We're midway (I guess) through our vegetable growing season and what do I have to show for it? A few goodies and a lot of gained knowledge! It's been a great experience for our family. There is most assuredly room for improvement.
We really want to try corn next year! Everyone's hankering for sweet corn. I'd also like to try seed growing and maybe find some heirloom varieties.
First off, none of my spinach grew. Not sure why.
Also, cauliflower is more hassle (bugs, bugs, bugs!) than it's worth. No yield yet. Takes up a lot of space too.
The one melon plant that we put in has gone nuts and may yield 100 melons, if the flowers are any indication. Some of the leaves are appearing to brown and dry. Not sure why. It's getting plenty of water. Maybe too much sun?
The lettuce was a hit, but 2nd crop went to seed way quick. Have to be on the ball with it. I probably planted too much (12).
Our Sweet 100's are awesome, but it's been difficult to harvest enough at one time for more than a taste. We'll plant two of those babies next year.
Ack! The Japanese Beetles love the greenbean leaves. They haven't affected the beans yet. I just didn't want to use pesticide on them and those bags just attract more!
The one pea plant is not producing very much; same for the green bean plant.
The lima beans started out well, but fizzled.
The broccoli came out great, but a lot of room for the amount of yield. Probably not worth it for the size garden I have. Rabbits ate one.
Big tomatoes just didn't come in this year. Not sure what happened. Maybe transplanted too late.
Need more strawberry plants. Blackberry bush doing well in it's pot. Not sure about the blueberry bush. Maybe next year?
No sign of any peppers yet. We'll see. None of my squash or zucchini grew. Second year in a row! Very frustrating. They have good soil, water and sun. Could be those blasted rabbits!
My vine plants need more room. The greenbeans and peas are all intertwined. The melon needs a lot more vine. The Sweet 100's could use a tall cage instead of the vine. We'll see.
Overall, for what I started out to grow, we're only getting about a fourth. That seems like a lot of waste. I need to read more.
Don't laugh, but one of the biggest frustrations has been figuring out when to harvest. The book I have doesn't tell you. I did find out from the web why all my tomatoes were splitting--I was waiting too long and they were over ripening on the vine. Problem solved! I'm such a green-horn at this green stuff!! :)
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Reflections From a First Year Veggie Gardener
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4 comments:
Gardening is always an experiment, no matter how many times you've done it! Thanks for visiting my blog. I am already harvesting too many yellow squash, got my first zucchini and I'll pick more today or tomorrow. I saw my first strawberry and I've picked two of my sweet 100's. My basil is doing great. I think you're supposed to replant lettuce every two weeks and it does better when it's a little cooler or you can pin row covers over it to keep it from scalding. Check out www.seedsavers.org--they have the best catalog. Do you have rhubarb? If you want to come visit in fall, I'll give you some!
For our family of four we usually plant about 6 sweet 100 plants and we have plenty to munch.
Spinach, cauliflower,and lettuce are all fall/winter crops here in SoCal. I wonder if you started them a little earlier (even indoors if necessary) whether they would do better??
Melons take over the yard!! I planted three plants this year and we have watermelons everywhere. LOL.
Our eggplant and yellow squash have done great. Our corn didn't survive but I think that is because we planted them close to the watermelon (the whole three sisters thing) and the melons took over!
Gardening is so much fun and a great experiment. The children enjoy so much seeing where their food comes from. Who would have though my children would willingly eat eggplant and yellow squash?? LOL.
I'm a green-horn too. I heard/read somewhere that to yield better melons, you need to pluck some of the blossoms. The yield will be smaller, but the fruit will be better quality. You might want to google it. I've done most of my gardening by google. I also have an old hand me down copy of The Victory Garden (do you remember the PBS show?). It's helpful because it's written in months, so I have a general idea of what to do each month, even though I don't follow all the recommendations (too many chemicals!) I'd like to get some more gardening books for reference, especially organic ones.
Oh, that sounds like so much fun! I thin kyou have to expect a huge learning curve the first year. I wish I had the ground and place to do a garden. Enjoy your harvest!
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