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nancyjane_gardener

Do you ever just get tired of it?

Sometimes, like this year with the drought, even though I have a well and can water to my heart's delight, my garden just doesn't produce!
My tomatoes, usually 5' tall and loaded with 1# beauties, were the size of golf balls! I might get 2 gallons of sauce this year! Green beans were OK, getting a new flush. Eggplant.....Ugggg! Corn...fugetaboutit!
Do I want to go at it again for fall/winter? I'm just not sure! Nancy

Comments (29)

  • ltilton
    9 years ago

    That's one good thing about gardening in the north. You have the long fallow period to forget the failures and let hope bloom again.

  • zeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin
    9 years ago

    Actually, I think that was the definition of insanity... doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. Obviously, that doesn't apply to gardening. I'd be crazy to not expect different results every year, and Nature seldom disappoints in that regard. ;-)

    Yes, after several bad years in a row, it can get frustrating. I've never had a year that was a complete failure though, so I try to focus on the successes. While I might not be growing what I had originally planned, or getting as much seed as I had hoped for, or making as much salsa - at least the freezer is still full.

    And a year without SVB or squash bugs is a winner in my books, regardless of the temperamental weather which might have caused that phenomenon.

    "That's one good thing about gardening in the north. You have the long fallow period to forget the failures and let hope bloom again."

    It helps to think of snow not as a destroyer, but as a long-acting, highly effective garden anesthetic. ;-)

  • calliope
    9 years ago

    I depend on my garden to contribute to the pantry in a major way, so getting tired of the garden is not really an option. I never fail to get excited about planting it, and I really enjoy working it when it is growing. harvest is done on auto pilot, and unlike a lot of people who gladly yank it out before they really need to, I keep mine cranking as long as possible. I do get disgusted with crop failures on varieties I depend on for canning, but it is all part of the enchilada, and happens, so I try not to dwell on it. Every year is indeed different, and you fight different battles and get different superstars. It amazes me how the very same variety of veggies will produce,taste,have pest problems a little differently every year.

  • calliope
    9 years ago

    I depend on my garden to contribute to the pantry in a major way, so getting tired of the garden is not really an option. I never fail to get excited about planting it, and I really enjoy working it when it is growing. harvest is done on auto pilot, and unlike a lot of people who gladly yank it out before they really need to, I keep mine cranking as long as possible. I do get disgusted with crop failures on varieties I depend on for canning, but it is all part of the enchilada, and happens, so I try not to dwell on it. Every year is indeed different, and you fight different battles and get different superstars. It amazes me how the very same variety of veggies will produce,taste,have pest problems a little differently every year.

  • ceth_k
    9 years ago

    Prolonged bad weather will discourage me, but good weather will revive my hopes and beliefs real quick.

  • laceyvail 6A, WV
    9 years ago

    My garden supplies nearly 100% of all the veggies I eat--and most of that straight from the garden--I freeze only a little--mostly beans. Most of the canning I do, aside from tomato products, are pickles, which I adore. The rare times I have to buy a veggie--usually in late winter and always organic--I'm so disappointed. You get really spoiled by your own, fresh, delicious, organic produce.

  • catherinet
    9 years ago

    I understand. Perhaps you should give yourself a hiatus from the garden for a little while? Maybe you could focus on improving the soil, etc. I see nothing wrong with taking a break and hoping for the best for next year. Good luck!

  • rayrose
    9 years ago

    Whenever I get discouraged about my garden, all I have to do is go to the grocery store and look at the alternative. That gives me a tremendous shot of adrenalin.

  • elisa_z5
    9 years ago

    laceyvail -- we do the same, eating nearly 100% of our veggies from the garden. Good old WV soil :) With this year's poor potato harvest, I'm already trying to figure out how we can make it on more rice and pasta so I still don't have to buy any potatoes. In late winter I've been known to scrounge dandelions, volunteer mache, and ramps so we don't have to eat groc store produce!

