Our sad garden

Well, the garden didn't turn out too well. It was fun to watch everything grow but not too much fun to watch everything stop growing. This was our first year so we decided from the outset that it would be just a learning year for us.

Check out the best of the carrots. Cry with me.

I can point to several factors in the garden's not doing very well, and how we hope to counteract them next year:

  1. The soil was not tilled far enough down. When I see the stunted pathetic carrots, I can really imagine that they just didn't have anywhere to go. Next year we'll look into hiring someone to do it for us (I can't imagine it would cost much more than renting it ourselves and the subsequent ER costs and foot reattachment surgery).
  2. Chipmunks. Little rodents -- good thing they're so cute. Next year we plant to plant a marigold and lavender border.
  3. Powdery mildew. It got our zucchinis and cantaloupes and I think it got our watermelon too. Next year we will spray with a milk solution that should help.
  4. Planting too much, too close, all at the same time, and late in the season. Next year, we'll use our experience from this year!
  5. The miscarriage happened the weekend after I planted the garden. I don't know what I plan to do to not have that happen again, but it sure did put a damper on my enthusiasm and ability to do anything this summer.
Now, we did have some success. I had a nice crop of cherry tomatoes in a big pot on our front porch -- we probably got close to 60. We still have about a dozen green tomatoes and we're just hoping the plant can hold out long enough to ripen them up. Another case of overcrowding but I think it was a success nonetheless. I also did better-than-expected on my herb pots as well, since I usually kill anything off by the time it sprouts. We have had lots of fresh basil, thyme, and mint. Cilantro and dill didn't do very well -- I think they got too much sun.

Tell me -- how did your gardens grow this summer?

3 comments:

bellygirl said...

that's too funny karen, ours didn't do well either! we also chalked part of it up to being 1st timers. we got plenty of tomatos and our green peppers are still growing. but lost everything else. one reason was that he accidently let the chickens into half of it and they tore it up(!)

amelia said...

I did first time gardening too. We had some success and some failure. A naughty rabbit ate our watermelon plant. Apparently a bunny family lives nearby because we caught them in the garden several times. That was fun for the kids because they got to pretend they were Mr. McGreggor (peter rabbit) and chase the bad bunnies.

I got powdery mildew too and it killed my cucumber plants. It spread to my pumpkin plants but then a friend told me about a baking soda + dishsoap recipe for it. I found out that it works great as a preventative and even though the pumpkin and squash plant were already infected it did keep it from spreading any further. So, I will definitely do that next year. I did get 3 pumpkins though and they are starting to turn orange so they will make it.

I discovered that I will not use tomato cages again but will use wooden stakes instead. They ended up being kind of wimpy for the plants which grew HUGE. Especially the cherry tomato plant. My bell peppers did great. Corn did bad.

I planted a little too late to on some things--like watermelon and squash but I think that I will end up getting 2 squash before the weather turns too cool. I also grew okra but it grew soooooo slow. I finally, finally have some about ready to be picked. My mom said that okra likes really hot weather so maybe it wasn't warm enough this summer.

I don't think we tilled deep enough down either and this fall after everything stops growing I want to add some chicken poop manure or some cow manure. Amazingly, the hot peppers and one of my bell peppers did great and it was right where I planted my placenta from my last birth.

It was definitely a learning curve but I had fun doing it. Can't wait til next year!

I have been meaning to write a post on my own blog about the garden and I think I just did from my long comment! Ha!

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