End of year garden notes

Thank goodness I had the CSA share this year. My little garden didn't do very well. Not that I actually expected it to - I was mainly using this year to figure out where stuff should go. 

This bed in the middle of the East yard did very well. It contained Chadwick cherry tomatoes (failure for me, the plant was gorgeous and prolific but the fruit was mealy and gross), basil (did okay but had a hard time keeping up with my cutting), yellow wax beans (great), lemon thyme (wonderful!), and nasturtiums (great). I also put herbs in two planter boxes at either end and all but the cilantro and parsley did great.

Photo at 10AM. Out of shade by 11 and sun all day.

The little flower beds at the far edge of the East yard struggled since they had poor soil and shade all morning. However, they did grow, so I'll work to amend the soil and put in flowers that actually like partial shade.

Morning glories and assorted sun flowers

The cucumber and squash bed did okay. I got enough cukes to supplement my other canning sources and a few good zucchini. I had many, many zuke flowers and should have just collected them for cooking rather than waiting for fruit. Next summer I'll do that. The butternut squash did not come in at all. The acorn squash, well, you'll see a few photos from now. Sad, so sad.

Squash bed in front, tomato raised bed behind

This is another bed that just didn't get enough sunlight. I'll move it further west to get it out of the morning tree shade. The soaker hose worked great and the hose pins that I made from an old hanger were perfect. They kept the hose in place and didn't rust at all.

Odd, round, cucumbers

Okay, so this is my acorn squash. Two planted, one produced squash - two to be exact. They got this big (about tennis ball size) and stopped right there. Never gained any size. I picked them at end of season and I'm going to see what they look like inside. I'm predicting they'll be mostly rind.

Sad acorn squash

My Big Beef tomato plants also didn't get enough sun, but they still managed to turn out some really good tomatoes. If they'd actually been in the right spot I think they would have been prolific.

Good despite the location

The herbs I planted in that bed did do well - basil, oregano (really, really well), and garlic chives.

Got enough oregano to dry and fill two pint jars. Nice!

So the yard is coming along. I'll move the beds around next year and (hopefully) start laying out the patio stone.

Gorgeous sun

I think it'll be so very nice when it's all done.