To Garden or Not To Garden?

By the end of the season I deemed our gardening attempts a failure and declared my intentions to level it and plant grass. After some time, I'm ready to reflect on our successes and our failures and (you knew it all along) plan next season's beds.

We grew corn. And lots of it. Did I tell you that? I dreamt of how much we would eat, freeze and give away. Then one thing led to another and I waited too long to pick it. When I finally made it out early one morning with basket in hand, I was so disappointed to find it beyond eating, the kernels dried and shriveled. I hacked it down in tears and added it to the compost.

My pumpkins didn't do well either. The mini gourds grew thick vines and produced 50 or so pumpkins, but the vines of the large standard variety languished and died before the pumpkins reached full size--either too dry or too wet and the the vines rotted. I'll do more research on the subject and this coming year will only devote one bed to the experiment until I figure it out.

The watermelon flourished, slow but sure. Funny, I learned that the kids don't care much for watermelon. So maybe one one or two plants next year for me and for sharing.

I didn't care much for the variety of tomato that we choose. And freshly disgusted with the corn fiasco I left a lot unpicked. I should have made sauce but didn't have the inclination at that point. Surely a desperate desire for a real tomato in the spring, mixed with a friends favorite sauce recipe, will inspire fresh commitment and I'll plant too many plants again with renewed vigor.

The tiny sweet onions starts given to me by my dear neighbor were wonderful and I could have eaten a hundred more (do you remember what those were?). The green onions thrived in the raised box but I never even saw a start from the green peppers or the jalapenos. I didn't use enough of the rosemary, basil or thyme in my cooking but clipped every last leaf from the cilantro. I prefer to start it from seed next year, rather than a plant.

The lettuce thrived but the variety we choose turned bitter too quickly. I intend to experiment with variety until we find one we like.

Between my neighbor and I we ate every cucumber we could get our hands on.

The strawberries look promising and we can't wait to let them produce next year. If we like them we'll let the volunteers root and start a second row.

The blackberries grew happily in their new location. We watched with great hope the small stick with two leaves (called the raspberry "bush") all summer and wonder what promise it holds for the next growing season, if any.

Plans for next year:

Will not start seeds indoors (that was a complete failure)
Will top dress the beds over a layer of newspaper (maybe with some light turning of the old bed first)
More onions
One bed of pumpkins (with some research)
Corn (expanded to both sides and hopefully in neater rows)
Sunflowers (in same location)
Tomatoes (in new location)
Lettuce (new variety)
Green beans and peas
Green onion, carrots and cilantro in raised boxes
Red bell peppers
Jalapenos (another try)
Potatoes?
Cucumbers
Watermelon
Split our ornamental grass and plant around the compost bin (so I can't see it from the house)
Minor rearranging of the layout
Continue gathering rocks as a border for the beds
Learn about organic weed control and formulate a plan of attack

"Practice yourself in little things and thence proceed to greater." (Epictetus)