Rod Gesten here, owner of Mud Hub Greenhouses.
As we transition into the cooler months and start planning for next year, I wanted to open up my personal Mud Hub Greenhouse in Santa Fe, NM, and share the raw data from our past warm growing season. Our high-altitude, Zone 6a climate makes for a short and challenging season.
I believe in radical honesty: not everything works perfectly. From unexpected pest flare-ups to an untimely case of root rot, this is my personal audit of the hits, the misses, and the tough lessons learned. My goal is simple: to help you avoid my mistakes and replicate my successes.
Let’s dive into the dirt to expose the studs and the duds.
Tomatoes and Horn Worms
We got off to a great start in January with beautiful seedlings ready for repotting by mid-March. Unfortunately, due to having to be away for a week, they were overwatered in my absence, and along with the pepper starts, all died of root rot. Having to start over again on my return, I worried that the season might not be long enough to yield any kind of crop from the 25 plants. I was wrong. They are still coming in this late in the season as it’s the end of September. (Only three of the dozen or so pepper plants made it.) It seems to have been a banner year for horn worms, as I’ve removed about three dozen of those and counting.
Tomato plants are still producing
Parsnips
I had never tried parsnips to the extent that I seeded in our raised beds this past early April under our winter poly film cover. To say they merely flourished would be an understatement. The harvest much more than exceeded what we could put in soups and we wound up freezing a lot of it for winter consumption.
Kale
This was also a banner yield for kale. I planted red kale and some Russian Kale and it all took off. Luckily, we enjoy kale chips as do our friends.
Kale is still going strong and it loves cooler weather
Cucumbers
It wasn’t that great a year for cucumbers. The upper garden produced practically none. My guess is that tree roots are infiltrating the beds and competing for nourishment. The lower garden had a little more success but not what I would have hoped for. I think that overzealous plants that were adjacent to the cukes overran those plants and shaded them from sunlight, particularly the summer squash which was uber productive.
Summer Squash (Zucchini)
We got a lot of zucchini, plenty of baked zucchini breads to go around. I seem to always have luck with these but the harvest came at a cost! The plants were rampant, growing large and aggressively crowding out the crops planted adjacent to them. The lesson is clear: summer squash is a heavy feeder and a spatial bully. I highly recommend giving these vines a lot of dedicated space away from other crops. This is exactly why a separate, dedicated raised bed system—like the ones we offer in the Mud Hub Kits—can be a perfect solution for managing those aggressive growers. Next year, I’m trying a smaller variety to see if we can curb the plant size.
Summer squash: the culprit. Look at the size of those leaves!
Broccoli
After years of trying to grow this crop, I would call this year’s attempt a success. I’ve tried DeCicco and Rabb varieties in the past, but the Waltham variety seemed to do the trick, with nice blossoms that don’t flower too quickly.
I started seeding indoors around mid-March in flats. As the weather got warmer the starts were about 3”-4” tall and appeared stemmy and flimsy, very fragile. I sowed a lot of these and probably half made it after transplanting them into the greenhouse. Broccoli needs a lot of time, so the earlier the process starts the better. When the plants yield top flowers, cut them off to encourage more blossoms.
Waltham broccoli: so delicious
Other successful crops (Shallots)
Garlic bulbs were bountiful as usual. I plant cloves in late October for a July or early August yield. We had a great June-August harvest of radishes, varieties of lettuces, cabbage, carrots, chard, beets and spinach. I’m particularly excited about the shallots I tried for the first time, as they are my favorite onion. I’ll be sure to increase the number of bulbs I plant in the future.
The other duds
I tried cauliflower for the first time, and it didn’t quite work out. While the plants look fine, they are still not flowering. Maybe they require a longer season. I had no luck at all with Brussel sprouts this year. Peppers, for me, are an annual struggle. I don’t know why I persist. Oddly, a very hot pepper plant volunteered in a crack in the concrete and yielded. But it wasn’t planned. We have a moderate size shishito as well. But that’s really it compared to all those that I seeded back in the spring. I do know that it is possible to grow them where I am, but just haven’t been able to control conditions to their liking so far.
The Final Tally & Next Steps
The most critical lesson from this season, as always, is that gardening is a constant process of adaptation. Even with the superior protection of a Mud Hub Greenhouse, vigilance in watering, pest control (those three dozen hornworms!), and plant spacing remains paramount.
However, despite the setbacks (RIP, pepper seedlings), the extended season provided by the greenhouse meant we still brought in a generous tomato crop and a banner yield of parsnips and kale.
Transition to Winter Production
The summer harvest is ending, but the growing never stops. I’m now preparing our beds for the winter garden—which will reach its full potential while the spring winds are still blowing outside.
As I gradually seed lamb’s lettuce, chards, and get the garlic in the ground this October, I’m reminded how wonderful it is to sit in a covered greenhouse in the middle of winter, surrounded by greens and humidity.
Ready to Plan Your Year-Round Success?
If you’re ready to start planning your own year-round success story, our Mud Hub Year-Round Planner is the perfect guide to help you manage the short days and cold weather.
Good luck with your own growing, and we encourage you to share your own stories with us! What were your biggest hits and misses this year?
Happy Growing, Rod Gesten Owner, Mud Hub Greenhouses
