In the midst of not focusing on my homeschooling duties at the moment, I will reflect on how my garden just did not do that well this year.
First, I did my best to get it going before the wedding, and the spring was so unusually glorious hereabouts that I thought I might be able to get it through. But then the rains set in.
{By the way, all my darling Arizona and New Mexico friends, I am well aware that you consider me a crazed obsessive freak when it comes to mold. You picture me sprinkling the premises liberally, if not promiscuously, straight from the bleach jug, occasionally taking a swig to the chorus of a lusty drinking song, just to show that I can.
But I just have to tell you that it rained for well nigh six weeks this summer, straight (only a brief break for the wedding, thanks be to God). Then it rained a lot but not solid. So sor-ry.
Maybe if you had mushrooms growing in your bathroom — no, not for agricultural reasons — you'd be a freak too! Try not to judge.}
My beautiful heirloom Amish paste tomato plants, that I snatched the last five of at the farmstand near the Abbey, got blighted. How very pitiful and sad. And heirloom-esque in that un-genetically-modified way.
Something stole my corn, after having gotten the broccoli early on — really, corn is hardly worth it when you live in a place where the very supermarkets sell local corn of a fabulous standard for pennies, just as yours is ripening slowly in the mistaken thought that it's not going to be snatched by some thieving critter.
However, at least I didn't have to water it.
The raspberries are engulfed in weeds and the blueberries are not to be found — engulfed isn't the word here — more like obliterated. My weeds, fed not only by the aforementioned rain-of-biblical-proportions but also by the mysterious yet obviously fertile properties of the leachfield above them (I can't stop to explain the geography of my yard just now), threaten to march right into the house and simply take over my life and be done with it.
For the first time ever, I got some peppers and some eggplants, but not enough to even mention, except that in the past I never got one, so maybe, yes, watering was my issue.
Beans, bad timing viz-a-viz weddings, funeral, college. Can't be everywhere. Cucumbers — I did put up pickles, as you very well know.
There is a right smart crop of pumpkins, volunteers from the compost, which goes to show you.
I guess we have swiss chard, half-hearted cheer from most, downright boo from Bridget.
Miscellaneous herbs, which I can't even muster the energy to dry (have I mentioned my yard-sale dehydrator? Can't bother to get it in from the garage right now, no will to preserve left in me), and I will regret that in February. Carrots — it is to laugh.
I am a farming failure. Fail.
Suki says
I don't think Ma would starve. She would just have to move Back East. Pa and Laura would not be happy, but they wouldn't be dead.
scmom (Barbara) says
My garden stank too. Barely a basket of tomatoes, a few green peppers and a couple cayennes. Not one dang squash– of any of the four varieties I planted — and no watermelon. Pooh! I don't think I'll be drying herbs either — although I have enough sage for all the Thanksgiving Day stuffing made in the state of Ohio. Even my Knockout Roses pooped out by August. Bad, bad year. Ma would be ashamed of me as well.
Pippajo says
Once when The Viking was complaining about "needing" some new, fancy power tool I said, "Pa Ingalls didn't need power tools. He built their entire house with just an axe." His response? "Yeah? Well, Ma made her own cheese and butter." That made me curse the days I read those books out loud to him on long car trips!I've never grown anything. Except mold. In the fridge. The Viking buys me herb plants to keep on the windowsill ("Fresh herbs, year round!") and I kill them each and every year.Compare your garden to mine and you just might feel better!
Milehimama says
Sigh. Me too. Farming FAIL.My TWELVE zucchini plants and SIX summer squash plants produced 3 squash, an done succhini, total. And a skunk at the zucchini.OTOH, my Swiss chard kept producing even after I pulled it all up to prepare the bed for my fall garden! It just sent a bunch of volunteers into the empty space.In my defense, Houston went 40 days without rain and with temps 100 or above. And I had a baby so I didn't really bother to water by hand.
Jan says
No.No. No. This has been that kind of year. My husband, the master farmer turned gardener has had the same results. With some much rain and such odd summer weather anything could happen and did.Smile and try again next year!
Anne R Triolo says
We also had a total flop of a garden. The one thing that produced beyond belief was the blackberries, which , unbeknownst to me before this summer, I hate. I tried to hard to keep up picking them and making them into muffins and jam and giving them to the neighbors, but I finally gave up. Quite a few were left to rot on the bush…how ungrateful is that? But I really do hate them!Also, our carrots, which I started in my kitchen windows from seeds and was really excited about: we got one carrot that was about one inch long!
