A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2006 Gardening...The Thrill of Victory...The Agony of Defeat

Thats great about the corn! So what cool weather crops are you considering???

Well, after hubbie got done teasing me, he suggested the brocolli and cauliflower that I couldn't plant at the beginning because it got a late start, but I'm not really sure what would be a good cool weather veggie. The idea of planting at this time of year is a new one for me.

You can plant carrots, turnips & beets...and I am sure there are tons of others also. Fall is the time to plant garlic if you want to harvest it next spring. When it cools off just a little more, you can also do leaf lettuce & even radishes.

A good piece of story-telling here, Connie - it's my guess that you do some writing? Maybe even published?

That wouldn't surprise me.

Keep working this story up . . . it's enjoyable - even a person who doesn't garden would be entertained.

My garden didn't do good this year at all. I am going to go out this week and pull almost everything.

Pat...I think it was just a bad garden year all the way around at least here in the middle of the USA. We have to be thankful what we did get and I'm with you...I'm starting to pull all mine out and clean it up. I am letting some okra and cukes stay out there to ripen for seed saving, And there are still a few tomatoes, so wait on them, everything is going. I just wish it would cool off a bit more, it would make all of that work easier to do!!! Then we can be complaining about how cold it is

The only thing that didn't do as good as usual for me was the squash. We had enough to eat, but usually with squash there's so much you can't give it all away. I'm not sure what happened. It wasn't bugs or anything like that. It had to do with the weather. The plants were beautiful, but it seems like when we got blooms it would rain forever and they'd rot off.

I'd like to plant winter crops too but I can't wrap my mind around it. Why don't the plants die in the winter?

My worst failure was the poppies I planted where the bicycle wheel fence was.

The actually wheels themselves were stolen, but I don't think that had anything to do with the failure of the poppy growth.

I did notice that very few people in the neighbourhood had poppies come out this year - mighta' just been an environment thing.

My best progress this year was the south island fence garden - I struggled and struggled to get things to grow in there - it was mostly clay and the slope that leads down to it causes the rain to bring the clay down into it.



I corrected that situation by mulching - not only right into the strip of soil along the fence, but by placing a brick pathway along the bottom.

The clay doesn't come up in there anymore.

The slope itself is now covered in mulch - my own mulch collected from leaves as far back as last summer, along with small wood pieces I've clipped into it.

I'm not really sure if I will remove that mulch before winter and seed the area, or just leave it there till early spring.

And now...the continuing drama of Connie's Garden...(dramatic music, please...)

I went out and pulled weeds yesterday. I didn't even bother with the hoe, the ground is so moist from all the rain we've gotten that the weeds just pull out easily. I didn't even bother wearing shoes...why track the mud inside. Besides, it's been 20 years since I last played in the mud. That was fun!

I pulled two laundry baskets of cucumbers out of the patch. Lesson #7...double check the kids when sending them out to the garden to pick cucumbers! I pulled on one very large and past it's prime cucumber and the darned thing pulled back! Into the patch I fell. I swear it was growling at me as I fought with it. I stood up, brushed the wet dirt off my face and looked around for witnesses. Lesson #8...there is NOTHING graceful about falling face first into the cucumber patch. Lesson #9...there is no such thing as no witnesses.

My tomatoes have been invaded by bugs. Hungry, evil bugs that don't even finish one tomato before they start on the next. My seemingly beautiful, large and gloriously red tomatoes were rotting on the vines! I cried as I chucked them across the gravel road into the the ditch. I did manage to save several, though. They are resting happily in my window sill, sunning themselves til they turn the right color. Next year I will be prepared for this invasion. Lesson #9...pay attention next time your watching Gardening by the Yard!!!!

The corn is standing tall and proud. So far, so good with that one...knock on wood. Soon...very soon.

My squash has another purpose, besides being yummy fried and broiled. Hubby takes the ones that get too big and feeds the turtles and other reptilian vegetarians at the pet shop where he works. He took a laundry basket full of cucumbers and squash with him today. He's such a good person.

I need therapy. LOL

Oh Connie...Sorry but I had to I can relate I tripped over the hose one day in the garden...No one saw me We do need to be careful when we are in the garden, there are so many ways we can get hurt.

