What Were Your Boons and Busts for 2019?

[Just-Moxie]

The Boons; just the spiders m'am...just the spiders

The Busts; the whole garden

 

[Carol Dee]

Pretty much everything was a bust. Or only mildly productive. Late planting do to WET weather. Then a LONG dry spell and now sitting in wet again! Also a bad case of squash bugs, ugh.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

For me my corn was a boon. The Painted Mountain produced 2 ears per stalk and overall I'm happy with the outcome. Many ears were not full, seems like the pollination was better on the outer rows.
The Espresso sweet corn had good germination and the ears (one per stalk) were short and fat and filled out nice. The pollination was good on them.

I have to confess here that I am a serial plant crammer and my corn was way way too tight. That is probably the reason that the Espresso didn't produce corn on every stalk.
The Painted Mtn. didn't seem to do too bad with nearly every stalk making ears, even though some were tiny.

Another boon for the year was using the soaker hoses, buried in the trench I planted in. Watering was effective and I used a lot less than I typically do because it wasn't blowing off in the wind.

Tomatoes did well, and @majorcatfish 's Mariana's were a first for me, and very productive. Just a little too long DTM for my climate, but I harvested a good bit anyway.

New this year were Sugarpot watermelon. No harvestable melons, but it did produce and maybe just needs a head start indoors two weeks before the plant out date.

Carminat beans were great. These were tender and stringless even when the beans were bulging the seedpod. Productive too.

I was the bust in my garden this year. In the end I let the weeds (bindweed mostly) get ahead of me, I didn't keep up with the cucumber or tomato harvest so a lot were wasted, and I was so ashamed of myself for not picking the sweet corn a few weeks ago when I knew it was probably mostly ready.
I avoided going into the garden the past few weeks because I knew there was a lot I was neglecting.

Yesterday I ditched work because I figured if the weather forecast was correct it was now or never to salvage something edible.
I was shocked to peel back an Espresso husk to find a nice ear of corn, and more shocked when I ate it in the garden and it was sweet and tender. I don't understand if they just keep really well on the stalk or if they were just finally ready, but I picked them all and shared with the neighbors. We all agree that it's great tasting corn.
I got the PM corn husked and drying in the house. It was pleasant work husking corn by the wood stove while the snow came down and piled up outside. Kind of weird, but pleasant.

Isn't it beautiful?

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What were some of your garden boons or busts this year?

I love colorful corn!

 

[thistlebloom]

I love colorful corn!

So do I, and it never gets old shucking each ear and being amazed at the jewel tones within. Every ear is different. We look forward to winter cornbread made from the Painted Mountain.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

Boons: peppers, lettuce, kale, cucs, zucchini, butternut squash, basil, corn, watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, hubbard squash and herbs.
Busts: tomatoes. Early blight did them in way too early lol. Beans, sweet potatoes (vole damage mostly) and potatoes. I have to do something about voles. My root crops are being eaten too fast!

 

[ducks4you]

2 weeks of sweet corn eating was My boon. Got a lot of cucumbers, but most of the vines have dried out. I will still try to keep them watered and hope to get a few more. I haven't made any pickles this year.
Boon/bust on green beans. Harvested a few, but left many to go to seed. Hope to collect those.
Boon was the lima bean pods I discovered yestereday and froze for a small snack for myself sometime this winter.
Bust was too many cucumbers going yellow too fast, but the chickens and horses ate them, so not a waste.
Tomatoes Could be a bust, however I am still canning Romas and eating the others while some folks tomatoes died this year. Not a good year, but not quite a bust.
Boon was the jar with beet seeds that also had French Breakfast radishes!! We've been eating radishes now for a good week and there are plenty left. The other radishes I put in the leaky horse tank have bolted. I will collect seeds this late fall for next year from them. They make a nice cover/weed suppression crop for 2020.
My ornamental corn was a boon. LOTS of blue dent corn to save for next year and probably a dozen multicolored corn to harvest for decoration and seed saving.
Bust was that NO zucchini grew for me.
Another bust was my pumpkins. Only got one. Had 2 but DH ran over it the mower.
Worked harder on my 2019 garden plans than ever before.
Okra is kind of a boon and is still being harvested but I got it in late, so I could have had more AND DH has been demaning it for meals bc I can fry it in olive oil and use NO salt. He likes it with tomatoes for breakfast. How can I say "no?"

 

[majorcatfish]

bust all around....but that was by choose..with dad being sick and passing < miss those sunday after prison phone calls> just did not have the spark to do a garden this year.
thinking about reducing the gardens to a more manageable size..
have to remove a tree at the big raised bed area, been seriously thinking about removing those beds all together... <way too much up keep> have been pondering to plant a couple rows of thorn less blackberries again.< no fencing to mow around, no weedeating around the bed, no more hours of dragging a hose around and watering everyone of them>.. thank goodness for soaker hoses.

as for the main garden. that may get bigger by 8 feet wider dont know yet< turn that area into a scaled down raised bed area>. the old asparagus bed needs to be replaced so figure that can go along the fence line, and then a couple more beds for spring veggies.

will focus more on rotating crops, mainly the veggies that take time, corn one year, mators the next.etc, so we always have a years worth in the pantry...
heck yes will always have mator plants going every year.

with dw having an full time job now<very proud of her> there is no readily zero time for canning mid week....


of course after visiting my good friend @Carol Dee and hubby during my trip, looking into a new hobby... beekeeping will keep everyone posted on that..

we shall see what come of next year....

 

[Just-Moxie]

Ooo...I forgot. My rosemary plants are HUGE!! And the thyme was going well for most of the summer.

 

[Carol Dee]

of course after visiting my good friend @Carol Dee and hubby during my trip, looking into a new hobby... beekeeping will keep everyone posted on that..

we shall see what come of next year....

Bee sure to call him if you think of anything that you are not finding in book, magazines and on-line. He is thrilled he may have got someone else hooked on Bee-keeping!

 

[thistlebloom]

I forgot another near bust was my peppers. Scrawny little puny things, but I did harvest some peppers from them. Enough for a few batches of salsa. I'm not sure of the ID on many of them since I messed the starts up in the spring and completely confused the tags.