I have mixed feelings about the garden right now.
Some parts of the garden are doing really, really well. Like this bean teepee you see above. The beans are faithfully climbing up the wooden poles and the hubbard squash below is spreading like wild fire. I’m super excited to see what it’s going to look like in another month or so when the squash are a bit larger and the ground is completely covered in vines.
Then, there are a few garden boxes that look like total crap. Like this one for instance, it has celery, onions, and acorn squash starts in it.
Here’s another mis-matched raised garden bed. This one has tomatoes, rainbow Swiss chard, kale, a few onions and even more squash starts. Did I mention I have ocd? Yeah, well, sloppy garden beds make me crazy. Just looking at the plants make me itch. I need the vegetables to line up, in perfect rows, and to ripen at the same time, or I start to break out in hives.
This heirloom tomato and onion bed isn’t so bad.
Oh, and look at this. Guess who’s not getting any freakin’ Brussel sprouts?
Oh. The. Horror.
But then again, there are a lot of things going well in the garden right now as well…
Please tell me I’m not the only one who feels this way.
How is YOUR garden growing?
Do you feel like you are in the ugly ducking stage too?
Mike says
Everything in these pictures is gorgeous to me. If you lived in Ohio, and saw those pictures, you’d think it was gorgeous too. You see, in Ohio things don’t grow. No, really, they simply don’t grow. I suppose if you are Amish they grow, but if you’re me, they are all one big plant cemetery.
So keep sending the pics, even the ones you think are ugly ducklings, because they encourage me that things actually grow in the NW!
Your token boyscout! Mike
Desi says
Well I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels like their garden isn’t where it should be. My onions are doing great and so are the carrots, peppers, peas, zucchini, and regular pumpkin. On the other hand I only have a few tomatoes on the plants yet, my cucumbers are barely starting to flower and the giant pumpkin plant is barely beginning to grow, not to mention that my broccoli went to seeed before I even knew it was there and the cabbage well it doesn’t have really have any edible heads! I know I will get a tomato eventually, I’m just empatient. I’m sure those cucumbers will someday give me more than I can eat and come October I will be giving pumpkins to the neighbors, till then I’ll just keep weeding and watering and watching the slow progress.
Mavis says
What’s up with the tomatoes this year? They are sure taking their own sweet time.
Desi says
I don’t know it seems like the end of July or first of Aug I normally have one. Maybe in another week or two. Also I just noticed that my yellow pear tomatoe plants have some on them, wahoo, maybe they will be ready soon.
Elizabeth says
My garden, and yours, are beautiful. This is the one area of my life where I leave all the stress (read OCD) outside its borders. Although growing food compared to flowers could be considered more utlitarian then beautifying….all gardens should have this basic concept in common….do it for the fun and awe and the nurturing of the soul. Anything we harvest is simply a bonus. I am sure for the most part all the grumbling is for a good read….just be careful of how much you subscribe to the mentality for it could stick. Every day in a garden is magical….and anything growing from some tiny little seed or from some dead or puny looking little start is truly the most amazing gift….and that is what we should be focused on. Life is too short not to!
MaryW says
My garden looks like crap. Too many weeds. Hail damage from June. No cucumbers for me. My Egyptian Walking onions took a beating. Peppers and tomatoes are doing so – so. My carrots are thriving. My strawberry patch also too a beating and looks like crap as well. I’m overwhelmed at this point between painting my house, getting a new roof. Just overwhelmed.
Mavis says
Hail? Yikes! A new roof sounds pretty cool though.
MaryW says
Yeah, we had golf ball size hail on June 7th. It really decimated everything. The day before we got 4 inches of rain in an hour. It was horrible. My downstairs living room flooded on the 6th, then hail on the 7th. I’m just waiting for the locusts. We got wildfires instead! As to my garden, I still at least harvested my 1st tomato before 4th of July. I have 16 plants. Some didn’t recover from the hail though. I have 8 beds that are 4×10 each, and I’m on an acre in Colorado Springs.
I can’t wait till we get the new roof. That will be awesome!
