I just got off the phone with my mom, who asked about this week’s blog post. I told her I was just too dispirited to write about the garden, which is shaping up as the worst we’ve ever had.
We’re normally tired of tomatoes by now, and this year we’ve barely eked out enough for us and a handful of select friends (you know who you are). I’ve put away exactly three pints of tomato sauce for the winter. It appears we’ll be buying 99-cent canned tomatoes like the rest of America.
Those fancy grafted tomatoes we bought from Oregon? No better than anything we bought locally, and in fact, one has already gone belly up. It might be a sign – why buy tomato plants from Oregon, where the climate is far different from ours, rather than tomato plants hardened locally. Never again.
I bought some broccoli seedlings while CRR frowned – and sure enough, they’ve turned brown and dried up.
Even the horseradish is suffering.
It hasn’t been a complete bust. We had a decent beet crop. The peppers have dutifully produced (though not a single jalapeno yet!). The “mystery” volunteer plant turned out to be pumpkin, which has produced two promising fruits. We’ve got a second beet crop coming along, about two inches tall.
Come to think of it, there are still some promising signs. And maybe next weekend, we’ll sow some lettuce and spinach for a fall harvest.
A gardener, like a farmer, is ever the optimist. The next best crop is just around the corner.
Sandy Johnson is a journalist and a gardener, equally passionate about both. She lives in Alexandria, VA. Visit her on her blog, Grassroots & Gardening.
I feel your pain. It hasn’t been a stellar year for us, either. Hardly a tomato, though there would have been quite a few if the critters hadn’t found a way to knock over my cages… Our one redeeming crop this year has been the green beans. I guess that’s why I keep planting lots of different things. You never know which ones will have a good year and which ones a bad. Fingers crossed for next season, though. 🙂
We gave it the college try on the green beans but they, too, were attacked by bugs early on. Some neighbor gardeners who kept on with the beans have nothing left by green-laced leaves, turning brown. Kinda ugly, and totally non productive. I think fungus was our tomatoes’ biggest enemy this year.
You have hit the proverbial nail on the head. Always grow what works best in your own area. Here in the Dakotas, we are experiencing horrible heat just as the crops should be hitting peak harvest and things should be cooling. My tomato crop is beautiful, but right now the sun is scorching it to death. I may be picking the whole thing green and ripening in the house. Just have to clear the space to do it. Yikes.
Lucinda, I heard about your heat wave from family members in SD. Sounds awful…and probably headed our way!