    Zeedman -- I guess AA stole that saying :) And I mean it in an overall way, because of course I do things differently every year according to what I've leaned from the year before. But for me it's : plant a garden, expect it all to work. Ha -- so I guess that is crazy.

  • luvncannin
    9 years ago

    Yes I do.
    I was looking out the window yesterday and wondering why?
    what did I really get/harvest out of this garden besides immense pleasure watching my grandson playing in it, which is reason enough to replant right. next year I vow to have a better plan and start earlier.
    Even if all I get is sunshine and exercise it will be worth it, and I am only planting one tomato for the baby.
    kim

  • tishtoshnm Zone 6/NM
    9 years ago

    I absolutely do! My hope has been for the garden to be a major contributor to my pantry but I have never reached that yet. Some contributions, yes.

    There are times when I have to ask myself if it is truly responsible to be using water from the aquifer considering the results I am getting. Some years are better than others but this year, I had to abandon the garden as the grasshoppers have eaten almost everything. Anything that I could have planted for the fall would have been eaten by them.

    I have decided next year that I will scale back some for a short break. Many of the beds will be planted in cover crops while I tackle other projects and can hopefully get ready for a nice fall garden next year.

  • Deeby
    9 years ago

    The only thing I get tired of is when tomato plants are dry rags but still producing. Then I long for fall so I can dump the ugly things and get some cool weather stuff going.

  • nancyjane_gardener
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I do shut down most of the beds for the winter. I usually just have a couple of 3x6 beds for winter stuff chard/kale/lettuce maybe broccoli.
    I'm going to concentrate on serious composting this winter (depending on the weather) and contact the rabbit breeder down the street for some buckets of poop, go back to the organic store I worked with DD students and get UCGs and suck all of the neighbors' leaves! LOL
    I think with some cool weather coming, I'll be ready to clean up the beds for awhile. Nancy

  • mckenziek
    9 years ago

    Nancyjane, my situation is similar to you. This year was kind of discouraging.

    My garlic was very so-so. Great Korean radish harvest, but that was months ago (spring radishes). I was too busy to plant half the other things I wanted to plant, and a few other things seemed to suffer even though I was watering them.

    But I did get some nice volunteer black cherry tomatoes. I would have been disappointed with their lateness if I had planted them, but since they were volunteers, they were a welcome surprise.

    I aspire to grow most of our vegetables, but I am nowhere near there yet.

    --McKenzie

  • Peter1142
    9 years ago

    I can't wait for frost! ;) Need a break and looking forward to next year.

    I had this one weird neighbor once, who would plant all these tomato plants, like a 20 x 20 plot, and would just leave them to make abundant tomatoes that would rot. I never saw her harvest a single one
    Very bizarre.

    My current neighbors gave up on their garden for this year when a groundhog had a feast. Just tired of dealing with it. Around these parts, where we have small properties and high availability of fresh vegetables, you grow because you enjoy it. My garden probably cost 10 times buying at the store, but it is my first real year.

  • nancyjane_gardener
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Peter, eventually your produce will be priceless!
    When you can ONLY eat that homegrown tomato, get depressed when you finally have to buy those hothouse things at the super market! Stop thinking about eggplant recipes cause you don't want to buy a big ole thing.
    OTOH, you can pull great things out of your freezer (or if you can....) sauces, chopped up stuff to go into soups, that shredded zuk that was going crazy to make bread or to toss into soups/stews so the kids don't know they're having veges ;) !
    Well, Hell! Listen to me! Completely going opposite of my OP! LOL Nancy

