Are you happy with your 2015 garden?

[MoonShadows]

I am happier than I was last year at this time. I have moved all my raised gardens and added a few. I have filled each with a very rich soil of the remains of last year's boxes, some new organically rich soil, peat moss, chicken poo and cow poo. My plants seem to be thriving at this early stage up here in the Poconos. I also have more veggies varieties, and more heirlooms than ever before, including: tomatoes, peppers, egg plants, beans, Swiss chard, peas, cucumbers, zucchini, melons and pumpkins. Am I where I ideally want to be? No, but much further ahead than last year.

 

[digitS']

I know that Seed' wants us to take an objective look at our gardens. It sometimes helps my composure that I can't see them . I'm starting to get antsy right now, on this record-breaking hot afternoon! (mid-90's, right now) Tomorrow morning, I'll be out there but if they are blasted by this heat, there isn't much I can do.

Trying counts. Being able to say that "bases were touched" counts, also. It's over the long haul, weeks, months, an entire growing season.

I want to share this quote, "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

& Steve

 

[Beekissed]

My sweet onions didn't make it either...had to wait too long to put them in the ground and they all rotted. I probably planted 150 sets out there and maybe 10-15 of those survived thus far. That saddened me. Now I can't find the sets I want to replant, but if I could, I think I could maybe have a decent crop of them.

It rained today and it was like I could visibly see the garden taking a huge drink and coming up greener and taller in just a matter of a few hours. It's almost like magic, that is. Impressive! We are supposed to get plenty of rain all this week and the next, and it's supposed to be steamy hot, so it will probably take off like a rocket.

 

[AMKuska]

I proudly rate mine a "10", for the following reasons:

1. At least some of what I planted grew
2. My son ate at least some of what was planted.

Woohoo!!

My peas did very well. Not enough for canning on account of we ate them all. They were good!
My brand new atomic red carrots did not sprout at all, but I had some 4 year old multi-color carrots that are growing very well. Corn is doing well. Broccoli has produced no heads but is up and looking healthy. Not sure if it will produce at all in this heat.

Kale was delicious, first kind that I've gotten and liked. Spinach is growing wildly, and my potato patch is growing well despite being in a poor location. Strawberries are fruiting, and even my tomatoes and peppers are growing.

w00t!

 

[journey11]

Well, in mulling it over, it has helped me to be a little less depressed. I am very behind on planting for several reasons. 1) frequent rains have kept me out of the garden, and 2) too much crap going on to where I can't stay home long enough to get anything done when it's not raining. Oh, and 3) I've got a groundhog eating the tops off of half of the tomatoes that I did get planted. We killed one groundhog so far, one more to go living under the barn. So I have 30 more tomatoes to plant that should have been done 3 weeks ago, but I always pot up my starts in 24 oz containers with miracle gro, so they're hanging in there. Peppers still to go out too, and a few other things. I haven't planted any beans yet, waiting on DH to nail that groundhog hopefully. My 2 raised beds are in need of repair before I can plant them. Lumber is sitting in the garage waiting on me to get to that.

On the plus side, my front raised bed is in full swing with spring goodies like peas and greens. I did get my onions and potatoes in on time. My indoor starts were the nicest I've ever grown. And I am currently caught up on weeding and there are no weeds/grass in the big and side gardens presently. I have all of my stakes, cardboard and straw mulch sitting there ready to go. My blueberries and blackberries are loaded and starting to ripen too. I remembered to lime the garden this year, so points for that, I guess.

I give it a 5 at the moment. Last year's garden was my best ever. It will be hard to top it. "Mudding in" tomatoes is a common practice in WV since we never lack rain. It's probably going to come down to that.

 

[seedcorn]

To each his own rating but a 5 means average which is good as every garden can't be the best.

Mine is behind but for everything it (&I) have been through, I'm good.

 

[so lucky]

I am happy with the way the greens are doing. I get kale every day for my smoothies, and the chard looks great. Have picked a couple of times. The broccoli is going to seed, no large heads at all. This isn't supposed to be sprouting broccoli, Pacman I think. It is ancient, having been in the freezer for years. Cabbage doing ok, not great. some of the tomatoes look very good. The ones I planted earliest look the worst. Peppers, Marconi, seem to have stopped growing since I planted them in the garden, but at least they are still alive. Beans, both pole and bush, are so-so. Cukes look good. herbs look ok, not great.
Had a good strawberry year. They are mostly gone for the year now. The weather here has been difficult.. wet. wet. HOT. wet. wet. HOT. wet. wet. I still have tomatoes to stake or cage. I saw the large cages at Wally world for 1.99 today. I think I'll just go get some of those.
I successfully protected the garden from two separate roundup sprayings by the neighbor, when he sprayed his field.
Sweet potatoes are still under pots, but I think I can uncover them tomorrow. All things considered, I guess I would give my garden a 6. I don't seem to be getting the same enjoyment out of it this year. Guess my mind is elsewhere.

 

[thistlebloom]

To each his own rating but a 5 means average which is good as every garden can't be the best.

Mine is behind but for everything it (&I) have been through, I'm good.

Sure Seed, now you tell us the rules. My rating has slipped. I'm giving it a 5, and the durn weeds still get a 9. I went out when I got home from work tonight and pulled for an hour. Well probably less as we had neighbor kid company playing with the horses so I was distracted. Found some new varieties of weeds out there that I don't remember. Probably from that weedy batch of hay I bought thinking it was a good deal.
I have, oh, probably a hundred times as much weeding to do as I accomplished tonight. I'm afraid to enter the front garden, I avert my gaze when I go down the driveway...
But the kids garden isn't looking too bad!

 

[journey11]

To each his own rating but a 5 means average which is good as every garden can't be the best.

Mine is behind but for everything it (&I) have been through, I'm good.

Are you getting along alright, Seed? I haven't been able to keep up with reading all of the threads lately, but hadn't heard that you'd had any problems going on. Hope all is well.

I guess I may just be somewhat hard on myself, but I hate being behind schedule.

 

[Collector]

I will rate our garden a 2 this year. Mainly because we don't have one planted. we are in the process of moving so did not plant the garden this spring. We do have some tomatoes and peppers planted in pots, and they are doing pretty good. The asparagus did well this spring, strawberries and raspberries are coming along also. All three of our four year old apple trees have fruit this year, hate to leave them. The hail last week scarred a lot of the apples, so I thinned out the ones with the most damage. We are sad to leave our fruit trees and berry patches after all the work establishing them, that's life I guess. Luckily the new place has 3 acres so bigger garden, more fruit trees ,and larger berry patches are in our future. The new house is only 13 miles from our current location, closer to Spokane but out in the country. Maybe it's more like a 3.5 this year come to think of it! Good luck all