of hummus from the chickpeas we harvested.

Green Cowpeas: The cowpeas went crazy over the summer. We ended up cutting them back several times. They also completely swarmed under the Curry Leaf and the Lemon Savory that were growing on the end of the bed. The yield was decent, although for the size of the plants I would have expected a little bit more. They had a couple different flushes of flowers and pods, but then quit as it got cooler in the late summer and early fall. Probably more effective as a cover crop than a yielding crop in a garden, but still fun to try.

So….this garden was a bit of a story of a couple plants taking over everything else and a few other plants that did well. Nothing particularly stood out as something that we need to try again or that we really liked.