Carol says
Hey Mike (and Mavis) – I’m in Ohio too and our garden is growing really well – well, except for brussel sprouts. Admittedly our raised beds were used solely for compost all last fall, including our chicken bedding, so the beds didn’t have the usual clay.
We’re starting another bed this summer – yep, it’s our compost heap until next spring.
Happy growing!
oh and Mavis, you’d cry at how uncontrollably messy our garden beds are. Seriously, you’d cry!
Mike says
I just knew it, I’m a garden-killer. OK it’s back to “Gardening 101 with Mavis” when we move to Sequim in August.
Carol says
I’m sure it’s the awful soil we have here in Ohio and not you! Plus the current drought.
Sarah says
I’ve passed the ugly teenage garden stage and have arrived at dehydrated old woman garden stage. IT. IS. HOT. and there is no rain…until this morning it actually rained for about 30 seconds. That was it. I think it’s been over 2 months now since rain…and that means not one drop from rain in May (I think) till the 30 seconds this morning.
I’m doing a lot of watering with the hose, but it’s still really dry since I can only water before and after work. Most plants are doing ok, but my zucchini don’t like the uneven waterings. They’re rotting. 🙁 I had TONS of tomatoes and cucumbers, but they’re getting old and slowing production. I read from you boyfriend at Botanical Interests that I need to shake my tomato plants because the pollen is sticky from the heat. Also, I still have no eggplants, but lots of summer yellow squash. I think I’m going to wait until September to plant my Brussels Sprouts.
Mavis says
I think I am going to try growing Brussels Sprouts for the fall too. Hopefully it will work out better this time around.
Mary Ann says
My raised bed is pretty small, but has been fairly productive this year. I’ve harvested tons of green beans, but the plants have slowed production and I’m getting ready to pull them and try to plant another half row.
We’ve been supplying our entire family with tomatoes from our six plants. And tons of cherry tomatoes from two plants.
I’ve harvested a dozen or so bell peppers from my two plants and they are covered again.
My cucumbers didn’t do as well as in past years, but we’ve had plenty for us — and two of the largest I’ve ever seen! They were so big around that I thought they would be nasty and seedy, but they were perfect. I’ve planted a few more starts and it’s time to pull out the old ones.
I planted zucchini and carrots late. The carrots should be ready to go in a month or so. The zucchini are just now starting to produce.
I’ve never planted the garden year round, but intend to try this year. I already have the seeds I plan to plant in September.
Love seeing all your garden pics, Mavis. It’s a gorgeous garden. Looks perfect to me!
Mavis says
Oh how I would love to be eating fresh green beans right now. Will you be planting fall carrots?
Mary Ann says
Yes, definitely! As soon as I harvest my little 8 foot row I’ll re-sow another batch.
I’m going to try broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts this fall, too.
What happened with your brussels sprouts? I’ve never grown them before and have no idea what pitfalls there may be.
Lori B says
I only got a few things planted in pots this year. I was having to put in our entire back yard and so that took about all I had. I did get two tomatoes and some sugar snap peas in pots. The tomatoes are going great guns, but the peas just aren’t doing a whole lot. I went to the farmers market and a woman was selling rhubarb plants and I bought one for 5.00….yeah I know, she ripped me off. Not only did she rip me off, but she sold me a dying plant. It promptly finished dying and so I have no rhubarb. Did I mention this is my first house, yard and garden? Oh the lessons I am learning!
Mavis says
Hang in there Lori. 😉
Lucky L says
It has been a real cruddy year for gardening here in Northern MN. Frost at the end of May. Torrential flood on June 20th (Hello FEMA). Drought/no rain since then until yesterday with 1.5 inches. Cutworms, some foreign caterpillar that blew up from Southern Minnesota on the warm spring winds, aphids, slugs, Colorado Potato bug, flea beetles, grasshoppers. So far the only things we’ve gotten from our community garden plots are garlic, cilantro, a pound of snow peas and 1-1/2 pounds of kale. I planted regular peas twice and they either rotted in wet soil or got eaten. Same with a patch of green beans. Zukes won’t grow any larger than a hot dog. Dill, parsley and basil are very sparse. Don’t know what happened to the carrots. The caterpillars ate the tops off the onions and crawled down inside the leaves, so I don’t know if the actual onion itself will be ok or if it is infested with something or rotting. Bugs liked the lettuce too – we haven’t gotten any yet. I too planted hubbard squash and bequeathed it a large growing area. Plants weren’t doing much, so I checked the seed package – OH. Baby Hubbard on a semi-bush. CRAP. Pull up tarp and try to plant something that will mature in less than 60 days. Last year we got a killing frost the 3rd week of September. Oh how I wish for zone 5.
