I’ve had a few people ask about the results of my garden–which is super flattering. I still love gardening, I just didn’t keep statistics like I did last year. It can be time consuming to log everything you grow.
This year I planted zucchini, cherry and heirloom tomatoes, crookneck squash, peppers, potatoes and carrots. I planted the zucchini and carrots first. Too much rain washed all of the zucchini out of my garden and the carrots were washed all over the garden. The carrots ended up growing in chunks instead of neat rows. I was very disappointed about the zucchini because it was a huge crop for me last year. And it makes great noodles!
Since I planted more tomatoes this year, I had a great crop. The cherry tomatoes have produced for months and are still producing! (I don’t expect this to happen for much longer.) The heirloom tomatoes did well, but I think I had a slight case of blight and they didn’t reach their full size potential.
On a funny note, I must have bought the wrong pepper seeds. I thought I bought sweet peppers, but the peppers ended up being so hot that we couldn’t eat them! I managed to put a few into salsa and chili, and give some away, but most of the peppers ended up uneaten. I hate waste, but when I bit into one, I couldn’t breathe. They were that hot.
The squash bloomed and produced for a good two weeks, then died suddenly. But for those two weeks, it was a stunner! My purple potatoes were the biggest surprise. Since they grow underground, I felt like it was a huge gamble. The flowering part of the potato plants looked great, but I had no idea what was going on under the surface. When I finally dug them up, I was so relieved. I ended up getting pounds of potatoes off of two starter potatoes!
Although I spread nutritious soil on the surface of my garden, next year, I will probably dig deeper or use raised beds. The soil where I live is incredibly sandy and I think it has resulted in poor growth and small veggies.
Every year I learn something new with this little garden.
Did you plant a garden this year? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
love,
melanie
Random garden information it might be an option to amend your garden this fall and then it would be ready to plant in the spring. Good old peat moss and manure would do wonders for sandy soil. Also you could take a soil sample to your local extension office and they would be able to help you decide what you need to amend the soil with. Hope this helps….I miss gardening so much.
My father-in-law tested the soil on our land before at the extension office, but I didn’t follow any of the recommendations. Ha!
We have been eating some delicious cucumbers and have had plenty of tomatoes, although they looked good, some were watery and not that flavorful. My husband planted beets and radishes but were squished together so not very productive. We have some bell pepper plants and it took them a long time to produce and they are a bit strong. We have a few squash plants that were planted late and with the weather changing I am not sure how they are going to do. Our herbs are thriving and looking beautiful. It’s all fun for us regardless of the results..
We have a garden at the library where I work. We grew sugar snap peas and radishes in the spring. We had carrots, sungold tomatoes (“volunteers” from last year), and zucchini in the summer. And now we have greens and more carrots and radishes coming up. I am taking an Urban Sustainable Agriculture certificate program this Fall so I am excited to try again next summer!
That sounds fun!
My dad always gardens. One year he planted jalapenos and sweet banana peppers. They ended up cross breeding into some crazy spicy pepper combination, but they looked just like banana peppers. We had no idea until we had a cookout with kabobs, and it was like playing Russian roulette with peppers xD
Ahh! That’s too funny!
Your garden looks amazing! I’ve been dreaming of having my own one day. I tried doing a little garden experimenting in pots last year. I grew one green pepper and bundle of cilantro.
Thank you! And well, one pepper is better than no peppers at all!