Well, I may have wanted to add some garden space for herbs and curcubits, but that didn't happen for several reasons. First, I was just plain lazy and didn't get to it soon enough. Second, I didn't want to spend the money on the fencing and stuff like that. Last, we found out that we lost our employment, and that we would more than likely be moving to a new part of the country. My wife is the bread winner of the family, and her line of work doesn't lend itself to staying in one area. She is an executive, and there just aren't that many positions in her industry in any one area of the country. Happily, I know she will get a new position within a year (by faith). It could be within an hour and a half of our current home, or it could be 1000 miles away. Either way, we plan on staying here for one year to allow my eldest daughter to graduate from high school. My youngest daughter is not happy about that - at all. But we can't break the family apart for three years. I guess she'll be getting a horse as a bribe!
I took the Master Gardener's Course through the Burlington County Extension and am currently volunteering at a donation garden. I also help out on the Help Line to answer questions gardeners have about various things. It is a good program, but I jokingly refer to myself as being a member of the Soil Test Kit sales staff. A typical call goes something like this:
Client #1: "My cucumbers are looking kind of sick and the blossoms fall off before they set fruit."
Master Gardener: "Have you done a soil test?"
Client #2: "My flowers are all wilty looking!"
Master Gardener: "Have you done a soil test?"
Don't get me wrong. A soil test is very important in understanding what is going on. All kinds of things can cause plants to have issues. You want to eliminate the most obvious first. Soil nutrient depletion causes many of the problems you find in plants as well as soil pH. Soil pH can effect the availability of nutrients in the soil. The composition of the soil is very important as well. There is a great benefit in knowing everything you can about your soil. It just sounds funny to me to always ask that one question. I'm just a goof ball I guess.
The raspberry canes did go in, but I waited far too long to plant them. Five of the six canes I bought managed to spring back to life. One of them began growing and then, for some reason, it just died back. Still, five canes should be plenty to start with. I won't get raspberries this year, but I should next year, if we are still here in the Summer time. If we were staying here long term, I would probably add some blackberries to the garden as well.
I have had quite a harvest of strawberries and blueberries so far, and peas came in very nicely as well. Most things are growing very well in the garden. I think the peppers are having the hardest time. I do hope they grow. For the first time in three years, I think I will have some beets to harvest. The leaves are getting big, and I see signs that the roots are swelling. Before this, the greens were very stunted and the roots were the size of small marbles if they grew at all. The tomatoes are looking fine this year. The Beefsteak
s are doing tremendously, and the Belgian Pinks and Rutgers look healthy as well. The Beefsteaks even have fruit on them. I had a good harvest of asparagus this year, and the fronds look very healthy. Next year should be a great harvest! The zucchini's are looking good as are the cucumbers. I planted both Lakota and Butternut squash as Winter varieties. Everything is doing very well. No sign of the dreaded Powdery Mildew! Spinach actually grew for me this year! I've never had a harvest before. It always went from tiny leaves to seed heads almost over night. The radishes grew well. The French Breakfast variety were my favorites. I had a a purple variety from Burpee, but it wasn't much good for much other than making Radish Top Soup, which was very delicious! I've had good harvests of lettuce and the Stringless Green Beans are looking great. I hope the Royal Burgundy beans do as well.
One of the things that is really growing well this year are my two different potato varieties. I am growing Kenebecs again this year and also Swedish Fingerling potatoes. My boxes, that I built last year, probably won't serve another year. The termites hit them pretty hard last year. The two garbage cans seem to be working very well again this year, and the black felt bags I bought from the co-op seem to be working just fine! I am hoping for at least 50 pounds of potatoes this year, but I would be happier with 100 to 150 pounds!
Things that aren't growing so well are my onions, of which quite a few have bolted. The garlic have not sent up scapes yet, so I am not sure what is going on there. I hope I don't have puny little heads like I did for the last two years. The tops look very yellow and sickly. The cabbages all look like green Swiss cheese! I have those dag-nab moths! The broccoli did ok, but the heads were small and the caterpillars were many. The bed that had the cabbages, broccoli and would have had the carrots and Swiss chard was almost a complete loss. When I decide to give up on the cabbages, I will be covering the whole bed with black plastic to bake out the crab grass and other weeds. I'll probably use PREEM on the asparagus bed next spring. I'll have to check and make sure that it's ok for use on asparagus. Another thing that didn't do well, yet again, was the rhubarb. I've never really had trouble growing it before.
It's been a bad year for trees. We didn't get enough cold weather this Winter for the apple trees to set blossoms. The Dutchess of Oldenburg did bear fruit. One apple is growing on that tree! The cherries didn't set fruit at all. They had plenty of flowers, but no fruit. Deer ate all of the fruit off of the peach trees. I had been diligently spraying the trees with Liquid Fence, but let it go one week. The deer feasted. I am unhappy. Last, something is munching on one of my almond trees. It is nearly bare. I need to go get an organic pesticide to take care of it. I don't want the tree to die. the almonds didn't flower again this year. I'm very sad about that too!
