2014 Garden Update

Hello, world!

I just wanted to pop in and leave my notes from this year's garden progress up to this point.  Sadly, there isn't very much to say.

My garden failed this year.  In a big, big way.  I planted things; they didn't come up.  I planted more things; a few sprouts popped up, and were promptly eaten by chipmunks.  Or rabbits.  Or deer.  Or well...you get the point.

After that, I gave up and bought plants...and somebody got happy with a weedeater one evening and cut down all of my peppers.  After spending hours laying down cardboard and mulch, the barn cats or birds or something introduced a particularly invasive vining weed....which promptly took root despite six inches of straw mulch, and overran everything.  In all of my gardens.

I have dozens of theories as to why nothing grew this year, and what I can do next year to make it better.  This year has been a total loss.

I was able to harvest a handful of radishes this year, a batch of spinach, and a few cucumbers and zucchini.  There are a few tomato plants growing along the ground (had a minor disaster with being allergic to the baling twine I was going to use to tie them with...all of the sisal twine you can buy here is coated with pesticides.  I have migraines even being in the same room with it...let alone touching it), that are have tomatoes on them, but at the beginning of September I have yet to get one ripe tomato off them.  I planted them in April.  They're so covered with the viney weed that it's hard to find the tomatoes anyway.

My cucumbers for pickles grew, but never produced enough cucumbers at once to make pickles.  The list goes on and on and on.  My garden was a complete failure this year.  I was able to harvest a few peas, a couple of radishes, a little spinach.  A few cucumbers.  The only crop that did well this year was my garlic.  I harvested 64 cloves out of the 72 I planted last fall, the smallest about the size of a ping pong ball, and the largest approaching baseball size.  Most of them were larger rather than smaller.

Right now my garden is nothing but a giant patch of knee high weeds.  I am hoping to get enough tomatoes for one batch of salsa (anything else will be made into freezer tomato sauce).  I have one fist-sized watermelon I am watching like a hawk.  As soon as I can harvest the watermelon or it frosts, I am going to get tough with my garden.  It will hurt me far more than it will hurt it, I think.  I have a Plan....here's hoping it works for next year!