Hmm, no post since September. I wonder why? Oh yeah, because our garden looks like this:
We got an early cold front. Well, maybe not early, I have no idea. It was cold enough that I ripped out our tomatoes, and between that and the mildew, the garden was toast.
Lessons Learned? Where to start.
Good Things:
-We ate out of our garden. I told myself I'd be happy if I got onions and zucchini. We did. We even got small amounts of lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, watermelon, pumpkin, and spaghetti squash (the pumpkin and spaghetti squash didn't get eaten by us...whole other story).
-I have a newer found respect for farmers. I always knew farmers work hard to fill our grocery store and fridges, but I really feel, and I'm sorry if this is snobby, until you do it yourself you really don't know just how hard it is. Especially organic. The fact we ever even survived as a species boggles my mind at this point. Mildew decimated our garden this year. I have a grocery store back up, we didn't need our garden to survive. What happens when you do? I feel this is a situation we've long forgot about with the comforts of grocery stores. A grocery store is a luxury, plain and simple. Don't take it for granted. And don't take farmers for granted. If all farmers just disappeared, we'd die people.
The Ugly:
-The unforeseen circumstances. I didn't anticipate squirrels, much less rats, eating away my only decent tomatoes. Certainly didn't plan for mildew spreading over almost my entire garden. You know what I worried about before we started: aphids, birds, and the tomatoes even growing or having blossom end rot, which some did.
-Dealing with those circumstances. Expensive organic aphid killers, neem oil (which burnt the crap out of everything it touched), killing rats, and killing a squirrel. No, we did not have $50 for humane traps. Maybe we will next year. This year we had rat traps and a borrowed air gun. My husband built one humane trap, which DID work, but caught a rat. No, I wasn't going to release a rat into a new home. Sorry folks, I like squirrels to a point, but rats just have to go. If anyone has any suggestions for dealing with critters, I'm all ears.
-Expense. I do not even want to add up our expenses this year. Now, most of those are one-time expenses. Garden fence, trellises, drip system. So I know next year will be better, but I really just had no clue about the time and expense to build stuff. My husband did, but I certainly didn't listen very much. It was my dream, and he made it happen, like he so often does.
Next steps? I have more writing and planning to do. I took a couple months off to work on other side projects, as life is actually calming down for me now (in the middle of the holiday season no less!), I am turning my attention to next year. Expanding our garden space, amending the soil, and dealing with the to compost or not to compost question. So more garden reflections will be posted. For my imaginary audience. :-)
We got an early cold front. Well, maybe not early, I have no idea. It was cold enough that I ripped out our tomatoes, and between that and the mildew, the garden was toast.
Lessons Learned? Where to start.
Good Things:
-We ate out of our garden. I told myself I'd be happy if I got onions and zucchini. We did. We even got small amounts of lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, watermelon, pumpkin, and spaghetti squash (the pumpkin and spaghetti squash didn't get eaten by us...whole other story).
-I have a newer found respect for farmers. I always knew farmers work hard to fill our grocery store and fridges, but I really feel, and I'm sorry if this is snobby, until you do it yourself you really don't know just how hard it is. Especially organic. The fact we ever even survived as a species boggles my mind at this point. Mildew decimated our garden this year. I have a grocery store back up, we didn't need our garden to survive. What happens when you do? I feel this is a situation we've long forgot about with the comforts of grocery stores. A grocery store is a luxury, plain and simple. Don't take it for granted. And don't take farmers for granted. If all farmers just disappeared, we'd die people.
The Ugly:
-The unforeseen circumstances. I didn't anticipate squirrels, much less rats, eating away my only decent tomatoes. Certainly didn't plan for mildew spreading over almost my entire garden. You know what I worried about before we started: aphids, birds, and the tomatoes even growing or having blossom end rot, which some did.
-Dealing with those circumstances. Expensive organic aphid killers, neem oil (which burnt the crap out of everything it touched), killing rats, and killing a squirrel. No, we did not have $50 for humane traps. Maybe we will next year. This year we had rat traps and a borrowed air gun. My husband built one humane trap, which DID work, but caught a rat. No, I wasn't going to release a rat into a new home. Sorry folks, I like squirrels to a point, but rats just have to go. If anyone has any suggestions for dealing with critters, I'm all ears.
-Expense. I do not even want to add up our expenses this year. Now, most of those are one-time expenses. Garden fence, trellises, drip system. So I know next year will be better, but I really just had no clue about the time and expense to build stuff. My husband did, but I certainly didn't listen very much. It was my dream, and he made it happen, like he so often does.
Next steps? I have more writing and planning to do. I took a couple months off to work on other side projects, as life is actually calming down for me now (in the middle of the holiday season no less!), I am turning my attention to next year. Expanding our garden space, amending the soil, and dealing with the to compost or not to compost question. So more garden reflections will be posted. For my imaginary audience. :-)
I am not imaginary!
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