Reflections and Plans
Last night I bought the seeds for next year's garden. Our usual seed vendor had a 25% off Black Friday sale, so I decided to pounce on it. This way we'll have our seeds in hand for the next year's planting.
I still need to put this year's garden to bed. At this point, it'll mostly be a matter of pulling the supports for the snow peas and sugar snap peas and putting them away for the winter so they aren't damaged. This late in the season, it's probably best to leave the organic trash in place until spring, to protect helpful insects that may be diapausing in them, and to protect the soil from erosion during the fall and spring rains.
This year I made sure to start my tomatoes and peppers early -- but it was actually too early, and they got too leggy and weren't able to start properly when I transplanted them. That may have been why I lost all of them before I could get any fruit off them.
I finally got supports rigged for the snow peas and sugar snap peas, but only after they'd started growing, so I had trouble getting them on. However, I'm pretty sure that I did get a better yield even with those problems.
I'd thought I'd lost the beans when we had a drought right after they sprouted. But some watering and good early-summer rains enabled them to bounce back enough that we harvested several bags of beans, right about the time the peas stopped producing.
We did get a few squash, both zucchini and yellow squash, but this didn't seem to be one of those years when they bear in abundance. The drought may have stunted them, and we did lose a couple of hills altogether.
The biggest problem was the same one that hit last year -- when the convention season ramped up, I no longer had time to work in the garden like I really needed to. Weeds overtook the beds, and I didn't get some of the last beans and squash harvested before they got overripe or spoiled. And when the peas stopped bearing, I didn't dig up the beds to plant the fall crop that I'd really wanted.
Next year I'm hoping to do better, but it may depend on what kind of convention season we have, and what other demands I have on my time.
I still need to put this year's garden to bed. At this point, it'll mostly be a matter of pulling the supports for the snow peas and sugar snap peas and putting them away for the winter so they aren't damaged. This late in the season, it's probably best to leave the organic trash in place until spring, to protect helpful insects that may be diapausing in them, and to protect the soil from erosion during the fall and spring rains.
This year I made sure to start my tomatoes and peppers early -- but it was actually too early, and they got too leggy and weren't able to start properly when I transplanted them. That may have been why I lost all of them before I could get any fruit off them.
I finally got supports rigged for the snow peas and sugar snap peas, but only after they'd started growing, so I had trouble getting them on. However, I'm pretty sure that I did get a better yield even with those problems.
I'd thought I'd lost the beans when we had a drought right after they sprouted. But some watering and good early-summer rains enabled them to bounce back enough that we harvested several bags of beans, right about the time the peas stopped producing.
We did get a few squash, both zucchini and yellow squash, but this didn't seem to be one of those years when they bear in abundance. The drought may have stunted them, and we did lose a couple of hills altogether.
The biggest problem was the same one that hit last year -- when the convention season ramped up, I no longer had time to work in the garden like I really needed to. Weeds overtook the beds, and I didn't get some of the last beans and squash harvested before they got overripe or spoiled. And when the peas stopped bearing, I didn't dig up the beds to plant the fall crop that I'd really wanted.
Next year I'm hoping to do better, but it may depend on what kind of convention season we have, and what other demands I have on my time.