I started off the summer posting about the garden we had finally gotten around to planting this year, and I'll end that way too. (School starts for me tomorrow, and for the boys the next day. You'd think I'd be finishing up all my getting-ready stuff instead of blogging about vegetables. I'm taking my mind off of the first day, calming myself, I think.)
You can click the link to see what the garden looked like in May; here's what it looks like now:
The results are a little mixed, as was to be expected, but I'm happy with it. J is too.
The sunflowers are my favorite. They're huge!
Really huge! (Three-year-old added for scale.)
The lettuce also got quite tall. Allegedly this is romaine. I am skeptical.
The squash was going gangbusters for a long time, but it's dying now. We did get to eat some of it, and it was great.
I hpoe this last one gets big enough to pick before the whole thing goes.
Our little pickling cucumbers were really productive.
Yum!
Last, and actually least, the tomatoes in the Topsy-Turvies. I am shocked, shocked that the Made-for-TV people let me down like this.
And I was so looking forward to lots of yummy tomatoes. Tomatoes in salads, tomato sandwiches, tomato sauce . . . I'm glad my neighbor's tomatoes did well.
So, lessons for next year:
- Give the squash enough room.
- Flowers? Screw the flowers - we need the room for the vegetables (see the first lesson). Except for sunflowers.
- Herbs do very well. I didn't show you the oregano, but it got so big it looks like a shrub. And cilantro is a twofer - the seeds are coriander.
- No more lettuce.
- Definitely cucumbers and chili peppers. Both were low-maintenance and super productive.
- The Topsy-Turvy sucks.
Mmm, I do love a good learning experience. Satisfying stuff.
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