Vegetable Gardening and Me (#16)

So many vegetables. So little time to process them. I cannot imagine how much more I would have if I had planned things better. I will find out, though, once I learn my lesson (maybe three years from now?).

As I mentioned in my first post on gardening, I am not an expert gardener, and I have made plenty of mistakes, but my adventures may help others have more fun and success. 

Also, I now have a page dedicated to gardening, that will contain all past and future posts, as well as resources I have found useful.

There were an abundance of tomatoes this week (I processed the first batch, and used half for making fresh sauce, and the other half I will freeze--the second batch will probably be processed for the freezer tomorrow). 

Next, I collected about six yellow squashes of three different varieties (basically three different shapes). I did manage two zucchinis. One was a decent size, but I did not notice the second one until it had grown to nearly a foot. My pickling cucumbers have arrived, all five of them! Unfortunately, not a enough at one time to make a batch of pickles. Worse, they came from plants that died on me (fortunately, I have about seven more plants). Then there were the four eggplants that arrived. Roasted them right away. As for the corn, all two ears of them, they did not cook up well: the kernels were very tough in texture. I will have to figure out if I had harvested them too soon, or it is symptom of another problem. Finally, the peppers have arrived. I will be freezing some of those up at some point.

As for the small patch of salad greens (and the mere three carrots that decided to sprout), they are ready to be picked. Probably tomorrow. They should make a good salad. Or two (hopefully). 

Finally, poor planning left me with a huge row of overspread bean plants. There are flowers, so I am hopeful. But, still, I would have been easier to harvest them if I had just built a trellis. Next year. Speaking of which, I am also going to grow the summer squashes in containers, because they spread out too much (and I have had success planting them in grow bags I bought online). I should also be able to get two separate harvests during the course of the season. We shall see.

As for the rest of the garden, they keep on producing, mostly tomatoes and peppers, with an occasional eggplant. I just need to place them better next year, especially the tomatoes. And the cucumbers should be coming in soon. There are still ears on the stalks of corn, but I am happy with what I got so far--I did not expect anything. I will just remember to space them better next time. 

And that is what gardening is all about: making a lot of mistakes, and trying not to repeat half of them during the next season.