The Modern Victory Garden

I love reading Lauras blog...I get a sense of independant food growing energy here, and it certainly looks as though shes done her homework.  Nice stuff found here.

However...my garden this year was, in a word:  LAME!

Oh, I carry most of the blame for it to be sure.  But Mother Nature didnt help a whole lot.

My corn grew about three feet tall.  Matured one ear a piece and was immediately devoured by local critters (Squirrels and yes, I'm afraid Rats!)

My beans over-matured because my dumb arse waited much too long.  Drat.

My zuchinni was a smash hit.  Again!  Huzzah to myself for growing this variety.

Tomatoes never got past the green phase, and while I had 8 plants in the garden bed, I had 4 red tomatoes and maybe a dozen green ones.

And the rats came for those too.

The beets were rock hard and a bit bland.   I might have waited too long for them as well?  Hmmm.

The lettuce?  It bolted and was bitter from the word go.

So - let it be said, and let it be known that yes - I'm done for this season...but I will be back in 2011 with something different.  No more corn.. it just consumes too much.  Too thirsty, needs too much fertilizer.  And likely no more beets.

Our spring was an ongoing soggy mess and summer seemed incredibly short. 

It was these factors plus my own mallaise that created the perfect dud veggie garden this season.

Lets see if El Nina makes next year a different gardening game altogether?

I also need to get my head on straight and rethink what I wanna grow.  Hmmm.

The house behind my house was a forclosure and has been empty for two years now.  They have a crumbling garden shed that is a rat nest. Literally.  Im considering leaving 3 or 4 D-Con traps of coumadin ( warfarin) for them to ingest.  Yeah, its creepy and they really are hungry critters back there.

Your thoughts?

Howd your garden do?

Thx,

Jim

Hey Jim.   Don't feel too bad... in comparison to my prior garden years (which there have been alot of them!) this was a pretty dismal one overall.   I had more mediore and failure crops than I am used to having and the weather this year was obviously a huge part of it.    I was hoping some of the other blog readers would jump in here and share their experience  too.   I know you and I were definitely not alone with the experience. 

Jim we all had duds this year!  I'll chime in.

The corn took so long to ripen it was starchy by the time it formed heads so it went to the chickens (at least not a total loss)  I managed to ripen all my tomatoes but that's only because I just had 9 plants this year and they were mostly all early.  I only got a few zuchini off 4 plants.  I harvested all my storing beans but didn't get them dried properly and they almost all molded on me.

Things that did well:  potatoes, carrots, lettuce, kale, peas, broccoli raab, arugula mustard.

This next summer is supposed to be just as crummy so here's what I'm planting:  potatoes, carrots, lettuce, kale, peas, broccoli raab, arugula, mustard.

Chin up - it's not you!

My garden too was a big disappointment. Even my zucchinis produced just slightly more than we could eat. We usually are giving away tons of it. Tomatoes produced a lot but few ripened. All my pumpkins rotted on the vine. Potatoes and carrots did good. But I plan on putting more effort into it earlier and covering some beds when neccessary. I will not surrender!

Larry