Well, summer is wrapping up here and with it, the summer vegetable garden. I just finished harvesting the last tomatoes and peppers and now I'm taking stock of what worked and what didn't.
Things That Worked
Tomatoes, obviously. If our other prospects don't work out we could probably make a living as tomato farmers. This year the plants grew even taller and more profusely than last year with no more attention that occasional watering.
Early Girl and Yellow Cherry Tomatoes
The okra took a long time to get started - I realize now that I planted it too early - but once the weather really heated up they did pretty well.
Beet greens and eggplant leaves
Our beets were wonderful - they grew well with almost no effort and tasted great - I may try to get a second cool season round going just so we can have more.
Things That Didn't
I didn't realize when I laid out the beds that the looming tomato plants would completely shade the green beans growing on the trellis behind them - we got a handful of beans but the bigger the tomatoes got, the more the beans withered and died. Next year I'll reverse their positions.
Some of the few green beans we got this year.
The peas shriveled up and died before producing anything - I think they were getting too much sun.
Most disappointingly, none of the pumpkins or winter squashes I planted worked at all and I can't really figure out why. They all grew steadily to flowering but never produced any pumpkins. Even with hand-fertilization they failed to produce. Pumpkins are one of my favorite things to grow and to eat so I kept trying and trying, with two rounds from seed and then two rounds of seedlings, all of which died. It was all the more frustrating because pumpkins and squashes are traditionally known as plants that are easy to grow - a neighbor was telling me she just dumped her old jack o' lantern in a corner of the yard and the following year she had eight pumpkins! Oh well, maybe next year...
Things That Sort of Worked
Our eggplants, peppers, carrots, and zucchini all grew abundantly - the eggplants in particular were taller than Arthur - and produced delicious but incredibly small vegetables. Most of the eggplants and peppers were no bigger than tennis balls and often smaller. Of course it doesn't really matter - I am growing them to eat, not to show at the fair - but I'd like them to be at least a little bigger next year.
Tiny little California Wonder peppers
This weekend I just tore out all the remaining plants, raked up the leaves, and now I'll start prepping the beds for cool season vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, kale, lettuce, potatoes, onions, and radishes. I also have pages of notes in my gardening notebook for better summer crops next year...
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