How was your gardening luck this past season? Triumphs and failures? Dilemmas and problem solves? Regrets and new dreams?
How was your gardening luck this past season? Triumphs and failures? Dilemmas and problem solves? Regrets and new dreams?
My garden this year did not do as well as the last years. Maybe it was too hot and then too wet. I don't know, but almost everyone around here had problems. My red, yellow & orange bell peppers did pretty good. Green beans did not start untill the very end of August and now I have so many I am giving them away. I tried an Early Girl tomatoe this year for the first time and I did get some of those in July. My heirlooms are just now getting big, but they are green. Cherries and sweet 100's were o.k. also. But I started a brown tomatoe (can't remember the name) from seed and they did pretty well also. Egg plants did not do so well. The last years I had tons. Also I had one plant of zucchini and I got about 6 nice sizes. A couple for grilling and 1 large for grating. Swiss chard and Kale is still doing well. We have been getting some summer like weather this last week so I am praying that the tomatoes will rippen a bit. Next year I will not plant as much. Getting to old.
Compared to mine you did okay. I didn't plant anything. I think my soil is worn out. I need to spend some time working in some green manure. My neighbours have been very generous with their bounty. Well to the point we always had cukes, and tomatoes. I had extras so I did 10 cups each of tomato juice, tomato sauce, and relish! today I have 3 shrubs I bought at the nursery for half price. 2 peking cotoneaster and 1 bridal wreath spirea. Can't eat them but sure are pretty to look at! The cotoneaster has small berries for the birds.Grapes were out of control this year.
Have you tried Chocolate Beauty hybrid peppers? What heirlooms are you growing?
My garden did pretty well considering the intense heat of July and then the floods of August and September. My husband keeps bees, so I think that helps! Made lots of tomato sauce and some pepper jelly. I had a good crop of green beans--that the bunnies loved!! So, i only got one gallon of beans; wish I could have some of yours, Basil rock! Also tried corn and that worked pretty well, but some ears were pretty bare. The broccoli and cabbage did well, but I have to learn not to plant them all at the same time--everything comes in at the same time...the pumpkins were doing beautifully, but then we got some ugly bugs on the plants and they all collapsed. Irritating considering the darn vines meandered thru the whole garden. I do try to move my plants around every year so that nothing grows in the same space twice in three or four years. But that's hard if you don't want your tall plants to shade your shorter ones. Haven't had any frost, but the hurricane in sept. destroyed most of the garden. Do still have parsley and peppers left. Time to think about next year's garden!
Next year use a spray on your plants. One tablespoon baking soda, One teaspoon soap in a spray bottle. Helps the plants, bugs and bunnies don't like the baking soda flavour and very environmentally friendly. I use a powdered dishwasher soap just because it doesn't foam. Repeat after rain.
Maybe I'll give that a try next year, the rabbits had a salad bar going between the morning glories and sweet peas. I used my witches brew of cloves, pepper flakes, and garlic, with a touch of dish soap. The morning glories survived but not the sweet peas
Just take it as a compliment from the bunnies that your a good gardener! To get past that witches brew and still enjoy the peas they must be top quality!
It wasn't a successful year in general, from two packs of pumpkin and gourd seeds I only got one fruit before powdery mildew took over, one coleus from an entire pack, and one sunflower. Some flowers never bloomed at all and the others had almost non-existant flowering. Cosmos grew to a whopping height of 8" before keeling over......
Thanks, I will try the witches brew, but, boy, it gets so discouraging fighting the critters all the time. If it isn't the deer, then it's the ground hogs, bunnies, chipmunks and skunks!
I now know to keep my containers off of the ground, luckily I have places or things to put them on so the critters can't get to them. Still, it's better than when I lived in the city, the squirrels were into everything constantly--or the "neighbors" felt free to just walk off with the pots on the front porch!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote