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.