Good Morning gardeners,

I just went out this morning and assessed my garden. Unlike some seed collectors…I have no aversion to speaking the truth. Life is what it is…why should I hide it.

In the 50 plus years of gardening I don’t think I have ever come across such excessive moisture issues as I have this year. From the recordings on my calendar, we received close to 14″ over the late summer. The problem here…the rains came when the vegetables needed to slow down and fill up, for harvest. The rains have made most of them too water logged to finish properly. Therefore many will not store well…such as pumpkins, squash and apples. Were the rains to have come in early spring or even June… their arrival would have made perfect sense.

Secondly, when weeds should be slowing down, they have returned (for the 4th and 5th time) with vengeance! As soon as I get it under control in a couple of areas, they start up in the first area I weeded…all over again!

The garden, in my humble opinion…is a mess, compared to all my other years. The pumpkin vines are running crazy. The tomato plants are over grown (too much leaves and vines) and the fruits are splitting. The robins are my worst enemy after all this…pecking and destroying the best tomato fruits. Now the grapes are ripe, they began gorging on them…till my hubby put up some bird netting. Still they manage to crawl inside. I am scrambling to pull off as many of the bean plants as I can to dry them out in the GH. Cucumber and pumpkin fruits are also rotting before they can fully form. Even the dill I planted succumbed to ?mildew? Unbelievable!

I will find it hard pressed to be able to harvest perfect fruits and seeds for seed collection, especially in this year when it was one of the largest plantings I have ever done. How was I to know…

On the bright side…the peas ripened early and I was able to pull off a decent crop. The apples were larger than they have been in the past, making for almost too much to harvest. These were pulled off before too much moisture arrived. In the beginning of the year, I struggled to keep the raised beds watered BECAUSE it was hot and dry. Now any plants placed in them, have come through with flying colors, as the excess moisture just drained away. So I have decent crop of shallots, strawberries, ground cherries, spinach, onions and garlic. And the herbs are great! The problem…most of these are already pulled off !

In summary…what was great, has been harvested already and what is left…is rotting. SO! not a great thing to see. Having said that, I take great pride in having a garden display that is as close to perfect as I can get it. Not this year.

I have also checked into the weather for cast for our area and it does not promise a fantastic 2 to 3 weeks. Maybe some sun, maybe some rain. Also the temps are falling. Which means the pressure is on!

Therefore I will forgo (not have) a Heritage Harvest Fest this year. This makes me very sad. The reason I had planted so many vegetable varieties, was to show folks the diversity that we are blessed to have. Not this year!

I am sincerely hoping everyone ELSE is having a great year, but I am sure many are struggling much like I am. From the reports of huge (and small heavy) hail and the excess rainfall, the challenges of gardening and harvesting grows.

Happy Gardening,

Mandy

Damage from Robins

More Tomato damage