The Garden

It's been a long time since I've had a garden update. Time to re-cap...

Tomatoes:
*Beefsteak - The plants are currently six inches shy of the eaves of our house. We keep cutting them back, but they literally broke free of the cage and have decided to take over. We've reached a compromise - they give me amazingly sweet, meaty tomatoes and I'll let them roam where they will.
*Romas - They've grown to about 2.5 feet and are producing a steady stream of small-ish tomatoes. Not as productive as years past.
*Cherries - These guys never grew bigger than a foot, but they're producing like crazy. Like the Romas, they're on the small size. More like 100 Grands than true cherries.
*Yellow Pear - I only got maybe a dozen off this plant. It was planted fairly late in the season and the tomatoes are only about an inch long.
*Aunt Ruby's German Green - Since this was an heirloom, I was curious if I could get it to grow. Apparently not. Not a single tomato and only a couple of flowers.

Verdict:
I'll obviously continue to plant tomatoes. I need to improve the soil along the front of the house and skip the smaller varieties of tomatoes.

Melons:
Of the four varieties we planted, all flowered, all roamed and all produced...nothing.

Verdict:
I'm going to try again next year, but I'm moving production to a different area - someplace a bit more shaded with more room to roam.

Leafs:
The spinach and lettuce never really did very well. I think it had something to do with the heat. I did plant more lettuce in the hopes that cooler (yeah right!) temperatures would encourage growth. We'll see...

Herbs:
Believe it or not, I've kept my basil alive. It may not be two feet tall, but it gives me the leaves I need for everyday use. The cilantro and sage grew well, but I didn't use it as much as I thought.

Verdict:
I'm going to continue with my herb garden, but will also remember, next time, to dry some of the herbs for future use.

Fruit:
The grapes, blackberries and raspberry plants are healthy and happy. Fingers crossed that they'll produce next year.

The strawberries are still, somehow, alive. They're not spreading and they're not producing more than one berry a week, but at least they're still alive. Which is more than I can say for the...

Squash:
I must be the only person on earth who can't seem to grow zucchini and yellow squash. Blossom rot all around. Six plants and not a single one survived.

Verdict:
Oh, I'm going to conquer the squash. Next year, though, I'm moving production to the end of the yard where a drip line is in charge of watering.

Roots:
We got more than enough radishes and carrots. Plus, since we don't get that chilly around here, we're on round two. We've also planted a few potatoes for kicks and giggles. The onions and garlic turned out beautifully. I can't wait to plant more.

Verdict:
I'm now planting the root crops in containers. I'm also on the hunt for turnip and beet seeds for my winter garden.

Legumes:
*Green beans - Well, they're alive. Not producing a blasted thing, but alive.
*Peas - They did brilliantly. In fact, once the weather dips below triple digits, I'm going to plant another batch.

Verdict:
Soil improvement, soil improvement. And a sturdier trellis for the green beans.

Peppers:
*Hot - We've been picking a slow stream of Fresno, Sunset and Sonoma peppers. We're not using them as often as we used to use the jalapenos, so perhaps next year we'll stick with them.
*Green - Finally, we're starting to get peppers. All eight of my plants have little green guys growing on them.

Randoms:
*Corn - Let's just say that my corn area looks like something out of the dust bowl and leave it at that.
*Cauliflower - Utter and complete failure.
*Lemon Cucumber - We had so many cucumbers of this one plant that we ended up composting a lot of them. Seriously. At one point, we were picking two or three a day.
*English Cucumber - One little guy. But I really think it was just too much in the shadow of the Lemon.
*Boston Pickling - Dead as a doornail in three days.

Wow...it looks like a lot when I list everything. I do think I'm going to lessen the variety and work on quantity and quality. For instance, even though we had enough peas to munch on every day, we never had enough to actually freeze. The items that did go bumper - carrots, cucumbers, cilantro - I didn't have time to preserve. Partly, I think, it was because I was pregnant. It'll be interesting to see what we do next year.

Next year?! Wait a minute! Who am I kidding? I'm already planning my winter garden. *rubs hands together*