Garden Progress: Summer 2012

Sorry for being MIA for a month. I’ve been a bad blogger. In my defense – there have been a lot of medical issues going on in my family lately. Combine that with never charging my camera annnnd yeah…lack of posting. I promise I’ll be better!

So, in a loosely bulleted summary of my summer season….my garden!

My garden has been out of control (as usual). There have been a few hits and misses this season. It turns out that the pole beans aren’t the same kind I grew up eating at my grandparents’ house. They never climbed the trellis, so that’s pretty disappointing. On the positive side, it was a fun learning experience and everything is set up for next season!

My herbs are doing great! Seriously amazing.

I don’t like growing lettuce. I thought I ate more lettuce than I actually do, so a lot of it has gone to waste. Next year – no lettuce! (or less lettuce)

After a few storms, the tomato plants don’t look as pretty as they did earlier this season, but the thousands of juicy, fresh fruits make up for it. The Roma tomato plants have been especially plentiful (hello sun dried tomatoes)!

The cucumbers are nuts. They’re massive this year. Instead of having a mix of cucumber and zucchini plants, we apparently purchased ALL cucumber, and lets just say, 5 cucumber plants are insane to keep up with…I’ve literally been giving cucumbers away as gifts haha.

Eggplant is so much fun to grow! It’s my first year growing eggplant and I love the pops of purple in the garden. They’re slimmer than I thought they’d be, but so delicious.

So now, here’s what I’ve learned.

• Make sure to listen to grandma when talking about climbing beans.
• I don’t enjoy growing lettuce.
• Make sure to read the label on the seedlings you buy, otherwise you’ll end up for 5 cucumber plants instead of zucchini.
• I’m horrible at pruning these plants, but they’ve been exploding with great fruits and veggies, especially tomatoes and cucumbers.
• Summer always reaffirms my love for fresh produce. J
• Gardening is fun!