Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Disappointing

My garden is really pathetic this year... a great disappointment.  I'm contemplating ripping everything out except for a few tomatoes and just putting down black plastic and solarizing the entire thing.  The weeds are out of control, again.  Nothing seems to be producing much.
I mean, really, it's almost August and we've only had one cucumber, a handful of beans and two tomatoes. The broccoli only produced enough for three meals and we only got 3 small heads of cauliflower in total.  The cabbages are tiny and pathetic, barely enough for one meal each.  The summer squash are not producing either.  It has been so humid that everything is just rotting.  I pulled 2 turnips this evening.  The rest were rotten in the ground.  There is only one tiny eggplant set on.  Like I said, disappointing.
Everything out there is suddenly being devoured by a plague of little grasshoppers that seem to have appeared out of nowhere.  The weather has been uncooperative for weeding, it has been ungodly hot and humid again.
I guess the basil is doing well.  I'm hoping to make some pesto for the freezer this weekend.  At least I can preserve something this year.
I'll still hold out hope for tomatoes.  Maybe I'll get enough to can a few quarts.  I know it's not quite August but it's looking rather sad out there.

11 comments:

  1. Oh, my, it sounds like gardening has been particularly difficult in your area this season. But I know that your perspective will bounce back - you work so hard and have accomplished so much in the last several years... Hang in there!!

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  2. Gardens can be so unpredictable can't they? I had an awful year lasy year and had planned so well I thought and the year before was a bumper year and I prepared so little. Give what you have a chance though you may have later crops. Have you thought about hand pollinating? I know you have a shortage of bees and this might help a bit. Good luck!

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  3. You are in good company this year. Hang in there a bit longer, you just never know. My broccoli and cabbage amounted to nothing but I am crossing my fingers if it can make it another month, maybe it can be a fall crop. One can hope.

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  4. I've heard this same observation from people all over the country. We are having a terrible weed year here too as are others but alot of folks are reporting pest damage more than anything else. I'm sorry that its happening to you.

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  5. Hang in there, it does sound like you've had a bad combo of weather. We're def. running late on things here too, its been very hard to be patient.

    I do think this is the time of year when gardening doubts set in, and 99% of the time if you wait a couple more weeks you will feel better, things will pick up a bit.

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  6. this is a tough year, though I have managed to get some stuff...lots of things are out there dying right now, no matter how much I try to water, these 100 degree days are brutal.

    One year (2 yrs ago?) I wound up going to Farmers Markets and roadside stands and buying things to can. My husband shook his head, but it was still better than store bought.

    Sometimes we have to roll with the punches. This year is one of them, I'm afraid.

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  7. Hi all. Thanks for the comments. The garden was actually looking pretty good until recently. We have been surviving the 97 - 102 days but what really is making things bad is the humidity. We got over 3 inches of rain over the weekend. Combined with temps in the upper 90s all the fruit set on out there is just beginning to rot. The tomatoes are splitting because they suddenly have all this water, then they rot, even green. Anything in contact with the ground, even if the ground is mulched, is rotting. I've hand pollinated cucumbers only to have them rot when a few inches long.
    I'm not giving up yet but it is pretty dismal.
    Today, it is raining again and we're still expecting heat. Fun. At least I've got the farmer's market- hopefully others are having better luck than I am.
    Judy

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  8. OMG the grasshoppers... you too? I've never had them before but they are out of control this year, and eating everything! It seems we are all having a lot of trouble in our gardens this year, at least you aren't alone, we can say it's not our fault!

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  9. Oh man do I understand this! I have harvested a handful of raspberries so far this year. Darn weather!!!

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  10. a tough year for many! we just got rain this week after 3 weeks of heat...it was just in time...and we're doing better than much of the country.

    hang in there...hope your garden fights through it all and produces some yummy fruit for all of your labor!

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  11. Hi Judy!
    Some garden helpers for me:
    -straw mulch
    -landscape fabric
    Both have worked wonders for weed control in between hand-weeding sessions.
    We are in the same situation as you, super high humidity.
    We've had almost a foot of rain over the past week & a half.
    Also: I do cover crops in between the garden rows, so we just mow between rows! No weeding there.
    My acreage in production this first year on our own land is about 2 acres. Yep, and I'm keeping up with it alright mainly because of the grass between rows (which is so beneficial for so many other reasons too) and the straw mulch & landscape fabric.
    Last year I used newspapers, too, to control weeds (our paper uses soy-based ink).
    Hope this helps!
    Hang in there, this is the time of year for farmer burnout. Happens every year in some form or another. Email me directly anytime if you need to vent!
    Penny
    Wishful Acres
    http://wishfulacres.blogspot.com

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Glad you stopped in. I would love to hear from you.