Friday, August 29, 2008

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary...

... How does your garden grow? I have heard from people all over the United States that this has been a very different gardening year. Many of them have had trouble with their tomatoes or peppers. Most of them have had problems with their cucumbers. It seems it is not the same problems, but they are all having problems.

We are no exception. My friend Ginny has been canning tomatoes like crazy. She lives about 7 miles from me. I have lots of tomatoes, they are just not turning red. I have one paste plant that is sitting among other paste tomato plants of the same variety. It gives me red tomatoes pretty often while the plants around it hang on to their green ones.

We love pickles and I hoped to can a whole bunch of both dill and bread and butter pickles. My cucumbers are all dead or dying. I got maybe 6 total cucumbers off of them. I went looking for some pickling cukes to buy. No one but one place even had any and they were sky high with their price.

I am grateful for what we are getting though. I pulled my back a bit, so I have been in slow motion for 2 days. I need to get back in the saddle tomorrow and catch up.

Let's hear from you... How is your garden growing???

7 comments:

Lynn Bartlett said...

Hi Marci, the nights are cool and there's a touch of fall in the air -- and my tomatoes aren't ripening, either! We had tons of green beans, but our corn is at least 2 weeks behind and we haven't even had a taste. We had a very dry, cool spring, and that really set us back this year. Must have been a very good year for raspberries, though, as we did well with those.

Kelly said...

Marci~
We just started tilling! Yay. The tiller kept shutting down and it was dark. Dad was tilling by flashlight! The soil is sandy loam which we are surprised to see here in Tx! The other homes we were in had black sticky stuff and clay. If you can't tell we are excited.
Our first garden this year our tomatos did horrible. The pear tomatos did well though. The cantalop did wonderful and the okra and peppers all did well too.
All the best,
Kelly

The Sisters said...

Hi Marci,
Just wanted to stop by and wish you a great weekend!
Hope your back is feeling better!

~Holly&Katie~

Anonymous said...

Well, we had an overabundance of tomatoes this summer................and almost every single one of them with blossom end rot. Cukes were average. Eggplant, however, was exceptional. Peppers were okay.
Sorry to hear about your cukes. We are still enjoying your Bread and Butter recipe. If we keep eating them we won't have any for winter.
God Bless,

Rachel

heatherdmc said...

No pickles here, either. Usually find a place east of here that always had pickles. Only one roadside stand, and they are "accumulating" enough to fill a bushel order for $22. How are potatoes there? $7 a 10 lb bag here. Potato famine Ireland comes to America!

Lynn said...

We had a good cucumber year but a terrible tomato year. We have 14 tomato plants and have gotten very few tomatoes. Maybe next year....

ChickenMama said...

Very few tomatoes here also- only enough for fresh eating finally and that is off 14 plants! Several have yet to produce a single ripe one.

Cukes seem to have been trampled by deer (never got them trellised as planned). Squash have been overtaken by borers or squash bugs. Took 5 tries to get zucchini up and growing, but the squash bugs will overtake them soon too. "Irish" potatoes died out early- not a one of them.

One highlight- looks like a bumper crop of sweet potatoes! :-)

Have a great Labor Day weekend!