Growing things

     The summer garden is nearly done and the fall garden is just starting to sprout, so I figured it was a good time to take stock of how things went this year. This post is partly for all the armchair gardeners out there (I'm talking to you AinA) and partly for me, so I can remember what I need to work on next year.
     After my three years of growing stuff at the Pink House apartment, I figured I was a whiz. This year I had mixed results, so I guess I'm not an expert yet. I can probably blame this on my two-week absence in July, or my attention being focused on house updates, or not knowing the sun and soil in my new place. Next year I hope to have more time for gardening, and then we'll found out who's really to blame.
     First, the successes:

Eggplant. It's sort of hard to see, but there are probably a dozen eggplant growing on those bushes right now. Whatever I don't eat immediately, I saute in olive oil and freeze for easy additions to meals.

Black-eyed Susans. I didn't plant them, and in fact I actively tried to wipe out that bed, but they provided a huge patch of color in the backyard and are clearly here to stay.

Herbs. Here you can see lavender, rosemary, and garlic chives, but I have half a dozen more. Those herbs moved twice in the last year  - once from the Pink House and once to a new bed - but in spite of that they all look great.

Watermelon and squash. At last count I had four watermelon in my fridge, and the squash just don't  (won't?) stop ripening. Alas, both of these vegetables don't freeze well, but they have been delicious eating.

Other successes: garlic, carrots, arugula, peas, and lemon grass.

     And now for the failures:

Beans (aka pole beans). They grew great and have tons of leaves, but few beans. That means they might not get enough sun, or someone may have previously fed that bed with a high-nitrogen fertilizer. They'll be in a new location next year.
Tomatoes. I ate lots of cherry tomatoes, but almost no Romas. There's no picture because I've already ripped out all the dead plants. I bought a special hybrid that was supposed to be resistant to blight. They did resist blight, but died in July of something else. I'm going to ask my gardener friend S for recommendations, because this is the second year in a row I had bad tomatoes.
Zucchini. It died after it grew a single zucchini. I blame a zucchini vine borer, but now I know how to stop them. Next year all my zucchini plants will sport medical gauze wraps at earth level.
Other failures: leeks, fennel, cosmos, bachelor buttons, cucumbers and kale.
     Lastly, the future successes:

The asparagus came up well, and is a big tangled mess o plants. That's exactly what they should look like, and hopefully all the ferny leaves are busy storing lots of nutrition in the roots so that in 2018 I can harvest the early sprouts. Several garden visitors have been surprised to see my asparagus, because they don't know that you let the plant get strong, the harvest the early shoots the following spring.

But when I show them a close-up of a newer sprout, then they believe me. The raspberries and the fig tree filled out a bit, so I hope to be enjoying those in 2017.

If you want, gardening can be almost a year-round hobby. I've put in fall crops that I can harvest until October, and then the serious gardeners start buying seeds and laying out their garden plans in January. In just six months, I'll be planting the spring garden again. I've got to say, growing things really keeps me aware of how cyclical nature is.