Still got lots of peppers and one okra. Pulled the tomato and cucumber vines yesterday. I have a few cabbages I was hoping for a fall crop but they're growing so slow I don't know if they'll make it before frost..
Our garden has produced a few tomatoes, and that is about it this year. The squash has blossomed; but none of the blossoms became fruit. This house has never done well for gardening for us, and I think that it is all of the trees on the property, we just do not get enough sunshine. I usually try to plant in the part of the yard where we get the most sunshine; but even there, things just grow tall and scraggly. The tomato plants are about 4 feet tall, and all one stem, and not bushy like a tomato plant should be. I thought maybe it was the poor soil; but even the ones that I put in potting soil don't grow well, either, so I think it is the lack of sun here. Everything starts out looking great in the spring, and then once all of the trees leaf out, they slowly seem to stop growing. I am going to give it a lot of thought this winter, and maybe only grow permanent plants, like the berries. It seems like trying to grow a garden has pretty much been a waste of time and money for us, and I might as well go to the farmer market and buy fresh local produce instead.
This thread makes me excited about gardening. And why so? Because it has been continually raining for almost a month now and the garden seemed to have been neglected. In fairness to our housemaids, they cleaned the backyard of weeds early this week so the surrounding looks handsome. However, our extended garden is in a state of neglect because of the floodwater that's been inhabiting it for weeks now. So maybe we can do some gardening when the sun shines for a whole week, that's needed to dry up the ground. We cannot work on the wet garden because the mud is so sticky.
This hasn't been a good gardening year for me but I didn't expect it to be, given that we were still getting freezing temperatures in May. I got a good crop of beans for the few rows of beans that I planted, the onions did well, and my rhubarb is loving the cool weather. The carrots must have frozen before they even reached ground level, and I don't know about the potatoes. I planted them in straw bales that weren't what I wanted them to be, and they got a very slow start, so I'm not expecting much. It's far too early to harvest the potatoes though.
It has been so hot, but the gardening guy on TV says we should be starting fall crops now. I like to grow leaf lettuce so that might be something I will plant. I have a lot of over stuff to do but I will see if I can get that done. I love to make that with a hot bacon dressing. It is really super delicious. I imagine the lettuce is pretty healthy as well, so I would feel like I was doing something healthy for myself and for my wallet too. Those are both some good reasons to be gardening.
I've given up on the garden this year. Nothing ended up producing, between the drought and torrential rains. I was out taking some pictures the other day and noticed some red bugs on my fairy dish. They were a lot bigger than the aphids we had back home, so I'm not sure if that's what they were, but I don't recall having them before, so I don't plan on planting anything until I can eradicate those and any other pests out there.
Everything is gone but my okra. It seems to have gotten a second wind. Taking a second try at pickling okra. Hope I am better at it this time.
Our gardening is almost all over up north here.. it gets a bit too cold for anything to grow.. Had a fabulous tomato crop this year.. Planted those yellow grape tomatoes and they gave us a decent return.. Lettuce, both green leaf and red leaf was also very good peas in the pod were also good,, Zucchini was a total flop.. Didn't get even one zucchini with 4 plants.. English cukes.. We planted 3 plants and got 5 cukes out of the whole thing.. Yellow cooking onions and carrots and parsnips are still in the ground and I will pick them out soon.. Best was those grape yellow tomatoes.... WONDERFUL !!!
I was inspecting the leaf lettuce yesterday. I like to grow that. It was two dollars for a seed pod with several plants. However, since we have had no rain the ground is hard as a rock. I did buy a new hose so I guess I could wet the ground enough to plant something without breaking my back. I like leaf lettuce and have grown it here before. It grows well in the Fall. I would plant some broccoli too, but not sure about that..I will think about it, I have a lot to do.
I picked a quart of Tabasco peppers yesterday. I bow have two quarts in the freezer. I'll keep picking and freezing until as long as they keep producing, then I'll can them all. Only getting a few okra so I chopped some and made okra fritters.
I have been thinking about planting something for fall, and most of the fall crops do not need as much sunshine as the summer ones like squash and tomatoes. This place just has so many trees that nothing can grow right, really. I was looking at it on the map, and you can't even hardly see that there is a house on this property, it is THAT bad ! ! The houses on all sides of us have huge trees, too; so there is just not much sun, even when it is directly overhead. We got a pear tree seedling at Walmart a while back, and I just planted it this morning, out in front where it can at least get some morning sun, so maybe it will make it better than vegetables do. Here is what the google earth map looks like for our house, and you can tell it from the little blue locator button. We are literally buried in the trees here.
One more quart of ripe Tabasco peppers yesterday and the plants are still loaded with peppers. I should be able to make enough Tabasco sauce and Tabasco powder to last us for years. There will be no need to plant Tabasco peppers again. I can use the space for other things.
The only thing left in our garden are the carrots and parsnips that are in the ground and can survive a frost.. Everything else is out, the soil turned, and ready for SNOW that will be here soon.. I will remove the carrots and parsnips this week-end as they won't grow much from now on.. Our temperature is slowly dropping down both days and nights..