Our garden is producing things at a steady pace, but nothing in the amount that I was hoping for.
My four potato plants didn’t produce hardly anything, and what they did produce I wouldn’t call edible. They seem like them might be diseased, so we will not be eating these puny little things. Four plants, and this is what I got:
The biggest one in this picture is a quarter the size of my palm, so yeah these are puny. The beans and the peas produced a few things for about a week, and then they just died. The green bean plants are producing a few green beans a week, and that’s it.
But my bell pepper plants and tomato plants are doing well. I also have several pumpkins growing. Something keeps eating the pumpkin blossoms, so it’s a miracle that I have about four pumpkins growing. The squash and zucchini plants seem to have some sort of fungus growing on them, and I have been spraying the leaves with Basic H. It seems to be helping, but the slugs keep attacking my squash. I need to pick up some beer to put out for the slugs. They drink it and drown in it, thus saving my plants.
Other plants I lost: Onions, Fennel, Banana Peppers, Carrots ( a few survive still though) and cantaloupe. So far this year, the tomatoes have done the best out of everything I planted. But fear not! We still have some great vegetables to eat each week.
And here are the salad greens that are ready to harvest:
So, all in all, gardening has been great for us. We’ve been able to have fresh organic vegetables (and hopefully some fruit soon), and the experience for our family has made it worth it. My children know that food doesn’t just come from a box, and they have enjoyed being a part of the growing process.
So I am planning on doing a little fall/winter planting. Do you all know of some great vegetables to plant during the cold season? I’d love to hear your tips!
YTD Gardening Expenses (first time gardener): $76.12
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I had really good luck with swiss chard last year. This year I’m going to try onions too.
I’m not sure where you are, but in DC I find that my most productive month in the garden is actually September (as in keeping up with the produce is almost a part time job), so hang in there.
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HEY….my Jeff has had the same problem with the fungus stuff, and is spraying also, and he removes any yellowing leaves and he is seeing new growth….
My potatoes produced small potatoes but they were yummy! I think that I pulled them way too early. And I didn’t really know how to take care of them except water them a lot. (Most of what I learned I learned from the movie, Faith Like Potatoes! so it isn’t much) But we planted sweet potatoes after the regular potatoes were pulled. And my mother says that sweet potato leaves (the very top new ones) can be harvested and mixed into soups. I tried them and they tasted great with basil and pasta. So if you have any sprouts on your sweet potatoes, you could try them too!
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be careful when eating tater leaves, while new leaf growth on SWEET taters can be eaten, other tater leaves CAN NOT they are poisonous
Don’t give up. You will find the more compost and additional nutrients you put in your soil will reap benefits through the years. We are now in our 10th or so year with our garden and I would say it took us a good 3 or 4 years to really get dirt to be healthy. You could try adding earthworms. They are amazing suckers, you should read about what they do for garden dirt. We have a ton.
You should plant broccoli. We live in southern VA so we’ll be doing that next week or so. Also, salad greens and you could even plant late green beans if your earlier ones didn’t do well. My father in law taught us what we know about potatoes. We added some sand to the spots we planted, don’t harvest until the vines are almost dead, and keep them well watered. When they started growing we also piled lots of mulched up leaves around the base because they love loomy soil to grow in. We got a bushel off of about 15 plants. I was pleased. Hope that helps!
Marvelous Mark says to just keep “hilling” the taters. That means to pile more dirt/mulch over them every time leaves start peaking through the soil. I don’t always understand his way of gardening but he’s been doing it successfully for years. When he gets impatient he’ll dig through a little bit to see how if they are big enough to eat and if not, just pile the dirt back around them until they are.
Being in central AL, we get to try another summer garden before we work on our fall garden (freeze? What’s this freeze thing I keep hearing about??) so hopefully more squash, beans and field peas before moving on to butternut and acorn squash and broccoli.
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Born and raised in the south, potatoes have always been an early or late crop for us–too hot and humid for them during the heat of summer. Maybe you should try some for fall. And those little potatoes, better known as “new” potatoes, are often the tastiest of all. Brush them well, then boil them, skins and all. Drain, then add salt and pepper and a little butter to the pot-they’re the best!
I second planting broccoli and another round of salad greens as the weather cools. Also, try growing your own garlic! It’s easy (there are videos on YouTube/MonkeySee) and all you have to do is plant it in the fall and wait to eat it in the spring. Enjoy!
Wow, you are so adventurous to plant such a variety of plants. That’s great. I would probably decide to plant one thing at a time to figure out what is the hardest to kill. I am learning so much from you sharing about your garden.
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My father-in-law taught me an easy way to grow potatoes. You’ll need old bushel baskets. Put a folded water-soaked newspaper folded in half in the bottom. Add 6-8 inches of good garden soil/compost mix. Add three or four cut potato eyes (I get my seed potatoes from Tractor Supply)and cover with 3-4 inches of soil mixture. Wait for growth. When plants get about 2-3 inches high add more garden soil. Keep doing this until the basket is full of soil. Plants will continue to grow over the top of the basket. Water as needed, the basket allows for ample drainage. When the leaves on the plants start to turn brown and whither your potatoes are ready! My wise father-in-law said the trick to good gardening is to walk your garden every morning, enjoy the new growth and pull a few weeds on your way through!
We are planning for a fall planting as well and this is what we plan…broccoli, collards, carrots, brussel sprouts, 2 types of sugar snap peas, beets, two types of radish, icicle short top (white and shaped like a carrot) and sparkler the tarditional globe shape, two types leaf lettuce (can’t remember what one type is) and Grand Rapids, 2 types of spinach (one I can’t remember and the other is Teton hybrid then cabbage red acre, now we also planted ALOT this year already and we lost a good part of our crop, we know that powdery mildew attacked but we def had a bug problem too. So we have several things to work out and we have to spread an organic fungicide before we plant again, which we will be starting prob this weekend, so even if you plan well and everything, sometimes your best laid plans don’t work but it’s ok, even though we didn’t get to harvest as much as I had expected we still did well and I was able to cook and freeze some pie pumpkins, sph.squash and we had SO MANY cucumbers this year, so def plant some more!!!!! Also everyone’s comment about the taters was correct, I don’t have an abundance of dirt in my garden to have done the taters this year, but you can also grow them in a mixture of half dirt and a straw bale!!
i didn’t have much luck with the tomatoes or bell peppers either, last year i did better. i’m live in Texas and August is a good month to start basil, beans, lettuces & parsley, Sept. beets onion, garlic & radish. good luck.
You can try cracked eggshells for the slugs, they cant crawl over because they are jagged.
Kale is excellent for the colder season. In Virginia I did best with it during the winter. During the summer I had a problem with something like cabbage worms.