Simpler Living

Season in Review

This was a bad year for the garden.  The heat killed most of my plants, and also prevented me from going outside and weeding.

Here are the results:

Failures:

  • Tomato (may get a few in the fall - we'll see)
  • Squash
  • Cucumber
  • Rosemary (one potted Rosemary is left, and it doesn't look like it is growing)
  • Worms - I had a nice worm bin going, but the heat killed them, too!

Almost Failures:

  • Canteloupe (had 3 good ones, ants took the rest)
  • Carrots (never got long)
  • Oregano - have some growing in pots and should do something with it

Successes:

  • Peas (early in the season)
  • Green Beans (early in the season)
  • Sweet Potatoes (I think - haven't dug any up yet)
  • Lettuce (3 varieties - Romaine, Webb's Wonderful, and Simpson Elite) - had several cuts from each, and now saving the seeds!
  • Leeks (saved seeds)
  • Garlic
  • Mustard Greens
  • Radishes (though seed-saving was a failure)

Now it's time for fall planting.  Planning to plant:

  • Replanting lettuce from gathered seeds
  • Kale (Red Winter and Siberian)
  • Swiss Chard (white and red)
  • Broccoli (Early Fall Rapini)

I noticed that Amazon sells seeds really cheap ($8/lb for most seeds!)  It amazes me that anyone can make money at that price!  Seed production simply takes a *lot* of garden time.  I wish I had a bigger plot of land to do this on!

I'm also trying growing wheatgrasss without special equipment *or* soil.  We'll see how that works.

By the way - my favorite lettuce so far is the first cutting of Simpson Elite.  The lettuce seems to get more bitter with each cutting.

Interesting web articles about fall planting: