We’re bit late in posting about the garden this year. But if any of you were wondering about our little patch of veggies, we‘re happy to say that things are going well! We applied much of what we learned last year and think the garden will be even more productive.
A few of the main changes are:
1. We are sharing the garden with 6 other people (same as last year) but instead of one huge plot we divided up the garden and each couple has their own plot. Last year we were a bit ambitious and didn’t anticipate how much work it would be. I think everyone was a bit overwhelmed. The smaller plots are so much more manageable.
2. There is one plot in the center of the garden of lettuces/greens. The salad greens were the one thing that everyone LOVED last year and it worked out so well. We planted 1/3 of the amount we planted last year and still have a ton!
3. Deer fencing has (so far) been our savior! Last year the deer pretty much wrecked us and discouraged us to the point of giving up. There really is no point to doing all this work if the deer are just going to eat everything. So we bit the bullet and invested in extending the fence to about 10 feet tall. Only once has a deer tried to get in this season with no casualties to any of our plants! We’re crossing our fingers that the fence continues to deter them.
The images above was the garden a month ago, and this is the garden today:
Crazy, right?
–c.
A couple weeks ago we finally got around to digging out the potato bin that we had filled with all the extra potato plantings that wouldn’t fit into the garden proper. We were unsure of how this was going to turn out because:
1.) we had never done this before
2.) we started building up the soil too late
3.) the bin required so much dirt that we got overwhelmed and gave up on building it up
4.) the number of potato plants in the bin way exceeded the number it should hold, we just didn’t want to waste the seed potatoes
Due to the overcrowding, we figured that we would either end up with 300lbs. of potatoes, no potatoes, a bunch of tiny potatoes, or one obscenely large square shaped potato. We ended up with a good haul of small to medium sized potatoes, but not nearly 300lbs worth. I think next year we will do the same thing but with less plants to give them some room to do their thing.
Andrew’s Aunt Jane, who lives in Denmark, sent us these Potato Gloves that are meant for cleaning potatoes. They work great! And they are surprisingly similar to the bath gloves I use when I take a shower.
–c.
A couple weeks ago we finally got around to digging out the potato bin that we had filled with all the extra potato plantings that wouldn’t fit into the garden proper. We were unsure of how this was going to turn out because:
1.) we had never done this before
2.) we started building up the soil too late
3.) the bin required so much dirt that we got overwhelmed and gave up on building it up
4.) the number of potato plants in the bin way exceeded the number it should hold, we just didn’t want to waste the seed potatoes
Due to the overcrowding, we figured that we would either end up with 300lbs. of potatoes, no potatoes, a bunch of tiny potatoes, or one obscenely large square shaped potato. We ended up with a good haul of small to medium sized potatoes, but not nearly 300lbs worth. I think next year we will do the same thing but with less plants to give them some room to do their thing.
Andrew’s Aunt Jane, who lives in Denmark, sent us these Potato Gloves that are meant for cleaning potatoes. They work great! And they are surprisingly similar to the bath gloves I use when I take a shower.
–c.
One of the last things left in the garden were the carrots. We got off to sort of a late start on these and they take a really long time to mature so we figured we’d keep them in the ground as long as possible.
We pulled up our first round of plantings a couple weeks ago and Andrew pulled up the rest earlier this week. We both agree that we LOVE root vegetables. Not only were we pretty successful growing them, but they are just so ding-dang fun to harvest! There are few things as rewarding as digging potatoes out of the ground and pulling up a bright orange carrot. I kept imaging how much fun the little one will have with this task.
Some of the carrots came out a little funky. I think this is because carrot seeds are microscopic and trying to plant just one is practically impossible. We thinned them down after they started to grow, but since their stems grow in bunches it’s hard to tell how well you’re thinning them out. Some of the carrots were wrapped around each other and look like emaciated aliens.
And one particular favorite looks like The Radish Spirit from Spirited Away!
–c.
One of the last things left in the garden were the carrots. We got off to sort of a late start on these and they take a really long time to mature so we figured we’d keep them in the ground as long as possible.
We pulled up our first round of plantings a couple weeks ago and Andrew pulled up the rest earlier this week. We both agree that we LOVE root vegetables. Not only were we pretty successful growing them, but they are just so ding-dang fun to harvest! There are few things as rewarding as digging potatoes out of the ground and pulling up a bright orange carrot. I kept imaging how much fun the little one will have with this task.
Some of the carrots came out a little funky. I think this is because carrot seeds are microscopic and trying to plant just one is practically impossible. We thinned them down after they started to grow, but since their stems grow in bunches it’s hard to tell how well you’re thinning them out. Some of the carrots were wrapped around each other and look like emaciated aliens.
And one particular favorite looks like The Radish Spirit from Spirited Away!
–c.
The yhs: Fruits & Vegetable Garden is coming to its end for the season and overall it’s been a mixture of success and failure. We knew this first year was going to be a huge learning experience and in that sense we were a success.
On the other hand, some things were devastating failures. The main one being the deer situation. We truly underestimated their desire to eat all our hard work despite all the beautiful foliage there is to eat outside of the garden. Though some things didn’t work out for us regardless of the deer (such as melons and cucumbers) I think the deer were the main culprit for destroying not only our plants but our morale as well. I think after the first few hits by the deer we realized that no matter how much love and care we put into the garden those pesky deer were going to get in there and wreck the place anyway. So, for next year our main focus is going to be keeping the deer out because, honestly, it’s not worth the time and effort if we can’t keep them out. Or we could just grow solely kale because they didn’t seem to care for that!
But I’m not going to dwell only on the bad things. There were some things that grew really really well! I’m happy to report that we had a fair share of lettuces, potatoes, green beans, carrots, zucchini, butternut squash, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, kale, basil, snow peas, green peas, and (dried) lima beans.
Some things that grew well, but then were ruined by the deer were swiss chard, tomatoes, strawberries, and our second round of green beans. We were able to harvest some of these things but not as much as we would have liked.
We also got a few cucumbers, one pepper, two tiny eggplants and about a million pea tomatoes. Let me just say that we planted way too many pea tomato plants. They are extremely cute (being smaller than even a grape tomato) but not really worth the effort of picking all those little guys. Note for next year: only one pea tomato plant.
–c.
The yhs: Fruits & Vegetable Garden is coming to its end for the season and overall it’s been a mixture of success and failure. We knew this first year was going to be a huge learning experience and in that sense we were a success.
On the other hand, some things were devastating failures. The main one being the deer situation. We truly underestimated their desire to eat all our hard work despite all the beautiful foliage there is to eat outside of the garden. Though some things didn’t work out for us regardless of the deer (such as melons and cucumbers) I think the deer were the main culprit for destroying not only our plants but our morale as well. I think after the first few hits by the deer we realized that no matter how much love and care we put into the garden those pesky deer were going to get in there and wreck the place anyway. So, for next year our main focus is going to be keeping the deer out because, honestly, it’s not worth the time and effort if we can’t keep them out. Or we could just grow solely kale because they didn’t seem to care for that!
But I’m not going to dwell only on the bad things. There were some things that grew really really well! I’m happy to report that we had a fair share of lettuces, potatoes, green beans, carrots, zucchini, butternut squash, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, kale, basil, snow peas, green peas, and (dried) lima beans.
Some things that grew well, but then were ruined by the deer were swiss chard, tomatoes, strawberries, and our second round of green beans. We were able to harvest some of these things but not as much as we would have liked.
We also got a few cucumbers, one pepper, two tiny eggplants and about a million pea tomatoes. Let me just say that we planted way too many pea tomato plants. They are extremely cute (being smaller than even a grape tomato) but not really worth the effort of picking all those little guys. Note for next year: only one pea tomato plant.
–c.
As you saw in our last post, deer have been snacking on our hard work. So far we know they like peppers (or at least their leaves), strawberries (the whole plant), swiss chard, green bean leaves, and they like the foliage of our beets but not the actual beet, which is kind of annoying because in the process of eating the leaves – harvest-ready or not – they pull out the beet. Their path has been obvious.
Swiss chard chomping:
Green bean binge:
The deer are looking past the pastures of fresh, organic grass and honing in on our more “exotic” offerings. This is a problem we anticipated but now that we’re faced with it we’re scrambling for solutions. As expected, our fence isn’t tall enough. The wind chimes we bought are so heavy they hang stoic in gale force winds. The liquid fence, although very potent (imagine the worst smells your body has ever produced all mixed together and combined with the liquid that has pooled at the bottom of a dumpster in August), keeps getting washed away by the rain. Our next thoughts of prevention are radios, motion lights, strategically strung fishing line, borrowing a dog, and me dressed as a bear. If you have any suggestions let us know.
-a.
The fact that matter cannot be created or destroyed has always boggled my mind and our garden has added to that bogglement. We put seeds in the ground – some the size of pinheads – and they grew so, so big that I simply cannot understand how that “matter” was not created. The energy potential in a seed has to be on par with an A-bomb. Our garden exploded.
Zucchini a few weeks ago:
Zucchini now:
Our trellis is finally getting some relief as the peas are starting to die. For a second there I was worried it would buckle under the strangulation of hundreds of tiny little nooses (vines).
Here are some overviews:
If deer weren’t so damn cute I’d have their carcasses strung up from every tree in our backyard. This is one of our healthy strawberry plants:
This one’s not so healthy. I hope it tasted good, Ms. deer.
-a.