Year 2: Preston's Garden

Hard to believe that summer is almost over and that fall is fast approaching, which means harvest time for most of the crops in Preston's Garden.  The passing of time continues to be a struggle, the constant reminder of what is missing, what should be.  It's a battle, I fear I will face for the rest of my life.

As with last year, not everything went as planned with Preston's Garden.  I have never thought myself to have a green thumb, though since growing the garden for the first time last year, I've come to realize that I can at least grow somethings.  For the second year in a row, the peppers (red and green) did not grow.  The onions are a question mark as are the carrots, as I haven't tried to unearth these yet.  Last year, I harvested the lettuce too soon, and didn't have any for most of the summer.  This year, I didn't harvest it enough and it grew rampant.  Last year, I only had a handful of beans, and this year, they got too much shadow from the lettuce and didn't grow well.

However, the tomatoes, the corn and the cucumbers look great, and I'm excited to harvest them.  Hopefully another couple weeks, or maybe even a month and they'll be ready for eating!

My herbs, which I placed in planters this year, didn't fare very well either.  That however is my fault, for constantly forgetting to water them whereas the garden gets water from its make integrated sprinkler system.  Next year, I will be better...I hope.

I've learned lessons from this special garden.

It's a place I can tend to which is peaceful.  I do however, need to be better about caring for it on a weekly basis or it gets over-crowded quickly.

Next year, I probably need to plant less things, and space them out more.  Perhaps that will a) make it easier to tend to, and b) yield better crops.

Don't under-estimate reading about what you are planting.  You might find some tricks that you didn't know about.

Buy pepper plants instead of trying to grow them from seed... just saying...

Plants, like much of nature, are resilient.  We have some severe wind storms, some hail and heavy rain yet the garden thrived.  And if that's not a great lesson, I don't know what is.  Life will always throw adversity my way.  I just need to rise above, roll with the punches and just keep on going.

How have your gardens fared this summer?  What crop are you most excited to harvest and eat??

Since they are working on our deck, I couldn't take the picture from our deck, and had to take it through the living room window... which accounts for the weird shadows.  But this is Preston's Garden after I cleaned it up yesterday.

Mr. Bunny watching over the onions... I decided to unearth one, just to see... and it's the size of a dime...  Lesson for next year - plant these earlier, or deeper?

The tomatoes are doing better than last year.  Those cone cages really do make a difference, though the plants keep tipping forward.  Perhaps I just need to plant things further apart next year.

The tomatoes are certainly growing.  Some might be ready to be picked in a couple weeks!  I should emphasize that I'm not a tomato person, but I'm still excited.

For the skeptics that thought I was crazy to grow corn, ears of corn are actually growing!  I'm interested to see what it tastes like.

That being said, with how large these plants are... not sure I'll be doing it again next year!

My favorite this year is probably the cucumbers.  They are growing so well, and I think I'll have several.  I will probably be able to pick one or two next weekend. :) 

Decent size for a home garden no?? :)