2016 Garden
Our (well, really "my" ) second year of gardening wasn't a smashing success but neither was it a complete failure. I learned a lot and that counts for something, right? I'm writing this post mostly as a reminder for me of what happened in the garden this year to help me next year. Here's a run down of the how each item planted in the garden faired:
Cucumbers- hands down the break out *star* of the 2015 garden were the cukes. Oh, the cukes. If we had one, we had 30 cucumbers from the two plants we planted. Here's how many cucumbers we got this year: 0. That's right, zero. It was really disappointing. The girls and Donnie and I really like cucumbers and it was fulfilling to eat so many of them last summer from our garden. I don't know what happened to this year's plants. I watered them consistently but I don't think I watered enough each time that I watered them. Based on the yellowish color of the cucumbers that did grow and reading about what can all go wrong with cucumbers, a lack of water is the only conclusion I've been able to draw. Extremely disappointing. But, I learned something: watering frequently giving each plant an abundance of water at each watering is paramount. I need to reread this article prior to planting next year:
Carrots- hands down, these were our most plentiful crop of the 2016 garden. While in terms of how many carrots grew in the garden, the crop was a success. However, I made the same mistake that I made in '15 with my carrots. I didn't thin them enough. Not thinning properly leads to small carrots because too many carrots are vying for the same nutrients and space. I KNEW I should be thinning more this year- both because I'd read that's what you're supposed to do and because the year before, I also didn't thin adequately and our carrots from the garden were small. It's just hard to pull up perfectly good looking plants. But it needs to happen. Note to self for next year: THIN the plants no matter how painful it is to do. I found a really good article on growing carrots from the Farmer's Almanac.
Peas- I had a moderate amount of success with peas. I planted from seeds and was pleasantly surprised with how many pea plants grew and how well a few plants grew in particular. I noticed that the pea plants that grew in a more shady area of the garden fared better than the ones in more sunny locations. I began to do some reading on successfully planting peas (something that I probably should have done prior to planting the seeds :)) to find out why the plants in shady areas looked better than ones in sunny spots. It turns out that peas plants do not like extremely hot weather at all. Peas thrive in the cool and damp spring. In fact, the article I read recommended planting the seeds about a month before the frost free date. Note to self for next year: Plant early!
Tomatoes- My tomato plant THRIVED... until it didn't. That is to say, many tomatoes grew. However, before any of them got ripe enough for me to pick, insects or something got into them and they began to look disgusting and inedible. This happened to every.single.tomato. Oddly enough, or maybe not, since I don't really care for tomatoes , I wasn't as bothered by not harvesting a single tomato as you would think. I planted the tomato plant in the hopes of making homemade salsa (with the humongous hull of tomatoes that I thought I would have :(. I read several articles about tomatoes and insect damage seems to be of minor concern. I'm undecided about what to do about tomatoes next year. On the one hand, I'm not really pining for tomatoes in the first place (would I really make homemade salsa if I had a crop of tomatoes?) and I have no solution on hand to ameliorate the problem that I faced this year with them; on the other hand, every gardener grows tomatoes- shouldn't I try one more time??
Pumpkins- I planted these seeds way too late in the season and I kind of knew that going into it. I noticed some empty space in the garden in mid June and planted some pumpkin seeds a la a hail Mary to see if a miracle would happen. Alas, it didn't. I had such low expectation for this that when nothing came to fruition, literally or figuratively, I honestly wasn't disappointed. I took an immense enjoyment in watching the pumpkin seeds sprout and grow even though nothing ultimately happened. Next year, I do plan to plant pumpkin seeds, but much earlier in the season and spread the seeds out much further than I did this year.
Bell Pepper- This plant was a bust. I actually planted a red bell pepper plant; the ONE pepper that I got from this plant was green. I'd read that you can pick peppers when they're green- they turn red as time progresses. However, prior to getting my one green pepper, I had a pepper growing that was making its change from green to red (pretty cool looking actually). But, just like my tomatoes, something bad happened to it. It got nasty looking as it was growing on the plant. I have no idea what it was- I'm guessing bugs got to it. Anyway, when a green one appeared at the right size, I went ahead and took it off the plant for us to eat. I didn't want it to rot on the plant like the other one had done. Next year: I won't be buying a pepper plant or seeds. Kroger bell peppers will suffice for us :)
Strawberries- I bought and planted two strawberry plants this year. It would not be an understatement to say that I was a tad bit disappointed by the ONE strawberry that I got from them. Well, after I planted them, I read an article about strawberry plants (yes, once again, I read after the fact). It seems it's very common to only get one or no strawberries in a strawberry's plant first year. It's subsequent years when more fruit is common. I couldn't believe how big the plants grew over the summer. I think they're getting ready for a bumper crop next year :).
