Well, summer in New England is over and fall has begun to bring a close to my wondergul garden.
I thank each and every gardener on this forum who came to my rescue when my soil needed mending and my plants were 'depressed'! If you recall, this was my very first raised bed garden, and although you can't see the lumber in the pictures, there is more off to the side to expand for next year!!
I planted pickling cucumbers. They were quite productive, but grew in very odd shapes, many grew very fat and round! My green onions, planted from seed I probably should have thinned a bit more than I did, but, none the less, I had an abundance, which I picked, cleaned and froze. My sugar snap peas were a problem. The grew quite nicely, but I had trouble containing them in their allotted space and the began to strangle the cucumbers!! There was one red bell pepper plant and one orange bell. Nice, but next year, I'll try a few more. Red hot cherry peppers were so cute, tasted nice in many dishes, but I wish I had the courage to string them and dry them they way my grandfather did. Celery was a bust! Cauliflower was boring! 4 broccoli plants were huge and healthy, but we could have used more.
My pole beans were the joke of the garden!! I planted the from seed, and after the germination period on the package, I was not seeing any growth, and the impatient person that I am caused me to investigate and pull up one or two seeds. One looked mushy, the other had a slight sprout to it, so, as a measure of security, I took the remaining seeds I had in the pack and pushed them into the soil, along with their friends!! Ha Ha Ha I had vines everywhere, including growing into the evergreens to visit the neighbors! Now I have bags of green beans in the freezer waiting to be eaten this winter!! Lesson learned, have patience!!
I've never grown eggplant and put 2 plants in. What pretty purple flowers! If I were to open a restaurant, the only thing on the menu would be eggplant parm, because I picked so many and there are more out there waiting for me!!!
The lettuce was great, I just wish I could have it all summer. My one celebrity bush tomato was just enough for our sandwiches. I planted red onions(so the tag said), but I think I ended up with yellow onions, which were fine, but I was waiting for red!
And finally, my two zucchini plants!!! Whew!! I new they'd be plentiful, but c'mon!!!! It was interesting, one plant did very little, but the front plant was the most productive. As you can maybe see in one of the pics, the plant pushed its way out of the garden! That's my son with the very first zucchini.
My favorite new zucchini recipe was zucchini soup and I'm anxiously awaiting a nice cold day to have some!! My son loves zucchini choc chip cookies, and cakes in our freezer are plentiful. Too many recipes to even mention here!
Here are a few pictures to share. I am so proud of my gardens success and I just can't wait for next spring. I've got my notes tucked away as to what worked best, and what I would do again, as well as what I wish I did. Good luck to all of you in other areas, who's gardens are still growing and thanks to all of you who 'held my hand' through the process! I'll be peaking in from time to time to see how everyone else is progressing and maybe get some new ideas for my own!
All the best,
Judy
(I followed the picture posting directions...I hope they've worked)
[img]https://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Iggy03/1veg.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Iggy03/2veg.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Iggy03/3veg.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/Iggy03/4veg.jpg[/img]
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rigardengal
- Full Member
- Posts: 56
- Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 2:13 pm
- Location: Rhode Island
Congratulations on such a successful season. 
Although I have no room for them, is there a chance that cold frames could help you continue gardening throughout the winter months? I know there's a book called Four Season Gardening (or maybe it's Four Season Harvest) by Eliot Coleman. He lives, gardens, and writes in Maine, so he's very familiar with the New England climate.
Be sure to gather as many leaves as you can, both from your own yard and from those of others (non-gardeners, presumably) for your compost next spring. Let them sit in bags over the winter to get a head start on composting.
Thank you for letting us know about your bounty!
Cynthia H.
USDA Zone 9, Sunset Zone 17
Although I have no room for them, is there a chance that cold frames could help you continue gardening throughout the winter months? I know there's a book called Four Season Gardening (or maybe it's Four Season Harvest) by Eliot Coleman. He lives, gardens, and writes in Maine, so he's very familiar with the New England climate.
Be sure to gather as many leaves as you can, both from your own yard and from those of others (non-gardeners, presumably) for your compost next spring. Let them sit in bags over the winter to get a head start on composting.
Thank you for letting us know about your bounty!
Cynthia H.
USDA Zone 9, Sunset Zone 17
This year was not one of my best we had a very wet summer the insects seemed to be worse then I have ever seen before. -
webmaster
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9478
- Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2004 12:59 pm
- Location: Amherst, MA USDA Zone 5a
Thanks for the pics. Beautiful garden. 
Re the following the directions for the pics, there is a setting when making the post (or editing it) that may have been accidentally ticked:
Re the following the directions for the pics, there is a setting when making the post (or editing it) that may have been accidentally ticked:
For some reason that little box was checked, which turns off the images, smilies etc. I fixed it for 'ya.Disable BBCode in this post