Garden Rundown

It's no secret that I detest the heat and humidity of summer and start counting down to fall around mid-May. I must say, though, that gardening changed my perspective this year.

My goal was to get something, anything, out of the soil. Not only were my expectations surpassed but the activity made the summer fly by. O was a prince about keeping things watered so he gets a lot of the credit.

I feared the mosquitoes and deer flys would keep me out of the garden but--though they were bad this year--I was able to work in short spurts and avoided most of the bites. Or, more likely, being in my little fenced plot with the plants was so meditative that time passed without my realizing it.

The rundown:
* Radishes – It got too hot too quickly and only one! formed. We're trying a fall crop and will pull the first test radish next week.
* Turnips – The roots didn't form for some reason. I didn't pick the greens soon enough and they were tough and prickly; a second planting should be ready at the end of the month.
* New Fire Red Lettuce – The star of the garden, it produced and produced and produced. If I could only plant one thing next year, this would be it, but I'd plant four times as many seeds.

New Fire Red Lettuce

* Kale – Pfft. Life is too short to spend hours searching & destroying little green caterpillars the exact same shade as their host plant.
* Tomatoes – Glorious. The cherries are great producers. The heirlooms are coming on strong now. We didn't get a big one till September, though, so I'll probably include an early variety next year.

* Onions – The bulb onions didn't do much. The green bunching onions took forEVER to mature. Lack of sunlight, I'm thinkin'. Tasty, though!
* Cukes – These were a pleasant surprise. I bought nursery plants that exploded with flowers, then the cukes grew like something out of a horror movie, seemingly doubling in size overnight, everynight.
* Parsley – Another star. Produced like crazy, no pests, I dehydrated a couple of cookie sheets' worth in a cool oven that might get us through the winter.
* Basil – I actually grew enough to make a batch of orgasmically good pesto! I'm unclear, though, about the proper way to harvest it to keep it coming back so will ask around and do some reading. Seems like it should be pickable throughout a season.
* Peppers – Jalapeno, banana, cherry red... great growers with few pests but where's the heat? Is it moisture or maturity? There's reading and researching to be done on this.
* Marigolds – Grandma grew these, one of the few "grandma flowers" I wasn't crazy about. But the sunny golds and yellows and oranges enlivened the garden and I wouldn't think about leaving them out next year.
* Carrots – I struck these from the spring list, trying to keep things manageable, but will take a shot at a fall planting. If the first frost doesn't come too early, they stand a chance.
* Spinach & Winter Lettuce – More fall plantings. At a few cents per seed packet, it's silly not to take chances!