My new garden's first season

was rather satisfying.  Satisfying not in the great quantities of vegetables it provided (though the ones it did provide were immensely satisfying) but in the overall experience of this new plot.  As I mentioned in the very first post here, gardening is about trial-and-error.  I definitely learned some things that will give me greater success next year.

In my new plot I had 3 heirloom tomato plants, 2 hills of Tendergreen cucumbers, 2 of Armenian Long cucumbers, 2 "red" bell pepper plants, 7 green bell pepper plants, 2 cayenne, 2 hills of yellow crookneck squash, one of zucchini, 1 small row of green beans, 1 row of okra, 2 rows of corn, 2 hills of pumpkin plants, and basil.  Here are the results:

I am apparently lucky to have had any tomatoes at all - a neighbor from down the way explained there was a fungus in town that wiped out everybody else's.  So - go me and go heirlooms.  From mid-July onward I've been able to harvest about 3 nice maters each week.  They seemed slow to ripen and as a result, often ended up being attacked by birds before they were ready to pick.  I wouldn't mind so much if a bird would actually eat a tomato, instead of pecking holes in multiple fruits and leaving them to decay on the vines.  

Tomato goal for next year: plant earlier, look into some natural fertilizers to help boost production

This is the second year I planted Tendergreen cucumbers, and I'm still very pleased with how they grow and produce.  The Armenian long are a similar variety to the "English" cukes in the store that come wrapped in plastic.  I don't think I'll grow those again.  They sneak up on you - they'll stay this tiny little thing for a week and then BAM - you walk out there to find this monstrous overgrown cukemonster that seemed to have evolved overnight!  They take up a lot of garden room, and overall they did not produce in a significant quantity.  

Cucumber goal for next year: plant earlier and then begin successive plantings 2 weeks later, and try out an heirloom variety along with the tendergreen.

Peppers did pretty well - and I was exceptionally pleased with the results as I've had little luck with them in the past.  Plus, we eat a lot of peppers.  I think 9-ish plants is a good number, but next year I'll forgo the "red" bell pepper as they never really produce much different from the "green" bells and they tend to be more expensive as plants.  Cayenne peppers? - Are they really this easy for everyone?  Or maybe I can strut around a little bit because I am GREAT at growing profuse numbers of beautiful cayenne peppers.  Too bad they're too hot to be a real food source.  I'll be drying some and making hot pepper vinegar with the rest. 

Pepper goal:try one new, heirloom variety.


When it comes to squash and zucchini - I'm stumped.  Normally these are the easiest veggies to grow, but something was going very wrong in my garden for their taste this season.  I've looked all over the internet and places where I've found this problem mentioned, no solid determination was made as to the source of the problem and no good suggestions were made as to a remedy.  The dang female flowers would not open.  If they don't open, they don't get pollinated.  If they don't get pollinated, they don't make no squash.  Or zucchini.  And after a few weeks of this, they quit making female flowers altogether!  Dang chauvinists.  There I was with the most beautiful, huge, big dark leafy green squash plants that anybody had ever seen!  Seriously!  I could have won an award.  And by the end of July I stared them down and ripped them from their roots.  Beauty will earn you nothing in my garden unless you are a vegetable.  I actually wonder if the problem is endemic to this garden spot as a whole as I felt strongly the cukes should have many more female flowers as well.

Squash goal: get soil tested, talk to some experts, try different varieties, preferably heirloom.

My row of green beans?  Well, it wasn't.  By the time I planted them I was tired of caring for seedlings and so I won't speculate as to the problem since they never got the attention they deserved.  Goal for next year - try harder.

This was the first year I grew okra, and - yeah boy! - I can do it, I can do it well, and next year I'll plant more!  And next year I will NOT burn myself in 12 different places trying to fry said okra and hopefully I will no longer fear frying okra and so hopefully I will not get shamefully behind on picking it such that what remains is suitable only for dried arrangements.  

Okra goal: plant more, maybe stick to grilling, roasting, and steaming.


This was also the first year ever I grew corn and again - I can do it!  Yummy stuff.  We ate all of it raw, some of it before it even made it into the house. 

Corn goal: plant earlier, plant successively.


The pumpkin plants?  I took the boys on a 3-day trip to visit friends at the beach and forgot to remind my husband to specifically water the young pumpkin plants every day.  They died. 

Pumpkin goal: plant earlier and pay attention!

My successive plantings of basil turned out very pleasing results!  I planted 3 times, 2 weeks apart, using up an entire package of seed over the 3 plantings.  I had wonderful fresh basil throughout July and August, still do - and plan on drying some. 

No - this garden did not provide the abundance of produce I'd hoped for, but it provided enough to get excited about and it most definitely lowered our grocery bill this summer.  And I'm excited about what I learned.  How 'bout y'all?  What did YOU learn?  Please share in comments!!!