A Garden Report

I can't believe it's been almost 3 months since I blogged. It's the beginning of October already!

The kingbirds are long gone, I never saw them after that fluttery farewell. The hummingbirds left on their migration south a couple of weeks ago. I still have the feeders out, in case there are any stragglers who need a meal on their way, but I think I'll probably take them down this weekend and put them away until next April. The year-round local birds are still coming to the feeders, but much less frequently than even a month ago. I think it's probably because there's such a wealth of wild food available at this time of year.

My impatiens are still blooming, but they're starting to look a little anemic. I think they'll last until the first freeze, though. I thought my geraniums were done blooming for the year, especially since we've been in a cool, rainy weather pattern for a month and they haven't gotten much sun. But when I went out yesterday, both plants have several new blooms. When they're gone that'll be it for the year, and I'll bring them into the garage for the winter. The begonias, too. In the spring, I'll transplant them to larger pots.

My garden produced mixed results. The cucumbers were a huge success. The plants bore continuously, and provided plenty of both pickling and eating cucumbers. There are a dozen small pickling cukes still on the vines and they continue to grow, though very slowly. I'm hoping they'll be big enough next week to pick and make one jar of gherkins. I'll probably make them sweet gherkins, and give them to my mom. The peppers were also a success, I had enough jalapenos and habaneros to do everything I wanted to do with them. I also had a decent lettuce harvest. From two zucchini plants, I got 4 zukes total. I should have gotten more, there were plenty of flowers but they never produced fruit. I think they need to be in a sunnier location, I'm going to find a new, sunnier spot for them next year. My carrots were a mixed success; I planted them too close together and didn't thin aggressively enough when they were small, I'll know better next year. My string beans produced quite a bit, considering that the plants never got above 12 inches tall. The spot where I planted them and the lima beans wasn't sunny enough for vigorous growth, they'll be going elsewhere next summer.

My tomatoes were also a mixed success. I got lots of Purple Cherokees from one plant, and they were wonderful. Meaty and sweet, beefsteak-type, and a nice blue-red color. I've saved seeds, and have enough for myself and extras to share. (Want some? e-mail me!) I also got a good harvest from what I think was the Burpee "Fourth of July" plant. Baseball-sized and round, they were great for slicing and salsa, and had the added bonus of having a long "counter life" - they could sit on the kitchen counter for over a week and not lose texture or taste. The Romas were prolific and produced a nice steady crop of uniformly-sized fruits. But I got them planted too late, as I did with many of the other varieties; I have plants that are heavy with green tomatoes, most of which won't ripen before the first heavy frost kills the plants. I got some small Golden Jubilees, they were a beautiful yellow and very tasty. The plants in pots produced a lot of fruit but both the plants and the fruits stayed small. It's because the pots were too small - when I found myself with more tomato plants than could fit into the garden proper, I planted some of them into discarded laundry detergent bottles, the largest of which was 2 gallons. It was hard to keep them adequately watered, when it was hottest outside I had to water them at least twice a day. The spot where I placed the pots was a good location, though, so next year I'm going to try growing some plants upside down in 5-gallon buckets in the same spot. It shouldn't be too expensive or difficult to build a hanging rail to hold them up, all I need is some 2 X 4's and a length of galvanized pipe, and large S-hooks for hanging the buckets from their handles.

The garden was too shady for some of the things I planted there. Next year I'm going to plant that plot with things that did well there (cucumbers, lettuce, carrots, peppers, and some tomatoes), but I'm going to make another garden plot, or maybe a couple of raised beds instead, at the back end of the driveway. That area gets sun from about 9 am until evening, and I'll plant more tomatoes, zucchini, watermelon, and beans there. I'm going to try again to raise some herbs in the raised bed at the side of the house. The dill did well there, at least. But nothing else came up. I'm not sure why. (I know that bed was built over a stump, maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe they tried to dissolve the stump with something that poisons the soil there?)I'll also plant herbs in the vegetable garden; I know the soil there is good so if herbs don't grow there next year I'll know it was something I did wrong.

I think the key to having a more successful garden next year is to get started earlier, and to have more vigorous seedlings to transplant. I'm working on the logistics of setting up an area in my family room where I can keep the seedlings protected from the cats, and where I can hang a couple of grow lights. The only place I can put seedlings where they'll get natural light is on my dining room table, and that's a north-facing window and it just doesn't get enough sunlight to grow vigorous seedlings. I'm thinking a sheet of plywood over a pair of saw horses, with dog crate panels set up around the perimeter of the plywood so the cats can't jump up there. I should be able to suspend at least one long grow light from the crate panels, maybe two. That should give me a much better start next year. I'm also keeping my eyes open for old wood windows or doors; if I can find the right combination, I'll build a cold frame out in the patio.