Jennifer O says
I think everything looks fantastic! But then again, I only started gardening 4 months ago and you would probably tear your skin off if you saw how my first garden is going lol.
Read about you on CNN yesterday and am now a HUGE fan. The kind of things you guys are doing are exactly what I want to be doing in a year (or two or three, we are so clueless now, still learning). You need to write a book!
Mari the Kiwi says
I know you are on the other side of the world, but I am sure this will apply to Brussel Sprout for u as well. They are a winter crop!!! They need the colder nights and handle our frosts here. They do not bud up in the heat but bolt to seed. Here we plant about Jan/Feb (mid summer) for a winter harvest. Also your patty pan squash being planted outdoors from seed, is later in the season than we would plant as we are prone to early frosts. I usually do spring plantings for cropping thru till autumn. Same with courgettes, squash and pumpkins.
I wonder if u would be better to stagger plantings of vege so u don’t end up with a ton of one crop all ready at the same time, like u are. I plant carrots, cauli, broccoli, lettuce and onions monthly for year round cropping. Plant Broad beans in Autumn/fall for late winter early spring harvest.
Hope this helps.
Mavis says
I’m going to try again. I think you’re right. 🙂
Gen says
Hey Mavis…
What is the plant to the right in the pictures with the peppers and carrots?
Mavis says
Foxglove 🙂
Eowyn says
I am super envious of your carrot surplus! Carrots are my bum crop this year (doesn’t it seem like every year there is at least one that just won’t grow?) I did two separate plantings and neither one amounted to more than a few carrots.
As for the tomatoes, I think its because unlike the rest of the country, we in Western Washington have only had about three weeks of summer so far. I have been fighting tomato blight something terrible because of all the damp! I’m just hoping to get some fruit before I lose the plants at this point.
I am def feeling your garden OCD, too. We added some new raised beds this year that are nicely uniform and well-planned. It makes the rest of the garden look like crap.
Happy digging!
Trish says
My garden has fallen a bit flat this year. Tomatoes probably have blight, squash vine borers are getting the zucchini & yellow squash, and cucumbers are growing in loop de loops, and not because of uneven watering. The scarlet runner beans have produced approximately 5 pods. I grow organic and have never, ever had such a miserable little garden. I’m in zone 7, NE of ATL where my little garden ought to be overwhelming me with goodies right now, but alas, it is not happy. I think I need to get the soil tested and find out what it needs.
subienkow says
HA! You are mortal! The way your garden(s) were going, I figured you were using latent Pilgrim super powers.
My garden, only a 20×40 compared to your beautifully groomed, stone terraced, acre+, has good parts and not so good parts. My cucumbers look sickly, but they’re there. Then, a few feet away, I’m getting huge – bordering on ridiculous zucchini (which works out, I’ve already made about a half dozen zucchini breads and only used 3 zukes).
“Oh, and look at this. Guess who’s not getting any freakin’ Brussel sprouts?”
Yeah, the kids must hate that.
Autumn says
I share your gardeners’ OCD. Well, ok, I may have some home-making OCD, too, but whatever! I have 4 garden beds and some other garden patches here and there. Every year I commit one garden bed to experimentation and accept before I even see how it turns out that it is going to be bad. If something good comes of it, then bonus! I have also found that garden surprises outweigh the garden failures. For a few years now, I have zillions of tomatoes growing in a compost pile that I haven’t been turning or reusing – just dumping stuff on (including some old rotten tomatoes). So cool. They’re better than my planned tomatoes. This pushes me a little toward sanity :).