N. VanDervort says
Sorry about the garden . . . my parents garden was a wreck too. Living in an apartment we are not able to have a gardent, but we frequent the local farmer's market which seems to be overflowing. Your kabobs look good though!
Barb says
Garden failure seems rampant this year! Outside of Philly, our tomatoes and peppers were slow as were some cool weather crops. I lost some new blueberry bushes despite all the rain. The deer decided that my vegetable garden was THE PLACE to forage, until I started erecting barriers. And they figured those out so I tried new ones until finally I was able to keep them out.Now, the tomatoes are producing, but so many of the plants are looking bad. The peppers recovered beautifully. Never got much broccoli. Lots and lots and lots of green beans. I'd say we had an okay year, but like you, I can't imagine surviving with a year like this.
magda says
You at least planted things. A for effort!
Erika says
It's been a rough year for us as well: The Blight, The Rain, and then…The Bunny. Acts of God I can deal with, but that last one was an Act of the Neighbor Girl who, being unable to keep her pet rabbit anymore, let it go into our woods to be free! and live amongst the wild rabbits! It moved into our garden & we've been unable to catch it. (Not sure what we'd do if we did catch it!) However, it won't touch the summer squash, the one crop that has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams (my husband is wondering why he ever said he liked the stuff!)
becka says
We live in the South and it has been pretty dry here this year. We did get quite a few berries. Other than the berries our best crops were okra and Chinese Long Beans. The long beans are really something you should try. My husband has not watered them at all and we have had a large crop in our small garden. I got some long bean seeds at an oriental grocery last year and them my husband bought some from a seed catalog this year. He planted two kinds; red seeded long beans and black seeded long beans. The beans are about 3 feet long, but unbelievably tender. You just cut them into bite sized pieces and cook as you would any green beans. I usually saute them in olive oil with some garlic and then steam them until they are tender. Keep them in mind for something fun to try next year.
Margo says
oh I'm so GLAD to read of all the garden problems! I am a can-do kind of person and this was my first garden this year and my husband has just been horrified that we spent so much money getting it up and running for what, 3 tomatoes??? AK. Maybe I will have him read the comments and the post 🙂 Then he will not roll his eyes when I start planning next year.
Dawn says
In Oklahoma, the gardens are just now starting to produce tomatoes. My marigolds didn't even bloom until late July–Marigolds! And if it makes you feel any better, one researcher suggested that the reason Laura wrote about food so much is that they really never had much on the table. So obviously they didn't have a successful garden either!
Kari says
Here in sunny dry NM, we had trouble with gardens too. Sigh. My mom had beautiful little grape tomatoes and tons of them, but I planted 9 bushes, which each had about 6 leaves on them, were 18" high, and each produced one golf-ball sized tomato. My beans came up and withered. My peas…well…I'm not supposed to be able to grow peas here anyway. I did have some nice "loganberries" (sour!) and my perennial herbs did well (my basil is all of 4" high even now….with tiny fingernails of leaves. But carrots, beets, cilantro, strawberries, peppers (bell and "NM Green chili" I think that's Anaheim, squash, cantaloupe, corn, watermelon, lettuce etc. Oh I did so well planting….germinated my little seeds in the oven, planted them in pots under lights in the garage, made a little cold frame (HUGE failure), planted them out, Watered twice a week for an hour with a soaker hose (reminder…I live in NM Mountains), all to no avail.So question: When do you harvest garlic? And all the sites say just dry it and shake out the dirt, but mine doesn't just brush off (I'm having to keep myself from washing it) I think it's missing some skin?Ma would not have moved back east….don't you remember during the long winter, they ground wheat in the coffee mill and she made bread and they ate potatoes. Then she made gravy out of the fish skin? and burned hay. Resourceful, tough folks. But do remember, Pa's "job" was farming. The whole family helped, not just Ma planting a little garden in "spare time"Speaking of food…has anyone read the Redwall books by Brian Jacques? I'd love some of those feast recipes!
Carrien says
I have a Thai friend with an amazing garden, it looks a little like a jungle though.I asked her her secret and she laughed. "Oh I just kept throwing out compost on that bit of dirt because it was so low in nutrient. These just came up where they like it best."She had chilies, lemon grass, ginger, galangaal, all sorts of Thai spices and seasonings, as well as conventional things like onions and garlic.When I have dirt I'm doing it her way. LOL
Leila says
Ha ha…that's amazing. Seriously, we all need to do that.