Getting Back to the Garden

Remember that garden I was going to plant last spring.  I did plant it, but every time I start to write about it I stop myself because it's a work in progress.  At last a landmark has arrived in the form of September's fickle weather and the garden is on the cusp of a change.  So I must assess its success or failure now or never. The short version of this assesment is that there were mixed results.

The summer began late with weeks of cold rainy weather that opened the door to a fungus that obliterated half the peppers, cucumbers, and squash.  It slowed down the tomatoes while it was at it

and made for some unattractive leaves on the echinacea. In a fit of desperation, I treated the survivors with neem oil and they perked up again.

Late June and early July were the best days of the year.  There were just the perfect number of rainy evenings and there was one sunny day after another sunny day. The plants that survived to that point  flourished during those weeks.

In August the rain and cold returned.  This time the rains were torrential, the tomatoes and the remaining peppers began succumbing to blossom end rot -- a product of having the calcium rinsed repeatedly from the soil.  This was treated with a calcium amendment to the soil and the results are yet unknown.


Cosmos, Echinacea, Rosemary and Squash




Pansies, Violas and Echinacea



The perennials stunted for a while, but rallied later in the summer to finally produce some notable cosmos, echinacea, and black eyed Susans.  The plants that thrived in this cold and rain were the onions, parsnips, rosemary, ronde de nice squash and the violas and pansies I had put in a shady area wrongly anticipating their demise due to July heat.



Sweet Potatoes Overrunning the Bed

The surprise and mystery has been the sweet potatoes, which have literally taken over the bed in a great leafy expanse. Since they are tropical plants they were nurtured with special plastic ground barriers to hold in the heat. They will have to come out of the ground this weekend before the first frost hits. I am hopeful that the bushy leaves are a sign of mighty tubers beneath the surface.  Stay tuned.

What Worked, What Didn't

Parsnips, Cosmos and Lavender

1) Hurray for bio-intensive gardening. As I planned this project I read a wonderful book, "How to Grow More Vegetables" by John Jeavons.  It is mostly about dirt, which is more fascinating than I had ever imagined. He also recommends a method of planting vegetables close together that takes advantage of small spaces and has some other weed control benefits as well.  It works. My thickets of tomatoes and perennials and parsnips are all very happy in close proximity.

2) Raise a cheer for raised beds. I don't know if these made the garden easier or better, but I think they're pretty.

3) All hail the shade covers.  Salt constructed my beds with posts in each corner, which I've used for hanging shade covers.  They protected the seedlings from sun scald until they hardened. They protected the pansies and violas all summer long. Their most successful application was during heavy thunderstorms when they protected the plants from hail damage.The posts for the shade covers are doing double duty as cold frame supports now.


Shade Covers and a Mulch Covered Yard


4) Mulch and more mulch. Until the plants were thick enough to shade out weeds they really did need something in between to protect the exposed dirt and create a weed barrier. I used straw, which was great except for the fact it was really hay and I ended up pulling wheat seedlings out of the beds all summer. Fortunately, the seedlings weren't hard to cull, but one should look for compressed straw that doesn't have seeds.

Lady Bug Release

5) Lady bugs, neem oil and calcium are saviors. One has to be selective with the neem oil as it can kill desirable insects and has to be washed off of edible leaves like basil. Used sparingly it saved my plants. The lady bugs I bought did very well and can still be found in shady parts of the garden.

Tomatoes and Basil

6) Tomatoes weren't ready.  Perhaps the cold start to the summer contributed, but the tomatoes I brought up from seed are just now starting to mature. I should have started seedlings in February or January to get a better jump on the summer.

7) Climbing cucumbers work well. Though the cucumber plants struggled with the fungus and the cold to produce only one cucumber this summer, the vertical trellis I hung it on worked fairly well providing shade for the rest of the bed in late summer and most importantly allowing that one cucumber to hang rather than lie in the dirt. I would like to have more of these next year for the squash.

In writing this I realize I've had more success than I thought. We're eating the basil, tomatoes and ronde de nice now.  The rosemary and lavender harvests, though small, have been hung up to dry. The parsnips and onions will be ready to go as soon as the serious cold snap begins. The surviving peppers, seedling tomatoes, and rosemary are in pots ready to go back into the house for winter. The perennials have all been moved to new beds where they await a killing frost to drop their seeds.

It's wasn't a bad year for a first time gardener.