Garden Update

It's been quite some time since I updated on the State of the Garden.

Well, dear readers, we've had some great success and dismal failures.

The hits...

Tomatoes: I've tomatoes coming out of my ears. I've only had one bad year out of the last seven. This year is no exception. My Better Boys are insane. The two plants by Joseph's window top out at six feet. The fruit varies in size from golf ball to softball. They're a bit ugly, but sweet as sweet can be. Meaty and juicy, Chad and I have been gorging on them for the last couple of weeks. Kaleb came over and planted himself on the sidewalk eating them straight off the vine.

The Romas are doing nearly as well. They're producing meaty fruit about four inches long, even though the plants themselves are only about two and half feet tall. The cherries are just odd. They plants themselves never grew taller than eighteen inches, yet they're producing faster than we can eat.

Cucumbers: The lemon cucumber is going like gangbusters. We were pleasantly surprised with how yummy (and how un-lemonlike) they are. We've been eating them with a sprinkling of salt or sliced into salads. The English cucumber is just starting to produce. We haven't been able to pick one yet, but I've got my fingers crossed.

Snow peas/Sugar Peas: We finally tore them out today. It just got too hot for them - even under the tree. They were a definite hit, though, producing enough peas to keep Chad and Joseph in "garden candy" for most of the spring and early summer.

Cilantro/Sage: My baby herbs are growing up. *sniff* The cilantro is starting to look a bit wilted, but overall, still producing.

Strawberries: I have no idea how these guys are still alive, but they are! Joseph is averaging one berry a week. Poor kid. It's really teaching him patience.

Basil: Some how, some way I'm actually keeping three basil plants alive. *knock on wood* One of them even flowered! I'm really trying hard not to get my hopes up too high, but this is the first time I've ever, ever kept them alive.

Bell Peppers: I've got four little peppers just waiting to grow up so I can eat them.

Hot Peppers: We picked the first two today. We'll see if they make Chad's eyes water.

Melons: I've got flowers but no actual melons as of tonight. I'm not sure how long they're going to take. I think I'll just keep watering and see what happens.

Carrots: I need to pull the rest out of the ground, but just haven't been feeling like canning or freezing them lately. They're still sweet and delish. Just hanging out underground.

Onions/Garlic: Everything turned out rather well. I've harvested and preserved all my onions. I braided my garlic. I'm pretty happy with my little bulb plants.

Grapes/Berries: Growing...no fruit expected until maybe next year. But at least the leaves are green!

The misses:

The topsy turvies, spinach, cauliflower, green beans, corn and, I'm almost ashamed to admit this, zucchini. Who can't grow zucchini?!

The topsy turvies would probably work well in more moderate climates. For us, the greenhouse effect coupled with temperatures soaring to 105 resulted in spindly, wilted plants - no matter how often we watered. Someone remind me not to be tempted by them next year. Although...if I planted something in them over the winter... Stop!

The spinach was a pain in the rear. As I've said before, I think I'll try leaf lettuce next year instead.

The green beans and corn...let's just say that that particular section of the garden looks more like the Dust Bowl than Eden.

Cauliflower, oh cauliflower! I had such high hopes, but after months of using more water than any other plant, all I received for my troubles was an inedible head of yellowed cauliflower.

And the zucchinis...my failure there can be summed up in three words: blossom-end rot. (Or is that two words since the there's a hyphen?)

I'm working on new schematics for next year's efforts. I'm also reading up on soil improvement and year-around gardening. Oh yes. Mandyland is going to be producing all year. *rubs hands together*