Aahhh! Success!!! I have finally pulled the last of the giant weeds out of my garden. I had my daughter scatter some marigold seeds where the peppers met their tragic end. It's been almost a month now. I almost thought that the birds had gotten them, but lo and behold...they're there...pretty as a picture! I spent three hours today plucking beautiful tomatoes off the plants, only a few cucumbers...(thank heaven!!) and about 15 good sized squash. My hubby's pear tomatoes have finally bore fruit. Miracles really do happen! I may have to resort to cold calling on my neighbors to see if they need any squash...which seems really silly to ask farmers if they need any more veggies! Either that or go up to the highway with a sign that reads "Free To Good Home!!" lol

Oh! and by the way, Comfrey...it's okay to laugh at me! My sense of humor left me for what felt like forever, after my sister died a few months ago...laughing feels SOOOO good...even if it is laughing at myself!

I wish I had as much energy as you have Connie...I still have not got out there in the garden and started cleaning up the mess, each time I wade thru the weeds to pick tomatoes, I say to myself Ok in the morning you need to get out there and just get it done. I won't have a hard time doing what needs to be done, it just getting out there. I guess in my own mind, I have excepted that most of growing season is done and I have until cold weather to clean up the mess...Besides If I am out there working, I can't be inside on the computer at the Gardener's Forum

Actually, I'm lazy by nature...I had to choose between pulling weeds or cleaning the house. I chose the lesser of two evils. Isn't that horrid??!!

Actually, I like how it looks when I'm done. That's my main motivator. When I was a senior in high school, I had nothing to do one weekend right before I graduated, so I pulled the crab grass and creeping something or other out of our driveway. The next weekend after I graduated, I pulled all of the fallen fence posts out of the grass by the apricot trees. I guess I'm a fixer. I like how it looks when I'm done 'fixing' it.

How did I miss this post before?? Very entertaining!!
I learned a lesson just now as I was picking tomatoes.
I went outside in my pajamas and the bottoms I have on dont want to stay up. I wasn't too concerned as I had thought there was only a couple tomatoes that will need to be picked. Well..to my surprise, I had arms full. Instead of me going back to the house to get a pail, bucket, or bowl to carry them in, I decided to try it all in one's armload. Well as I was crossing my backyard lugging all these tomatoes, my bottoms began to slip..so I tried to move faster (I thought "big deal..no one is watching"). I should have listened to your lesson Connie about how no one is never not watching. My pants ended up falling right down so I had to drop all my tomatoes all over the grass so I could pull them up. My dog thought they were balls and decided to start running with them in her mouth. So here I am chasing my dog...hanging on to my pants and thats when I noticed my neighbour in his backyard!
What a wonderful start to my day. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the laugh Christina, don't we all have these moments once in a while.

Oh, No! What an awful way to start a day...but it is funny afterwards, isn't it? Fortunately, my nearest neighbor is 1/2 mile down hill, and the garden is on the opposite side of the house than they are, but it didn't stop my husband from laughing until his eyes were watering, and he NEVER laughs like that...ever... but I got a sympathy hug...as he was still shaking with laughter, but trying to hide it.

My garden has done soooo well, (all three veggie varieties) that I have decided to bring as much as I can to the local community center and donate as much as they are willing to take off my hands. I can't stand the thought of it going to waste when there are hungry people even here in rural Iowa. I think back at the tough times we've had when fresh veggies were a scarce commodity, and we found ourselves at the community food bank. I realized that it took a while, but now it's my turn to give back. That feels soooo gooood...and that alone makes all the triumphs and tribulations of this first ever garden of mine worth every bug bite and blister.

You are so right Connie it does make it all worth while!!!!!

Well everyone...the long awaited and much anticipated (okay...maybe just by me...lol) photos of Connie's first garden are uploading to photobucket as I type. As soon as I figure out how to do it, everyone can see my (okay...God's) handiwork. All y'all are as excited as I am...right???

oh, i hope this works...

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l22/gheer061468/northhalf.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l22/gheer061468/southhalf.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l22/gheer061468/bountifulharvest.jpg

And this is just todays harvest...I've had three just like this this week alone.

The tomatoes are quite ripened, but if I leave them out there any longer, those evil, veggie eating, alien bugs destroy them.

oops...I meant aren't quite ripened.

Connie, That gardens look great and the harvest is amazing!!! You did an awesome job!!!

Yeah!!! It worked!

It started out looking so scrawny...and when you see these two pictures...you'll be amazed that my garden turned out so good...lol

This was NOT my fault...
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l22/gheer061468/tree.jpg

Okay...this WAS my fault...
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l22/gheer061468/petunia.jpg

Kinda makes you wonder how my garden turned out so...large.

Yikes, what did you do to those poor plants... Or maybe I shoudl say what did you NOT do. Hey the garden still looks good though!