Brown Thumb Gardener: End of Summer Update

It’s been quite a while since I posted anything about the gardening efforts this year. Summer suddenly seemed to start racing by sometime in mid-July, and I’ve been playing catch up in the garden ever since.

Honestly, the garden wasn’t the huge success I’d hoped it would be. Oh, it wasn’t a failure by any stretch, but gardens, like children, need regular attention. Being away at work for days at a time really crimped my efforts at encouraging the garden to grow. Maintenance was even a stretch for the most part.

Basil, fortunately, is very independent and hearty! Those bushes have provided enough basil for us to last a whole year!

Every time I go outside, I’m amazed at how lush and full those bushes are. They seem to almost double in size overnight!

My pole beans and cucumbers continue to grow, despite some iffy watering patterns while I was away and the continuing infestation of spider mites.

Unlike the potatos, the cucumbers and beans have managed to attract predator bugs, which I believe has saved the plants from total devastation.

I’ve used onion water spray to deter the nasty little mites with great success; unfortunately, such organic methods of pest control have one big drawback compared to chemical methods…they have to be done regularly!

With my work schedule, ‘regular’ just isn’t going to happen in my garden! One of the biggest problems with consistent onion water spraying is simply that I’d run out of the mix, and then fall behind on making more.

Surely the onion concoction would keep in the freezer, right? I’m thinking I could make up batches of it in late winter and early spring (when the freezer is nearly empty), freeze it, and then when summer comes next year I would have pre-made spider mite deterrent on hand.

Well, it’s worth a try, anyway.

Even with the slacking off on spraying (and even watering), the climbers have continued to climb.

Remember when I pulled up one of my cucumber plants unwittingly? I immediately tried to re-plant the root, and at first, it didn’t appear to work. Over time, though, that little cucumber took off like a champ!

The leaves that were already on the plant when I pulled it up did die, but it quickly blossomed new leaves and buds, and is happily producing cucumbers for us.

All of my climbers, as a matter of fact, have grown taller than I’d ever dreamed. They’re growing IN my rain gutters now!

You can see, though, where the leaves at the bottom are brown and dying. That’s erratic watering and spider mite damage. Still, the top of the plants continue to look lush and full, and continue to produce beans and cucumbers for us.

The carrots grew amazingly well. It’s time to go ahead and dig them up; they’re getting a little overgrown at this point.

That will make Jed happy! He’s wanted to dig up the carrots for months now!

The beets I planted did not, unfortunately, do anything at all. No sprouts, no leaves, no sign of life at all.

I’m kind of disappointed about that.

Our resident web spinning spider, however, has gotten downright fat! She’s caught so many bugs in her web her growth has continued quite well.

We’ve had a cold snap this week, and I fear my summer gardening days are over. Since I didn’t get a fall garden in, I may well be done for the year.

Well, except for anything I manage to grow on my greenhouse front porch.

That’s a little disappointing, but not nearly the bad news I worried it would be. Zac is passing foods well at this point, and the sweet potatos he eats are not anything special; just regular old organic health food co-op potatos.

With luck, he may be able to tolerate regular store bought stuff this winter.

I learned a lot this summer, though, and plan to continue gardening.

It’s so satisfying to grow your own foods! Spending time in the garden was very relaxing for me this summer (when I could do it; I now understand why the school year has a summer break!).

All in all, I’m pleased with my summer gardening efforts.

But I’ll do better next year.

I think my brown thumbs are finally starting to turn green.  

How did your garden do this year? If you’re a brilliant gardener, please share any of your best tips!