Cilantro- Once again, not surprisingly, I didn't read much about cilantro after I planted it in our 2015 garden (this time not reading about it turned into a nice surprise, not a bad one :)). It grew fine in 2015 and I enjoyed using cilantro from the garden in a few dishes that I made. In 2016, when I went out to the garden in the spring to weed it for the first time prior to planting, I couldn't help but notice an odor that smelled like cilantro. Much to amazement, a number of cilantro plants were growing near the spot where my one cilantro plant had been planted the year before. It turns out that cilantro reseeds in the spring and fall. Mind blown!! I have a bunch of cilantro plants in the garden now. Cilantro doesn't do well in the heat of the summer but grows great in the spring and fall. My entire vegetable failures and foibles in the garden this year are ameliorated by the existence of the cilantro plants in the garden :).
The girls helped me weed the garden sporadically over the summer. I paid them for their weeding efforts. Eventually, the money just wasn't worth it to them anymore :(. They were sorely disappointed in our lack of cucumbers. They were excited about the carrots and proclaimed the carrots from our garden tasted better than the carrots at the store. I'm not sure that I agreed with them but I appreciated the kind words about the carrots :). I told them we'll try again next year. That's all we can do, right? Jacob was not impacted by the garden one bit.
Here are some pictures from the garden this summer. I took pictures very sporadically. Next year, I plan to be more methodical or at least consistent about when I take pictures of the garden.
freshly planted seeds and plants...
Early- Mid June- here is a cucumber plant.
A little bell pepper on my pepper plant
a green tomato
The last week of June- the pepper is growing!
...as is the cucumber plant
...by the end of the summer, they would be huge
Mid June- July
I liked the look of the beginning of this cucumber
the alyssums
August
The bell pepper plant is turning red from green
the tomatoes don't look bad here...
... or here
This one looks almost edible but it won't for long :(
This pumpkin plant is growing
and this guy is looking better and better (unfortunately it goes bad fast :(
this cucumber just doesn't look quite right :(
September
A sad tomato sight...
Look how close together they are. That's from not thinning them.
Another result from not thinning is this:
Look how big and pretty the green part of the carrots are... and how short and stubby the carrots are
The pepper plant- it looks OK from a distance...
... but up close, yikes
Some slightly bigger carrots
November
A deformed carrot... and what's that?
The ONE pepper from the garden!!
Cilantro in November- love it!!
One of the strawberry plants- see how it's grown?
The last batch of carrots...
Cucumbers- hands down the break out *star* of the 2015 garden were the cukes. Oh, the cukes. If we had one, we had 30 cucumbers from the two plants we planted. Here's how many cucumbers we got this year: 0. That's right, zero. It was really disappointing. The girls and Donnie and I really like cucumbers and it was fulfilling to eat so many of them last summer from our garden. I don't know what happened to this year's plants. I watered them consistently but I don't think I watered enough each time that I watered them. Based on the yellowish color of the cucumbers that did grow and reading about what can all go wrong with cucumbers, a lack of water is the only conclusion I've been able to draw. Extremely disappointing. But, I learned something: watering frequently giving each plant an abundance of water at each watering is paramount. I need to reread this article prior to planting next year:
Carrots- hands down, these were our most plentiful crop of the 2016 garden. While in terms of how many carrots grew in the garden, the crop was a success. However, I made the same mistake that I made in '15 with my carrots. I didn't thin them enough. Not thinning properly leads to small carrots because too many carrots are vying for the same nutrients and space. I KNEW I should be thinning more this year- both because I'd read that's what you're supposed to do and because the year before, I also didn't thin adequately and our carrots from the garden were small. It's just hard to pull up perfectly good looking plants. But it needs to happen. Note to self for next year: THIN the plants no matter how painful it is to do. I found a really good article on growing carrots from the Farmer's Almanac.
Peas- I had a moderate amount of success with peas. I planted from seeds and was pleasantly surprised with how many pea plants grew and how well a few plants grew in particular. I noticed that the pea plants that grew in a more shady area of the garden fared better than the ones in more sunny locations. I began to do some reading on successfully planting peas (something that I probably should have done prior to planting the seeds :)) to find out why the plants in shady areas looked better than ones in sunny spots. It turns out that peas plants do not like extremely hot weather at all. Peas thrive in the cool and damp spring. In fact, the article I read recommended planting the seeds about a month before the frost free date. Note to self for next year: Plant early!
Tomatoes- My tomato plant THRIVED... until it didn't. That is to say, many tomatoes grew. However, before any of them got ripe enough for me to pick, insects or something got into them and they began to look disgusting and inedible. This happened to every.single.tomato. Oddly enough, or maybe not, since I don't really care for tomatoes , I wasn't as bothered by not harvesting a single tomato as you would think. I planted the tomato plant in the hopes of making homemade salsa (with the humongous hull of tomatoes that I thought I would have :(. I read several articles about tomatoes and insect damage seems to be of minor concern. I'm undecided about what to do about tomatoes next year. On the one hand, I'm not really pining for tomatoes in the first place (would I really make homemade salsa if I had a crop of tomatoes?) and I have no solution on hand to ameliorate the problem that I faced this year with them; on the other hand, every gardener grows tomatoes- shouldn't I try one more time??
