This summer crop started out very good and ended not so good. We had so much rain on a daily basis for weeks and weeks this summer. The rain made it impossible to battle the fugal viruses that are so common here. I could not treat the plants with copper fungicide because it would quickly be washed off by more rain the next day. Unfortunately, we lost almost all of our tomato plants to septoria leaf spot. This was the largest harvest of tomatoes we had in the pictures above. By early July, all my tomato plants were turning brown and dying. The squash did fantastic until the squash bugs moved in. I tried treating the squash plants with Kaolin Clay but it did not seem to bother the squash bugs. By the end of July, all the squash plants were dead. I still have peppers growing, a few tomatoes and an abundance of herbs and marigolds. I had planted the marigolds with the tomatoes to see if that would help repel the bugs. The tomatoes died but the marigolds are huge, in full bloom and beautiful. I was told that I could eat them but I don't know if I want to. They are pretty but if they taste like they smell, then I don't want them in my mouth.
The corn was a disaster. I tried to start the corn in the greenhouse to get an early start. Apparently, transplanting corn does not work. The corn tasseled too early when I set it out and the cobs never got over 2 inches long. I eventually just mowed over all the corn.
I harvested several really juicy and sweet cantaloupe and watermelon. We also harvested a lot of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. My small pie pumpkins and acorn squash did pretty well but squash bugs destroyed the larger pumpkins and butternut squash.
I did harvest enough to can a few pickles, some relish and some tomatoes a couple of times but nothing like the canning operation I had going the previous years. I just did not have time to do it. It takes a whole afternoon and evening to can 6 jars of tomato sauce!
In retrospect, I believe I made the garden larger than I could handle considering my work load this summer but since most of it died anyway, I really did not increase my harvest at all. In fact, it was small compared to the year before. Since my boss retired in late June, I spent a lot of time doing both my job and his while waiting for it to be re-filled. It took until September 1st but we finally have someone to do his job and I feel like I have my life back.
Now I am focusing on projects to reduce our energy usage, recycle more and finish the outdoor kitchen. I will post more on these projects in the next couple of weeks.
