Garden Evaluation, Part I

When I started this gardening experiment as part of my Homestead Wannabe frame of mind, I set myself a few benchmarks, both to see if I could justify the expense, as well as what I put into it. I get that the idea was that it wasn't supposed to be much work, but it was some. Mostly attention, of course, but there was a little work here or there.

And what I had decided that, since South Florida has two growing seasons, I'd try both of 'em and see what I got out of it. 

For this first growing season, Autumn, I wanted to "build" the garden, plant a bunch of stuff, and see how it went, what kind of yield I could get. I told myself that if I got a decent number of tomatoes, a couple of handfuls of green beans, a few cucumbers, a few squash, some peas, I'd be happy. Along the way I picked up some lettuce and rosemary, and after several previous (failed) attempts at bell peppers, actually added them to the mix.

So - what did I get?

Tomatoes
In total, probably less than a handful. Even now, Seymour has over 24 tiny tomatoes! (He, Audrey, and Goldie are golden cherry tomatoes, so yest, they are supposed to be small. But these are *tiny* and green). Henrietta has several tomatoes, of which I got one ripe one yesterday. George has several, all green. Same with Ruby. And they just... don't seem to be getting any bigger or ripening. Every once in a while, one of Henrietta's will ripen, and one of Ruby's did a while ago. Otherwise - nada.

I am going to continue to water and fertilize them until the plants die, but so far - far short of what I said I wanted. *sigh*

Green beans
So far, I'd say I've gotten probably 3 generous handfuls of them, enough to cook for several meals. And every couple of days I'm getting another bean here or there. Again, the vines are once more filled with blossoms, but there are tiny beans all over that aren't getting any bigger. Again, I'll keep watering and feeding until the vines die, but so far, more than I expected before they started following the same pattern as everything.

Cucumbers
When the vines grew big and bushy and there were a bunch of little cucumbers all over, I got very excited! (All documented in previous posts, like the others, lol). Then the same thing - one cucumber got big enough to actually eat. One flat out got chomped. The rest never got big enough before the vines all died. First the leaves shriveled like they weren't watered (and they were! I promise you they were!), then the vines died. There's one half dead vine out there with a smallish cucumber that I'm babying, but I'm not holding my breath there.

Squash
Ditto. I planted them, got a *ton* of plants with so many blossoms I thought I'd be sticking squash in the neighbors' mailboxes to get rid of it. Then some of the leaves withered, then the plants died off. I replanted, thinned the plants, and actually got a couple of tiny squash. Only to have it all repeat. There is half of one lone plant out there that is still healthy with one small squash that actually looks like it's getting a little bigger. Again, I'm babying it, and the blossoms on that half of the plant, so... guess we'll see what we see.

Peas
Tons of vines, a few blossoms, healthy for now. But that's about all. 

So - what's the verdict at this point? Hit "Read More" to, well, read more, ha ha!



Since I have more seeds, all the tubs, and the platform is still in good shape, it's hard to just ditch all that. For now, there's not much to take care of, and I will admit I haven't done any research into why this is happening. A friend at work who gardens (and I gave some of my plants to that I thinned) had many of the exact same problems. If the two of us had them, surely someone else has had them.

So end of February or so, I will get a few more bags of dirt (my mom says I have to call it soil. It's dirt though, just with stuff in it, lol). I will stir up and fertilize dirt and plant some more seeds (I have a bunch left from this fall). And hopefully, figure out what it was that I did wrong. 

Meaning that in the spring, anyone still reading (haha!) will be treated to more pictures of plants growing and what I'm doing with them. In the meantime, I will continue my cooking renaissance, work on more embroidery, and share my awesome postcards. There will also be more pet pics as they continue to do cute things  :D

So there it is. I would love to hear thoughts on it all, if you got 'em!

Thanks!

:)