Pumpkins- I planted these seeds way too late in the season and I kind of knew that going into it. I noticed some empty space in the garden in mid June and planted some pumpkin seeds a la a hail Mary to see if a miracle would happen. Alas, it didn't. I had such low expectation for this that when nothing came to fruition, literally or figuratively, I honestly wasn't disappointed. I took an immense enjoyment in watching the pumpkin seeds sprout and grow even though nothing ultimately happened. Next year, I do plan to plant pumpkin seeds, but much earlier in the season and spread the seeds out much further than I did this year.
Bell Pepper- This plant was a bust. I actually planted a red bell pepper plant; the ONE pepper that I got from this plant was green. I'd read that you can pick peppers when they're green- they turn red as time progresses. However, prior to getting my one green pepper, I had a pepper growing that was making its change from green to red (pretty cool looking actually). But, just like my tomatoes, something bad happened to it. It got nasty looking as it was growing on the plant. I have no idea what it was- I'm guessing bugs got to it. Anyway, when a green one appeared at the right size, I went ahead and took it off the plant for us to eat. I didn't want it to rot on the plant like the other one had done. Next year: I won't be buying a pepper plant or seeds. Kroger bell peppers will suffice for us :)
Strawberries- I bought and planted two strawberry plants this year. It would not be an understatement to say that I was a tad bit disappointed by the ONE strawberry that I got from them. Well, after I planted them, I read an article about strawberry plants (yes, once again, I read after the fact). It seems it's very common to only get one or no strawberries in a strawberry's plant first year. It's subsequent years when more fruit is common. I couldn't believe how big the plants grew over the summer. I think they're getting ready for a bumper crop next year :).
Cilantro- Once again, not surprisingly, I didn't read much about cilantro after I planted it in our 2015 garden (this time not reading about it turned into a nice surprise, not a bad one :)). It grew fine in 2015 and I enjoyed using cilantro from the garden in a few dishes that I made. In 2016, when I went out to the garden in the spring to weed it for the first time prior to planting, I couldn't help but notice an odor that smelled like cilantro. Much to amazement, a number of cilantro plants were growing near the spot where my one cilantro plant had been planted the year before. It turns out that cilantro reseeds in the spring and fall. Mind blown!! I have a bunch of cilantro plants in the garden now. Cilantro doesn't do well in the heat of the summer but grows great in the spring and fall. My entire vegetable failures and foibles in the garden this year are ameliorated by the existence of the cilantro plants in the garden :).
The girls helped me weed the garden sporadically over the summer. I paid them for their weeding efforts. Eventually, the money just wasn't worth it to them anymore :(. They were sorely disappointed in our lack of cucumbers. They were excited about the carrots and proclaimed the carrots from our garden tasted better than the carrots at the store. I'm not sure that I agreed with them but I appreciated the kind words about the carrots :). I told them we'll try again next year. That's all we can do, right? Jacob was not impacted by the garden one bit.
Here are some pictures from the garden this summer. I took pictures very sporadically. Next year, I plan to be more methodical or at least consistent about when I take pictures of the garden.
May 2016
My cilantro surprise!!
cilantro plants
freshly planted seeds and plants...
These two small plants are my cucumber plants. They grew a lot as the summer progressed...
Early- Mid June- here is a cucumber plant.
A little bell pepper on my pepper plant
a green tomato
The last week of June- the pepper is growing!
I planted some flowers from seeds in our front mulch beds. These alyssum flowers started growing nicely by late June.
...by the end of the summer, they would be huge
Mid June- July
I liked the look of the beginning of this cucumber
A tiny pumpkin plant- just days after I planted seeds.
the alyssums
August
The bell pepper plant is turning red from green
the tomatoes don't look bad here...
... or here
This one looks almost edible but it won't for long :(
This pumpkin plant is growing
and this guy is looking better and better (unfortunately it goes bad fast :(
this cucumber just doesn't look quite right :(
September
This cucumber showed promise but it quickly turned yellow and inedible
A sad tomato sight...
Strawberry plant.... growing
October
Carrots- these are still mostly in the ground. I took this photo from up above the plant
Look how close together they are. That's from not thinning them.
Another result from not thinning is this:
Look how big and pretty the green part of the carrots are... and how short and stubby the carrots are
The pepper plant- it looks OK from a distance...
... but up close, yikes
Some slightly bigger carrots
The ONE pepper from the garden!!
Cilantro in November- love it!!
The last batch of carrots...
I could have SWORN I took pictures of my alyssums when they were at their peak. In fact, I'm positive I did but the pictures must have been deleted before I downloaded them. Trust me, they got huge and so pretty. I will definitely plant them next year.
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