The Garden's Conclusion

So Don and I finished  weeding the veg garden…well, Don mostly…but at least it's done for now.  I've been thinking about how the gardening year went, and I can only conclude that I have a lot to learn about veggie gardening. 

More please!

And more of you, too!

Some things I underplanted…others I shouldn't have bothered with at all.  Next time, waaaay more peas and cukes, less sweet potatoes.  I'm sure they would have done well, provided the groundhog would have left them alone.  We only ended up with one sweet'tater, and it was just about the size of my thumb.  So, so worth the space. Could just about the same for the watermelon, too. 

 I learned that green beans are a mecca for Japanese Beetles, and that chickens provide a simple, entertaining solution.  SO I'll be justifying next year's chick purchase by saying it's for beetle control.  yeah, that's it.  The Eldress has declared "No more chickens", though I think I can sway her again by late winter to get more.  

Peppers did pretty well, though the drought really kept them from producing much…same for the tomatoes.

Beets and Radishes were the stars this year for sure, very tasty…and very productive, too.

A small sampling of the harvest--YUM!

Carrots, lettuce and fennel were total failures, mostly due to incorrect planting (lettuce) and insect/bird pressure.  The slugs completely overran the carrot seedlings and the birds ate the lettuce seeds before they could sprout--next time, plant a little more deeply in the soil. Not sure why the fennel never came up. Though I must say that this is the most success I've had with direct seeding, yet.  We direct seeded the cukes, watermelon, radishes, beets, peas, greenbeans, lettuce, carrots, and fennel. ANd I'll probably do the same next year with the stuff that did come up.

So, over the winter, I'll redefine the garden areas (that's underway as I type)…and try to get some work done on warmish days to that end.  I definitely need to take a closer look at IPM and what that means to me and my family, too.  We didn't do much in the way of spraying, save dish soap in water, and hand/chicken picking. Those were nice methods, but I need to learn a few new tricks as well.

This little guy didn't make it...not sure if it was the drought or not...

Better compost making is also a priority…must have more "black gold" to fill in as we learn more about soil-building in general. There are so many methods, it's confusing. Tilth is still lacking in our soil, and I'm looking to build it up over the rest of the winter.  

We had some mixed results with our attempts to mulch the rows...I'm thinking that that was where the slugs came from--and boy did we have some!  So we raked off the mulch into the paths, and restricted watering to the early mornings.  <shuddering> I don't look forward to picking those slimy little bastards off again, next year.  With the drought being predicted to continue for a while, water conservation is a must for next year.

Now the seed catalogs are coming in earnest…and so it's time to dream of all the yummies to grow next year.