About 3 1/2 months ago (I believe it was June 3), I wrote about my garden. I was very excited about it - I had just planted a tomato plant, a cucumber plant, two green pepper plants and four onion plants. Here is that photo:
It's so fun to see this again, because the garden EXPLODED! I remember thinking that I should've gotten more than one tomato plant, but am I ever glad I didn't! One cuke plant was enough, too - it yielded about 15 cucumbers. It's just Brian and me in the house so we really don't need more than that. Now that I know how successful the garden can be, I may try my hand at canning next year, especially for the tomatoes - that one plant went insane and I'm still harvesting fruit! All in all I'll be that we'll get 40 tomatoes, give or take a few, from that one tiny plant (which, as you'll see, is far from tiny now!). Our peppers, on the other hand, didn't fare well at all - so far there's been a ton of growth but every time a pepper got to be about halfway to maturity it would begin to rot from the inside! It's pretty gross, actually. I don't know what went wrong - Brian thinks that maybe it was just too hot of a location, being so close to the white siding. The onions were the nicest surprise! I yielded about 13 onions, which were small but VERY powerful!
So, here's the garden the way it looks today, September 23:
How about that tomato plant, huh (yes, that's just ONE plant!)? It grew so big it actually bent the cages that were supposed to contain it. You wouldn't be able to see them anyway but the onion plants are all gone, and so is the cucumber plant (that just withered up on its own). Here's the bizarre thing - all of a sudden, I'm getting decent green peppers (and some that are red, too!)! It would certainly prove Brian's theory right - it's been much cooler lately. We'll see if any of the peppers mature, but it would be really odd to have new peppers in October, wouldn't it?One thing I know for sure - I'm hooked. I loved tending the garden this summer. It's so fun to see the progress and to reap the rewards! Everything about it was great - the actual husbandry, the flavorful veggies (not the crap you get at the grocery store in the middle of winter), the money I saved by growing my own produce, the satisfaction of knowing it was "organic", the new recipes I tried because I had an abundance - it just feels great.
The only problem is waiting another eight months to do it all again! I look forward to it with relish. :D
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Lots of gardeners had problems with tomatoes and peppers this past season - too much rain. I don't know if it's blight or some other disease, or lack of nutrients because of all the rain. But you're not alone.
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