Garden Update. Would you believe me…

Well anyway, here’s an update to my May post…

I’ll do it paragraph by paragraph:

I got a row of peas planted. The garden hasn’t been tilled yet but I had to get them in. Now I’m wondering if I’ll bother having it tilled this year. I think I will because I’m hoping he can also move something for me with the tractor.

The peas were doing pretty well but then they were eaten by either the woodchucks or rabbits (of which I have had both).
I did get the garden tilled. I didn’t get the thing I wanted moved moved. He had sent someone else to do the rototilling and I forgot to ask him. 

In one of the raised beds I planted the scallion bulbs I harvested last year from the Egyptian Walking onions, some small onions from last year’s harvest (probably go to seed), spinach, lettuce seed I harvested from last year. All the above is coming up…not sure if the spinach is, actually but I think so. Also, an experiment with the bases of two romaine hearts to see if they’ll grow, and ½-dozen Romaine starts I bought.

Egyptian Walking Onions are doing well and I have harvested 1″ – 2″ bulbs for my salads, rather than scallions. They’re supposed to be stronger than “mainstream onions” but I haven’t really noticed. I ate all the other onions (from this paragraph’s planting) first. I don’t recall what became of the spinach but I can say we didn’t eat any, so it was a fail. I did harvest both kinds of lettuce and the Romaine even grew back again! However just before I was going to harvest it, some 4-legged beat me to it. But I’ll call it pretty much a success. There were 2 very large sunflowers that came up voluntarily. They grew to be huge!

In one of the black tubs I planted Nasturtium seeds harvested from last year. They haven’t sprouted yet but some that I planted inside are growing well so I know the seeds were good. In black tub number two, the catnip is coming to life.

They did come up and grew all summer but not all of them and not very large. No biggie though. I also planted some peas and they grew for a little while…guess what happened to them.

In tubs number three and four, what appears to be volunteer Chamomile is growing. Some of it I transplanted from the raised bed. I don’t know why there would be any there as I didn’t plant any, so that casts some doubt on the ID. However it has been coming back every year (in the tubs) since I planted it a number of years ago. There is a group of seedlings in one of the tubs too. Maybe Sunflowers…we shall see I guess.

Yes it was chamomile, and chamomile came up in several random spots in the garden. What a pleasant surprise. The birds must have spread the seeds around. I didn’t thin the group of seedlings, which appeared to be sunflowers…very small ones and late blooming but that’s probably because I didn’t thin them.

By the way, the black plastic tubs aren’t really numbered. Haha.

I should number them though. lol

Also planted inside, several types of peppers (slow going), Beefsteak and cherry (I’ll update with the variety later) tomatoes, dill (from saved seeds), Echinacea (from saved seeds), basil, sensitive plant, Black-Eyed Susan (no luck yet), sage, oregano, another ½-dz Romaine lettuce plants, and a white sage (yes!!! finally!). I know, not all are veggies but I thought it only fair to name them all.

I had a fairly good hot pepper harvest. I can’t say the same about bell peppers. Better luck next year maybe.

Tomatoes were a fail as usual (except the cherry type). I decided not to grow them next year but then I realized I haven’t tried other varieties besides Beefsteak, so I’ll experiment one more year. However, despite a setback by a critter nipping the tops of the plants causing all kinds of branching, they did do better than the previous years, but eventually that disease came back and the fruits started rotting on the vine.

The dill did ok but I let it go to seed in hopes that it will self-sow for next year. We have enough dried from last year still anyway. The rest of the plants did well too, but I never transplanted the Black-eyed Susan. I’ll have to re-pot them and keep them inside for the winter. The white sage died before it got big enough to transplant. 🙁

The Rhubarb is growing, not as vigorously as the remaining un-moved ones but they’ll get there (I hope).

It grew alright and I did get a harvest but I never made my annual strawberry rhubarb jam this year.

I’m happy to report that ALL of the Asparagus planted last spring has re-emerged!

They grew nicely throughout the summer and I am keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll get our first harvest this spring!

It was mostly a good-news-bad-news garden.

First the bad news…
I planted cucumbers, and lots of beans. The cucumbers were slow going but the beans were growing beautifully until the first bunny (and/or groundhog) attack occurred. I did end up with a late cuke. The beans made a nice comeback but then so did the bunny. The onion sets were doing well but were overwhelmed by the weeds*. I don’t have much hope for them. As usual, no luck with the carrots, beets and parsnips.
*Update: I’ve since found a few decent sized (not large or even medium sized) onions in the row.

The good news is…
Overall, this was the most successful garden yet. I got lots of potatoes, delicious patty-pan squash, a lot of acorn squash (small ones, but tasty), some straight-neck summer squash, and Red Fresno, Jalapeno and a few cayenne peppers.

I have to admit I cheated and used a little 10-10-10 fertilizer. An organic garden takes time (and/or money) to get established. In the meantime you still have to eat.

In other news, the water garden suffered a catastrophe this winter and after burying nine goldfish, there is only one remaining. Not only could I not get out to the pond to melt a hole in the ice but the pump, which was partly clogged and only moving a small amount of water got carelessly unplugged and so it froze. Otherwise the trickle would’ve most likely been sufficient to keep a hole in the ice. I just got a new pump so I have a lot of work to do in the pond/water garden. Going to give it a thorough cleaning and thin out the water lilies that got crazy out of control!

I bought eight goldfish and restocked and they immediately made themselves scarce. I did see signs that they were alive, as well as no “floaters”, and on very rare occasions I actually saw one or two. Later in the summer however, I saw some food pellets moving slightly and looking more closely, I saw several baby fish picking at them. Yay! I have worked on thinning out the water lilies, but wow! I’ll keep plugging away at them. I’ll get rid of some more in the near future and then attack them again in the spring. Lots of other stuff needs doing too.

Well, stay safe and warm this winter. I’ll update again soon. Really I will. 😉