successes and failures

as summer is nearing it's end i'm trying to reflect on how my gardening went for this year and figure out what i'm going to do next year, which plants worked for the climate and location as well as my level of commitment towards gardening.

we just had a few things that wanted to grow for us in the garden this year. we did have a handful of raspberries for the first time, we're told we'll get a greater harvest in spring time. the ones we got were tasty, so if we end up getting a few more next time that'll be great! the raspberries were easy to take care of, the only problem was some insect ate most of the blossoms. i'll have to figure out a way of finding out what did the eating and how to prevent that from happening again. i'm not against sharing with wildlife, but the little guy (whoever or whatever it was) just got a tad bit too greedy.




my funky mini cantaloupe that is still in the making just doesn't want to grow to a respectable size. i even dreamt of growing a few cantaloupes of "normal" size and shape two nights ago... it must really bother me deep inside that i only have one single fruit that is tiny and abnormally shaped (like a fat banana). i took a picture of it at an angle that makes it look quite alright. somehow i have the feeling the cantaloupe plants could've used more fertilizer, that might be one of the reasons why the fruit doesn't grow.

our chives are doing fine, we cut a bunch or two up and put it in the freezer as grandma taught us to do. chives are easy to handle, i can recommend growing chives to anybody who has some space for a little pot of herbs. and who doesn't have that kind of space, even if it's on a window sill?




the tomatoes... they're a subject for themselves. one of the plants did alright, but they started to dry up in the hot weather we had. it was not a matter of watering more, since the humidity was so high that the soil stayed moist the whole time and even started having fungus and mushrooms grow. it felt like the success of my tomato harvest was beyond my control. it's just a hobby to us and i don't think we'll get into taking soil samples and figuring out chemical levels and so on any time soon.



all in all it was an okay year for our garden, okay but not great. the weather was extreme for a while and that made it hard to grow with much success. we'll do your best to keep the perennials alive over the coming fall and winter. and when spring comes around again my hubby and i will see what gardening projects we feel up to. it's always fun to have a new beginning!

let us know about your gardening successes... and don't be shy to tell us if you also don't have a green thumb, it'll make us feel much better ourselves :)

6 comments:

Tracey ~ Clover said...

Simona, you can take a mixture of garlic, dish soap and water to spray for bugs on your plants. It won't harm the plants, but will keep all kinds of bugs away.
You can also buy a little soil tester {homesciencetools.com} that isn't expensive to test the ph in your soil. That will help tell you which direction to go in for fertilizer.
How wonderful to have raspberries. I can not get them to grow here, they all die a terrible death and end up brown sticks!xx

Laura Emily said...

I wouldn't say that I don't have a green thumb, I just don't ever get around to it! This summer I had countless lists of all the herbs and veggies I wanted to grow but time just got away from me.
Your garden looks beautiful! I don't think gardens ever work out the way we plan, but that's half the fun : )

Anonymous said...

Your garden looks lovely! Last spring, I went to the nursery and bought all sorts of lovely vegetable plants. But then I waited too long to transplant them into the ground, and they didn't do well at all. About 80% of them died, and the other 20% just stayed miniature the whole summer. Sad tale, that!

simona said...

Thanks for your comments, girls!

@ Tracey: I will definitely try it out, thanks for the tip!

Tonya said...

Ah, the garden...I try to look at each year as a learning experience. If we get a few veggies in the deal, all the better. My biggest issue is that I go gangbusters at the beginning of the season, then get busy and don't care for it as much as I should. As for successes, I had awesome tiny tomatoes, some yummy yellow beans, a few carrots, which I had been unsuccessful with in the past. Lots of lettuce and baby spinach. So all in all not a bad year! Keep it up, simona!

Marianne said...

Oh, Simona, don't worry about your not-really-hundred-percent-harvest. We had a terrible time with our tomatoes this year, because the summer was soooo wet. Makes me sad, though, because I love homegrown vegetables.
Well, the blackberries were quite alright, and this morning I baked the first and only cake with them (guess, who took the others to freeze them....)

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