It's a Jungle Out There

Here is a tale, sad but true. One night, while I wasn't paying attention, the peaceful garden morphed into a jungle. The broccoli grew 5 foot high with roots like a Sequoia and produced no broccolis. The oregano took over the herb garden and became 6 foot privacy bushes. The squash did what it pleased and certainly did not remain in the squash neighborhood where it was planted. A cantaloupe sprouted from a vine in the wine barrel with the Scotch Broom plant. Pumpkins started to emerge in July, albeit that I planted no pumpkins this year. The potato plants produced no flowers and died in July. The Adirondack red potatoes apparently did not receive the news of their death and produced piles of potatoes anyway. The Yukon gold potatoes just died. The wild berry cherry tomatoes, happy in their wine barrel, produces every day after a late start at the end of July. There is summer squash and winter squash at the same time in the same place. The parsnips were over planted and have produced hundreds of parsnips, but many are small and underdeveloped. Carrots are also plentiful, but should have been thinned in the nursery. After the first batch of sweet potatoes died, a second batch is producing vines and appears healthy. Does anybody know when they are ready to be picked. Peppers have also grown even though they were buried by giant tomato plants which were covered over by aggressive squash. There are several cantaloupes growing where they were planted. The leaves developed a downy mildew and I sprayed them with a pint of water mixed with a squirt of liquid dish detergent and 1/2 tsp of baking soda. There are at least kinds of eggplant growing..very yummy ones and they are also prolific. All the herbs are huge and I will start cutting and drying them soon. I have been thrilled with the seeds from Johnny's. I will probably discontinue summer squash and parsnips next year. The snap peas and soybeans were wonderful and I will replant them. The lettuce also produced several crops. Bok Choi had mixed results. The verdict is out on the cauliflower and Broccoflower and it appears that will be no brussel sprouts this year. Now that we are well into our second season, I had hoped a pattern would emerge, that would make my next season easier. The weather this year was very dry and very hot. We watered twice a day for 2 hours; the drip system is good, but plants near the lines do better than those 4-6 inches away. Doing 2 hours instead of 1 worked well to solve that problem. Also plants that flourished last year did not do the same this year. I did rotate all the crops. It also seems that this year is more labor intensive...certainly with bigger and more tenacious weeds. It seems like summer flew by, but the garden is still giving. Now if only I could organize it???

The Ups and Downs of Summer

 Chickens, chickens everywhere

It's been a long time between blogs indicating a busy summer with more than enough activities taking up my time. It is the season of  4H- (not the agricultural group)-it is hot, hazy, humid, and hell. After 5-6 weeks of drought, we are having crazy rain, but when it stops the humidity is unbearable. And this is from the garden's perspective. Reliable crops such as potatoes bit the dust, although I am finding buried potatoes. There were no potato flowers. The garlic is very early and small. Broccoli, brussel sprouts, and weird looking things labeled radicchio and bok choi reared their heads in some strange incarnation. Squash, however, has gone crazy as did cucumbers and eggplant and it looks like soy beans are ready to emerge. Tomatoes are turning reddish, as are the beets. Even the cantaloupes planted 2 weeks ago are sprouting. I believe we underwatered and watered when it was still hot out and this caused some of the early demises. The day we changed the cycle, it rained for the first time in weeks, so it is hard to tell what worked. It is clear that in attempting to track a pattern, that there is no pattern at all, and that a garden needs frequent tending. If my first year was beginner's luck, this year is just hard work and trying to read the signs before bad stuff happens. Note to myself: Do not overplant and absolutely divide plants early. It is better to select in the nursery than in the garden what shall live and what shall die, and this way I can give the strong ones a chance. I think someone said it way better than I just did.

Here are some photos of my farmers in training feeding chickens and picking lettuce with Liz at Farmer Dave's, and  here are some of our  crops.