Feverfew
What summer? It barely got above 60 degrees all season but September is coming and we usually have warm weather in September. Too late for the tomatoes, though. (Edit: No! Not too late at all, it turned out!) Here’s how things went out in the garden this year:
The Three Sisters Garden: This was wildly successful, but I don’t think I’ll plant one next year because it took up too much space. The pumpkin vines have covered 75% of the the garden patch already and they’re still growing. While I think there will be at least ten large pumpkins, I would rather use the space for other vegetables.
The green beans (Kentucky Wonders) are producing well but because of the profusion of pumpkin vines the beans are difficult to harvest. What’s more, the bean vines have completely encircled the corn stalks making it impossible to pick the ears of corn without killing the bean vine. I am going to have to let the corn dry out on the stalk and give it to the chickens, I guess. (“Give it to the chickens” has a nice sound to it. 🙂 )
The second, smaller Three Sisters plot suffered a sneak underground attack from a gopher and some of the plants were killed. This patch has zucchini instead of pumpkin and I’m getting some nice squash but not too many beans yet. Same problem with the corn here, too.
Tomatoes: This year I planted all my tomatoes in those green hanging contraptions that has the tomato plants growing upside down. The plants grew big and lush with lots of green tomatoes but since we’ve had very little sunshine this summer the tomatoes aren’t ripening very well. I’ve gotten a few so far for salads. Better luck next year, I hope!
Cucumbers: I planted the cucumbers (from seed) in hanging planters and they have done surprisingly well. The small Persian cukes have produced 2 or 3 a week and the Armenian cukes are starting to get big enough to eat.
Apricots: This was not a good year for our apricot tree. It produced lots of green fruit that rotted before it could ripen, thanks to the dreary summer weather. The ones that did ripen were delish!
Herbs: Lots of good herbs this year, especially mint. There’s feverfew growing everywhere, all from those original plants I grew from seed. I’m think I’m going to have feverfew growing like a weed around here forever!
Right now there’s a patch of young iceburg lettuce that’s looking really good. I’ve also got the usual chard, kale, carrots, and radish. These are all doing well, as they thrive in fog. When the pumpkins are done I plan to replant the whole area with beets, kale and chard.
Despite the cold, clammy weather this was one of my better gardens, probably because of the compost and the rabbit poop.
Mrs. Rabbit busy manufacturing garden fertilizer
Xenia's Garden 