Zeedman
Garden Master
This might go a little long, since I am playing catch-up; my apologies in advance. 
Prolonged wet weather this year prevented much of what I had planned, and much of what I did plant went in late... the harvest is finally picking up.
Nearly all members of the gourd family are doing very well this year. Froze plenty of tromboncino squash, with lots more to come; the vines always go into overdrive in September. Gherkins are winding down, but I already canned 14 quarts of pickles from them. This was the first time I grew gherkins large scale; it was a new variety obtained in a swap, and I am very impressed with them (more about those gherkins in a future thread). Getting my cukes in late turned out to have a silver lining, mine are bearing heavily when almost everyone's are winding down. Cucuzzi has done really well too, have harvested enough to share, with many more young squash still growing. Bitter melon suffered most from the late start & cool summer, the vines are nowhere near as vigorous as they should be... but we are still getting a fairly good yield. The Australian Blue squash have a lot of squash set, but only time will tell whether they have time to ripen before frost.
Just started picking the first sweet corn from the partially-drowned first crop, and the second crop - an early variety, with much better germination - looks like it might make it. My entire crop was drowned out last year, so those first few ears two days ago really tasted great.
Not such a great year for the nightshades. Grape tomatoes did OK, and I am just now getting some large slicers from Tiffen Mennonite; but all tomatoes have struggled with disease due to the wet weather. Paste tomatoes are a nearly total loss, so it looks like no canned salsa this year.
The peppers are loaded - about 150 plants - but it is questionable how many will ripen, given their late start. (The long-term forecast is reason for hope.) All of my most reliable eggplants were lost to flooding, but a new variety (trial) - which has done poorly all summer - has suddenly begun setting a pretty good crop. Maybe all it needed was a little sun, we haven't had such a long stretch of cloudless days until now.
No snap beans this year, total losses, their location was a puddle/mud pit up through July... probably my biggest disappointment. Several shell beans, though, are beginning to ripen, and have heavy pod sets. One of those, King Horticultural, had failed 3 times in my rural plot; so I am glad to see it prosper in my home garden. Bean transplants saved the season for many of my beans, after seed sown in the ground rotted due to the near-record rainfall; most of those are for shellies or dry seed, and most are ripening now. Trialed a new pole lima this year (also at home) and they are just beginning to ripen in large numbers today. Only 10 of 22 soybeans planted survived, but fortunately 3 of those were edamame varieties, which did very well (picking the last one now).
(The funny thing is, last year I had buckets of green beans, and no squash... this year it is just the reverse, lots of squash & no beans.)
For greens, water spinach has done OK, although it will stop at the first sign of cool weather. Chard has really prospered this year, have frozen a lot, given a lot away, and should still get another picking or two. Not many bugs on it this year, I'll count my blessings in that regard.
So while the garden began on a sour note, it hasn't by any means been a total loss - and it isn't done yet. Warm sunny weather in the 80's this week, next week still expected to stay in the mid to upper 70's... all of which may partially compensate for the late start. After the persistent problems with flooding in my rural plot, I will be abandoning the lower 1/3 to the weeds which presently own it... a shame, because it is such rich soil when (if) it dries out. I will be down-sizing to some extent, but hope to expand my better-drained home gardens to partially compensate for that loss. Need to grind a stump to do so, it hasn't been rotting as fast as I had hoped for.
Prolonged wet weather this year prevented much of what I had planned, and much of what I did plant went in late... the harvest is finally picking up.
Nearly all members of the gourd family are doing very well this year. Froze plenty of tromboncino squash, with lots more to come; the vines always go into overdrive in September. Gherkins are winding down, but I already canned 14 quarts of pickles from them. This was the first time I grew gherkins large scale; it was a new variety obtained in a swap, and I am very impressed with them (more about those gherkins in a future thread). Getting my cukes in late turned out to have a silver lining, mine are bearing heavily when almost everyone's are winding down. Cucuzzi has done really well too, have harvested enough to share, with many more young squash still growing. Bitter melon suffered most from the late start & cool summer, the vines are nowhere near as vigorous as they should be... but we are still getting a fairly good yield. The Australian Blue squash have a lot of squash set, but only time will tell whether they have time to ripen before frost.
Just started picking the first sweet corn from the partially-drowned first crop, and the second crop - an early variety, with much better germination - looks like it might make it. My entire crop was drowned out last year, so those first few ears two days ago really tasted great.
Not such a great year for the nightshades. Grape tomatoes did OK, and I am just now getting some large slicers from Tiffen Mennonite; but all tomatoes have struggled with disease due to the wet weather. Paste tomatoes are a nearly total loss, so it looks like no canned salsa this year.
The peppers are loaded - about 150 plants - but it is questionable how many will ripen, given their late start. (The long-term forecast is reason for hope.) All of my most reliable eggplants were lost to flooding, but a new variety (trial) - which has done poorly all summer - has suddenly begun setting a pretty good crop. Maybe all it needed was a little sun, we haven't had such a long stretch of cloudless days until now.No snap beans this year, total losses, their location was a puddle/mud pit up through July... probably my biggest disappointment. Several shell beans, though, are beginning to ripen, and have heavy pod sets. One of those, King Horticultural, had failed 3 times in my rural plot; so I am glad to see it prosper in my home garden. Bean transplants saved the season for many of my beans, after seed sown in the ground rotted due to the near-record rainfall; most of those are for shellies or dry seed, and most are ripening now. Trialed a new pole lima this year (also at home) and they are just beginning to ripen in large numbers today. Only 10 of 22 soybeans planted survived, but fortunately 3 of those were edamame varieties, which did very well (picking the last one now).
(The funny thing is, last year I had buckets of green beans, and no squash... this year it is just the reverse, lots of squash & no beans.)
For greens, water spinach has done OK, although it will stop at the first sign of cool weather. Chard has really prospered this year, have frozen a lot, given a lot away, and should still get another picking or two. Not many bugs on it this year, I'll count my blessings in that regard.
So while the garden began on a sour note, it hasn't by any means been a total loss - and it isn't done yet. Warm sunny weather in the 80's this week, next week still expected to stay in the mid to upper 70's... all of which may partially compensate for the late start. After the persistent problems with flooding in my rural plot, I will be abandoning the lower 1/3 to the weeds which presently own it... a shame, because it is such rich soil when (if) it dries out. I will be down-sizing to some extent, but hope to expand my better-drained home gardens to partially compensate for that loss. Need to grind a stump to do so, it hasn't been rotting as fast as I had hoped for.
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