I haven’t done a garden update for a while – mainly because there hasn’t been much to talk about!
Yep, that sad little wasteland is my garden! Between the raccoons digging holes, birds flying off with my fava beans, and weird weather, the plants had a rough summer. My broccoli was looking good until it “Bolted” after a freak heatwave early in the season – which means that the edible broccoli crown turned into flowers:
The plants that have grown have been rather stunted – I got a couple of tiny onions and now have carrots growing that are the size of my pinkie finger. I assumed that they would just keep growing and getting bigger, but that hasn’t been the case. Yesterday, we got all excited about a “Big carrot” that had grown:
So we pulled it out of the ground…
Yes, that’s our “Big” carrot! 😉
Even the garlic failed:
Those sad little black lumps are the garlic cloves I planted last year, which never grew. At least, I think these are the cloves – they’re so shriveled that it’s hard to tell! It’s funny that this crop failed, when the first crop I ever planted suffered much worse conditions and turned out great!
However, we have gotten some lovely tomatoes:
Earlier in the year, we bought a second tomato plant and a Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter. It hasn’t been a huge crop, but enough so far to compliment a few batches of lasagna!
As I’ve said before, gardening is a new endeavor for me, so I’m not horribly disappointed that this year’s crop was a dud – I didn’t go into this with any expectations other than gaining experience so that I can learn how to grow great crops in the future.
Readers: How is your garden doing this year? Did you get a bumper crop – or a bumper flop, like me?
OMGOsh, I tried to plant a garden. It was only zucchini, cucumbers and 2 tomato varieties. I got ONE zucchini and a handful of tomatoes. That was it. I was so sad!! It was pitiful. I wish I had taken pictures though, we had HUGE leaves and a TON of flowers, but then it all just stopped and died. 🙁
Now my son wants to make a composter with a trash can. I’m gonna work on that with him and hopefully we’ll have some usable compost ready for the spring so we can try again.
What a bummer, Rhea!! 🙁 I think making a composter is a great idea, though. Keep me posted, I hope your garden turns out better next year!
The only thing we planted were three mini tomato plants. They did ok. I didn’t remember to water them enough because they are on the side of the house and “out of sight, out of mind” Hoping to do more next year. Hope you have a better year next year, too!
Some years are better than others , even for experienced gardeners. I personally have the bad habit of garden abandonment around the 4th of July every year.
We don’t have a garden since we live in a condo, but I’ve been wondering about those topsy turvy tomato planters, do they work? I could hang one of those out on my balcony, my daughter loves tomatoes and it would be great to have fresh ones!
I think about gardening… really I do. I love the carrot!
I would be so excited if I got a small carrot. I have always wanted to plant my own garden. Right now I just have some fruit trees and chili peppers.
your carrot was bigger than the one we got!
You have a blog award from me to you- you can pick it up at:
http://blesstheirheartsmom.blogspot.com/2010/10/ooo-new-blog-award.html
I had real bad luck this year.
M tomatoes plants that I grew from seeds got huger than when you buy them at the garden store but then some worms got to them and stripped the plants of all its leaves and flowers, no tomatoes here.
My melon vine took months to give 4 a melon sbut them but them birds got to them and the same happtened to the corm plants. The peppers were bothered as well by animals, but i did get a few though and they are still flowering! The only thing they did not touch was the basil
I dont know what to do!
OMG look at that “Big”..little carrot 😉 It’s SO cute! Your garden is doing much better than mine….everything in mine is dead and the sad part is that I’m ok with it..LOL!
Thanks for all the comments, everyone!
Blommi: I laughed at “Garden abandonment”! I know what you mean. I was all excited to plant my garden, but when it got here I felt like I hardly had time to look at it! Summer is always the busiest time of year for me. I’m sure my garden would have done better if I’d had more time to pay attention to it.
Tammy: We like our Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter – it seems to work pretty well. The only downside is that it is made out of thin material, so I could see it getting damaged in nasty weather. We bought ours after our tomato plants got really big and needed to go outside (we started them on the kitchen windowsill). The adjustment to hanging upside down did a number on the plants at first, but it recovered. So, I think you should probably start them in the Topsy Turvy from day one, haha!
Nicole: You’re such a sweetie! Thank you!
Mike: Oh, that’s such a downer! I’m sorry you had such bad luck. I think keeping animal and bugs out of your garden is one of the biggest challenges!
Candace and Paula: Better luck to us all next year!
Stefani and Virginia: I thought about gardening for years before I had time to start. I’m having fun with it, failures and all, haha! I’ve been wanting a fruit tree but need to find a spot in the yard where I could fit one.
Very an interesting post and reader comments that you have here. I would point out that other sites have proposed a varying viewpoint, especially in regards to gardening. Has anyone here run across more related ideas on the Web, and could you give me some direction?