Saturday, August 20, 2011

Farmer Fitting : Update

So after weeks of being away, I'm just now taking stock of my once-glorious vegetable garden. Sadly, I think that it might need some serious help, even though I thought a few weeks away from me might actually do it some good.

So after tallying up the points between Mother Nature and myself? I think it might be a draw.

Winning


Look what I harvested yesterday!!!

One zucchini, that I rescued from what might be a dying plant, and that I'm not even sure was finished growing yet. Whatever.

A gazillion little Yukon Gold potatoes, all from one potato plant that looked like it was ready. This of course assumes that I know what ready looks like.


An Egg!! YAY! I still only have one hen that is laying so far and we are getting about an egg a day but it's still awesome. The nice thing is that it's really so small it's only half an egg, so it makes feeding the kiddo that much better.


There is more winning -

A few tomato plants that are giving tomatoes.

The strawberry plants have continued to kick ASS, as long as I drown the predatory slugs in beer. Who knew that Lagunitas had more than one use? They love the stuff! 


The rest of the potato plants are growing like crazy and the rosemary is taking over like the vile weed that it is.  And we have CITRUS! Its not ripe yet, but what the hell... it's been known to help the flavor of a Pacifico now and then.



FAIL 
Um, yeah, while some of the tomato plants have some fruit on them... the rest of them look like they are about to croak. Not so bueno. Any ideas people? And please don't say water - they have microdrip and we think they may be overwatered, but since I suck at this, it's anyone's guess.

The arugula has gone to seed, along with half of my herbs. This is in spite of constant pruning to prevent it.

The spinach all died.

The cucumber met his untimely death as well.

A moment of silence please for all of the vegetables that met their fate at my hands.

*****

I am disheartened by my garden this year, not gonna lie.  I do think that I got a little overzealous with my veggies and had a tendency to cram things into the planter, as opposed to picking what would work and planting that, but I didn't think it would be this bad.

I tried to lay out what I wanted to plant for the summer but things ended up a little bit crowded. I tried to get uber farm-like by using seeds instead of starters and ended up fighting a losing battle with the birds (why is it always birds that plague me). After Armageddon of my seedlings I thought what had survived was all basil. Once again, WRONG. I am now the proud owner of about 10 dying tomato plants.

I feel like I tried a lot this year but not much worked. Hopefully next year when I start planting it will come out better, but for now, I'm going to say that Mother Nature has made me her bitch.

Sigh.

But at least the chickens are all still here.
The only chicken that is worth ANYTHING.


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

I so wish I had more land on our property to be able to garden ... mine has to be in potted plants, in part because of the walnut trees on the edge of the property making it so acidic ... and my tomato plants usually end up looking just like that, too!! congrats on the harvest!!

Good Girl Gone Green said...

At least you did a garden..most people don't. And look a that chicken, looks like she will bring you lots of eggs! Good luck with the rest..:)

AmberFaith said...

Hello! I'm following you from the Sunday Social Follow blog hop. Would love for you to stop by and follow back, whenever you get the chance! Hope you have a good rest of the week! (:

Best,
Amber @ Beautifully BellaFaith
http://beautifullybellafaith.blogspot.com

The Little Red Plate said...

LOL--I can so relate, as I was just telling my husband that this year, I most definitely learned what will and won't work in the garden! New follower via Super Stalker Sunday looking forward to future posts! :)

Nissa

beachside cottage said...

Hi - Am your Newest Follower visiting from the hop - nice to meet you!

Enjoyed reading about your gardening adventures - sorry to hear about some of the vegetables that didn't make it :o( .. and love that hen!

Best Wishes,

Linda
beachside cottage

analisa said...

stopping in from the sunday blog hop - please follow bak at http://biguniversesmallworld.blogspot.com

Sarah said...

We found that seeds are kind of overrated... obviously for a really big garden they are much more cost-effective, but we didn't have much luck with them last year. We even started them in a freaking mini-greenhouse on our deck, and most of them still died. This year, we only planted seeds for the kinds of things you sow straight into the garden and don't have to coddle - beans, peas, lettuce, basil. Everything else, we bought starter plants, and we lost one of those (an eggplant) the first night after it was planted to a marauding squirrel.

Anonymous said...

I wish I could post a photo for you. My garden consists of one tomato on a Charlie Brown-esque tomato plant next to a scraggly bit of thyme and a shriveled oregano corpse. Consider yourself lucky, girl! It looks great!

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