2015 Garden Wrap-Up
It seems a bit early this year,
but my garden tells me that fall has arrived. I can see it in the color of the
leaves, the density of the vegetation, and the production. So, how was 2015
compared to years past? Not great.
I got enough cucumbers and zucchini
to eat fresh for a couple months, but the need to make zucchini bread and
freeze it or take bags of produce to work never materialized. The pole beans
grew and climbed and looked lovely, but I didn’t get a single bean. The plants
did have plenty of blossoms, so I do have to question the abundance of
pollinators. If I realized the job wasn’t getting done, I would have gotten out
there with a tiny paintbrush and taken matters into my own hands.
I did get a cantaloupe, which was
surprising since I didn’t plant any, so no doubt a product of compost that didn’t
thoroughly compost. And, my two egg plants yielded a dozen vegetables. I didn’t
have the energy to make eggplant parmesan, but we discovered that they can be
quite good just sliced, lightly seasoned, and grilled.
My usual “go to” crop, tomatoes,
yielded plenty to eat fresh and I did freeze several gallon-sized zip lock bags
of whole fruit for the winter, but compared to the nearly dozen bags I usually
freeze, they were a bit of a disappointment. The only crop that held its own
this year was the Big Jim chili peppers. For the past couple months we’ve had
enough to roast a nice batch every few weeks, and there’s one more round out
there.
I’ve enjoyed the produce I’ve
gotten, but the harvest was definitely not up to par. We did have a late cold
spring and a cooler than normal summer, but I’ll assess all the variables and
re-adjust the plan over the winter and hopefully remedy the situation for next
year.
I hope all my gardening friends
out there had better luck than I did. And, I’m already looking forward to next
season to try new ideas to increase my yield.
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