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I am in VA near the Blue Ridge Mnts, and I had a love/hate year of gardening.
The LOVE part
After five seasons of thick wood chips, chicken manure, leaves and compost our soil is deep,black, and very rich.
We had an extraordinary year of “flavor” in our produce. The cucumbers actually tasted sweet (even the skins) and the tomatoes were the best tasting ever. My red bell peppers tasted like candy! I loved the abundance of produce we got this year — just gallons of berries, I’m still harvesting the “Heritage” variety of red raspberries and the “Anne” variety of yellow raspberries. I’m not sure if this extraordinary flavor was from the amazing soil or to the amount of extra rain we got.
And due to the record amount of rain, I never had to water the garden even once this year.
The HATE part
But due to the record amount of rain we had more bugs than I’ve ever seen and more fungus and
Mildew problems. I use organic methods and nothing seemed to curtail the onslaught of bugs and mi.dew this year.
Tomatoes got blight earlier than normal BUT it always amazes me that even when more than half the plant is brown with blight, it still keeps pumping out tomatoes!
More hate — the extended heat this year has made it very hard to plant my fall crops. Lettuce won’t
Germinate until in the 70s, and I even bought some lettuce and Brussel sprout starts at the nursery and they died from the unusual extreme heat we have been getting. My chard and kale from summer are hanging in there but not happy.
Last edited by mountainrose; 09-15-2018 at 06:16 AM..
My patio tomatoes are done, so as soon as I’m able to get around a bit better, I’ll rip them out, and also tidy up the herbs in the raised bed. I envy you all your abundant vegetable crops. It sounds like people had a good season. My flower beds did better than usual too, because of the cold spring and lots of rain.
I’m expecting several bundles of joy for fall planting....Some allium bulbs, the euphorbia Dixter that I saw in England, a Serviceberry for the back yard, and a silvery white cedar for next to the driveway. We tried, yet again, to get a dogwood to grow there, but i think it was just too sunny. Those will give me something to fuss about for awhile.
My patio tomatoes are done, so as soon as I’m able to get around a bit better, I’ll rip them out, and also tidy up the herbs in the raised bed. I envy you all your abundant vegetable crops. It sounds like people had a good season. My flower beds did better than usual too, because of the cold spring and lots of rain.
I’m expecting several bundles of joy for fall planting....Some allium bulbs, the euphorbia Dixter that I saw in England, a Serviceberry for the back yard, and a silvery white cedar for next to the driveway. We tried, yet again, to get a dogwood to grow there, but i think it was just too sunny. Those will give me something to fuss about for awhile.
I was just thinking why in the world do I have so many green tomatos when I planted in the Spring and everything else came up just fine? Very frustrating when we are heading into Fall and I havent even gotten my harvest yet! I guess its the varieties I bought? They are all planted in full sun. I am getting a few here and there but its definitely not right to wait this long to have a tomato harvest. Any thoughts on why? I am in zone 7a - Idaho.
I pulled the squash plants or what are left of them out yesterday and think I am going to end the life of our peppers as well. We still have lots and lots of cherry tomatoes with almost 2 more weeks of temps in the high 80s and low 90s so will leave them alone. The herbs are looking ok as well, but the okra is not producing much so it may be put out of its misery in the next few days. Then it is clean up time. Like cleaning the kitchen after cooking, that is the worst part of the gardening season.
Well this year was hit and miss. We had bouts of heat and cold at the beginning of the season. That killed some of my seedlings and I had to replant multiple times. I wanted a SEA of sunflowers, and I only got like 10 plants.
What did great: OMG the butternut SQUASH...I have tons of them...giving more away. they are not super sweet, but BIG and heavy.
Moonflowers - I covered a dirt mound with a ton of transplants....and moonflower seeds. They took off.
Fruit Trees - especially my pawpaws. I had a bumper crop and they had really good flavor.
What went wrong:
like the rest of you...diseases and bugs. What is bumming me out a little is all the LEAF drop with so little fall color so far.
I'm about to plant some snow peas. I'm in zone 8b, in the south SF bay area. I should get a harvest before the first serious freeze.
Indoors, my basil is doing fantastically under some grow lights. I'm also going to try some bok choy under some grow lights indoors. If they don't do well, I also have some cilantro seeds :-)
This week, all the fall plants have arrived. In the next few days, I’ll plant the Euphorbia Dixter, and some allium bulbs. I already planted a silver cypress and a Serviceberry.
It is still very hot here. The flower beds and shrubs need serious attention, but I’ll wait until the cooler days get here.
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