September, 2011

It's now the 11th. This morning I glanced at the clock and it was 9:11 on 9/11/11. Talk about weird.

So now what? I still have some zucchinis producing (what hasn't keeled over from what I assume is the vine borer, because holes developed in my squash's stems and crumbling stem systems). Some cucumbers but not much. Looks like powdery mildew on the broad leaves. My tomatoes suffered from hornworms and my mistake of lining the bottoms of the beds with sheet styrofoam - I'll have to pull that up - probably inhibited worm access, etc. So the big tomatoes are mostly gone, but I am still getting grape tomatoes. My pole beans were disappointingly tough this year (they didn't look substantial when they were younger). Peas are gone (they were great), lettuce has turned to seed (got bitter so I just left it). Some eggplants still growing slowly. The corn was a little bleh tasting. No watermelons, and the peppers have only recently started growing, altho it looks like something's eating them.

But that's all okay because this first year was mainly a learning experience, and I have a lot to do for next year, moving things around, improving the quantity and quality of soil, more of this, less of that, new varieties planned.

I'm thinking that with some of the problems I had this year, I don't want to throw my plants into the compost pile - the powdery mildew, the potential of various worm and borer eggs being in there, some yellowing and brown spotted tomato leaves, etc. I think I'll just throw most of the vegetation out so my garden doesn't get re-infected by the same things next year.

Next summer: putting beer out for slugs. Using a Japanese beetle trap because they did a number on my green bean leaves, and I can feed the trapped beetles to the chickens. More soil in my boxes (I think it was too low, and having only 6" to begin with, you probably don't want it too low). Rotation. Better weed control between boxes (got tripped up with that this summer). Maybe, hopefully, a couple new boxes, and (dare I say) an asparagus patch outside the boxes. Moving the potatoes into the boxes, and the squash out of the boxes (too invasive). Hoop houses to be able to plant earlier will be a priority.

Anyone else have any plans for doing things differently next summer? And plans for bringing things to a close for the winter?