State of the Garden

[pen_grunt]

The thing about gardening on a small scale is that there is no perfection possible. You only get a limited amount of space and time to do what you want. Some things turn out well, some things fail. Some things would benefit from more space and more plants.

But I'm figuring out what I'm good at and what I just shouldn't do.

Success!

• Tomatoes: I'm good at these...about 4 years in a row now. I wish I had more options to stagger planting so I didn't get the OMG TOMATOES! rush in late July and then NOTHING until early September again. It's all...I really want tomatoes...I really want tomatoes...WTF am I going to do with 50 tomatoes...half the tomatoes had to be given away...I really want tomatoes...I really want tomatoes. Problem is that MN is kinda growing-cycle limited. I could start inside and stagger planting, but it's tricky with soil temps (if the soil isn't warm enough they just...don't grow for a while making the whole thing moot).
• Raspberries: Take no work, really, once established. I make sure they're watered and try to keep the Japanese Beetles from eating the everloving crap out of them.
• Strawberries: Another easy set of plants once established. They can be tricky/fussy with water and rot though.
• Rhubarb: More prolific than I thought it would be for the 1st "established" year. I ended up harvesting way more than is recommended because it was so darned full and hale. I brought rhubarb crisp to nearly every occasion and gathering--appropriate or no.
• Climbing peas: I did okay with these last year. I had pole beans this year instead.
• Herbs: Basil and parsley in pots inside were both serviceable. I haven't really used them much. Mint is surviving despite my absolute best efforts to kill it off. It makes mojito mixes.

To be Determined...

• Black Raspberries: Well, their first year in and they all have new growth and produced a light crop. I managed to almost kill them several times with a lack of water. (They are a "show-er" plant--they're the first thing to wilt when it's dry...and they're sensitive to it. The leaves will crisp right up after they've wilted.)
• Blackberries: I got two berries out of three root-only plantings. All three plants now have big, lush, green stalks that have had to be staked up/caged in. I'm taking that as a good sign.
• Blueberries: They came to me with immature berries on them, so a light crop was no evidence of my success. I think I actually need to acidify the soil around them a lot more. They look yellow-leaved.

Failures and Near-failures:

• Watermelon: I had NINE watermelon plants and got... NO absolutely-perfect watermelons. I am really bad at determining when a watermelon is ripe. First I picked one way too early. Then one exploded because it was too ripe (and the other three on that vine split in half when picked...they were still good). The other was slightly-underripe but still had a great flavor. It was a watermelon miracle. The one I just picked is a bit grainy (overripe) so I need to pick my one last one when I get home from work. If I had a whole field of watermelons I could pick and choose and get a feel for checking ripeness. As it were, each one is precious and I messed up too much so I got very little.
• Cucumbers: Got some sort of black leaf spot and had pretty much mass failure. I did them last year in the same spot and they were equally unimpressive.
• Radishes: Did these the year before...they didn't ever mature before sending up stalks/flowers.
• Beans: I only ever get a handful from what I plant. And my neighbor weed-whacked a third of my most productive plants. I was pissed. Last year I had really no success either. Beans hate me and I love them. I'm jealous of my parent's bean garden of eden.

Next year:

• Hot green peppers: In big containers.
• Cucumbers: Another variety?
• Tomatoes: More yellow varieties. Our Lemon Boy was SO awesome.
• Cherries: D wants a sour cherry tree so I can make him sour cherry pies/crisps. Who am I to deny him? We have a spot in the front.

What else could I/should I grow? I want nothing to do with squash. Zucchini might be okay but there are things I like better. I might try watermelon again. Maybe I'll get a plum tree or crabapple tree.

Comments

[eyelid.livejournal.com]

the only thing that really worked for me this year was the zucchini. The broccoli and watermelon plants grew, but did not grow any, you know, broccoli or watermelons.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

One of my cucumber plants (the only one that didn't get plantdeath) did that. Lovely healthy plant! No cucumbers. Boo. (I suspect not enough sun in the case of that one.)