Our Garden

 I can’t believe I haven’t updated the blog since April. Time has definitely gotten away from me. The sad part is that in April I was so optimist about the garden we were going to plant and the actual results this year were very disappointing.

 We started with planting potatoes on the far east side, some Norland red potatoes. Next in line were our tomatoes, Better Boy and Beefsteak. Then our jalapeno peppers, green peppers and onions. The next open area we planted cantaloupe and watermelon. Ken planted cucumbers on the far west side on his cattle panel trellis and I planted some heirloom carrots underneath (which I will not do again, unless he raises the height of the trellis. 

 Actually, the whole garden wasn’t a bust, we had a lot of potatoes and which taste oh so much better than store bought. The jalapeno peppers did great.  I usually start some giant green and orange bell-like peppers in February or March in peat pots and they did pretty well . . .  and this was one of the best years for onions.

 I think our biggest problem was that the soaker hoses we used, old ones from years past, had a few holes in them.  After planting we usually lay them out and then put a thick layer of grass mulch on top to keep the moisture in.  Unfortunately with the mulch we can’t tell if the hoses are working properly.  The cantaloupe and watermelon didn’t get near the water that they needed and they did very poorly.  We didn’t realize the problem with the hoses until it was too late in the growing year.  We will  definitely be getting new ones for next year.

 The tomatoes just did not produce like they have in years past.  The weather had a lot to do with that. About the time they should have been ripening the weather turned cool and cloudy for quite a few days and even though some were pretty good size they never seemed to want to turn red.  I did get some of them canned, Chris gave us some too which helped, but we were a little short compared to past years.

 I liked the heirloom carrots which should have been in various colors but the only color we got were the yellow ones.  The seeds were on planting tapes and I didn’t plant all that I had ordered so maybe some of the other strips will have other colors.

 At one time we had three rhubarb plants but only one returned this year so I didn’t do any baking with rhubarb which I missed.

 Ken has the garden cleaned out now and all of the ‘good’ hoses put away.  We are already talking about next year’s garden and he said he would like to try growing peanuts. Sounds interesting to me:)

 That’s the good think about gardening, you learn something new each year and you can always look forward to next year and what it might bring.