  • calliope
    9 years ago

    I have a forty by forty foot garden. It is scaled down from some years in the past when I did twice that size and that part of the garden is now raspberry patches. I got over six hundred and fifty pounds of produce from this year's garden, and it was not a banner year by any means. It was also grown organically for the most part. How much do you think even the commonest organic vegetables go for at market? I don't buy fancy novelty seeds, and often hit the two or four for a dollar seed racks, and start my own plants. I think my total outlay this year, since I sprung for seed potatoes was less than twenty five dollars for seed, twenty five dollars for a bale of professional soil mix, and a few bucks for twine to Florida weave my tomatoes. This year, my son was kind enough to bring his tractor over to till it, so I didn't have to try to roto till it or hire someone on a tractor. My chickens provided the nutrients, and most of the upkeep was done by hoe. So for about fifty dollars I'd say I produced at least a thousand dollars worth of vegetables, and probably significantly more. My pantry is stocked again with canned goods, we are still harvesting tomatoes, green and lima beans, lettuce, and peppers and I'll be canning the last of the corn tomorrow. More radishes, lettuce, are about to be sown, and broccoli and cabbage should finish off before winter. Yes............I did a little work in it almost every day. But for man hours invested, I imagine I worked less for the return than if I were spending a wage to buy them. It's a learning curve to pull it off but so worth it.

  • elisa_z5
    9 years ago

    calliope, it was fun to read about your year :)

  • loribee2
    9 years ago

    I'm with you, Nancy. This year started out really well, then all my tomatoes went south. I have a full-time job and a side business, so dealing with the garden too can become overwhelming. I keep cutting back what I grow but am thinking that maybe I just need a year off entirely to get that enjoyment back. Maybe I'll spend the year amending all my beds.

  • blue_skink
    9 years ago

    Very interesting stories here! I love all your comments. I'm cleaning up my garden though some things are still growing, sort of. Moving the beds around (I'm one of those women who moved living room furniture around 2X/year for a long time, then stopped and transferred this need to the garden...), adding garden waste, etc. Chopping it all up first with the lawnmower.

    This was not a perfect year, I never had one, but there's always one or two things that are not shrivelled or bitten all to hell by rodents or refusing to ripen.

    Keep the faith. Reduce your garden greatly if you have to but I hope you don't quit altogether. There's always gardeners who have it worse than any one of us. I go nuts with envy when I hear about folks who get tons of free manure or similar garden amendments for free from kind hearted people down the road. I give produce away but nary a thing in return.

    Green Thumbs Up!

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    9 years ago

    I have been vegetable gardening since 1980, so that's a long time. About 4 years of that time, I didn't garden. This year was going well, then we just had a groundhog show up to eat my newly planted and growing well, broccoli and the brussels sprouts we were waiting for all season. Lettuce too. So now we are working on what to do about him before next spring rolls around. It's always something.

    I look forward to winter and I do need that down time. Usually by the time spring comes around, I'm enthusiastic all over again. But if I had a lot of frustration and bad harvests for multiple years, then yes, I'd probably have to ask myself is it worth it? I'd definitely take a whole season off if you feel like you are dreading it. I did that for 3 years, because I had witch grass in my vegetable garden patch and I couldn't cope with it any more and just left it for two years. Then I came up with a new idea of how to deal with it, using plastic to solarize the soil for a full season and that did the trick. The next year, I was really enthusiastic and felt triumphant having solved what seemed like an unsolvable problem.

    Doesn't hurt to take some time off.

  • nancyjane_gardener
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Actually, I'm kinda thinking again......with the free seed exchange coming up Saturday.....maybe some more lettuce, chard, kale, radishes, beets...........Nancy ;)

  • nancyjane_gardener
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I missed the seed exchange, but did empty a couple of beds I usually use for winter stuff (close to the deck so I don't have to slog through the mud)
    I also pulled out the seed binder to see what I have that can still be started! LOL I have plenty!
    I'll be shutting down several beds for the winter, but I still have to have my greens!
    OK, I'm tired of my summer garden, but I'm ABLE to have a fall/winter garden, so I kinda GOTTA! I'm addicted! Nancy

  • Deeby
    9 years ago

    My name is Nancy, and I am a gardening-aholic...

  • HotHabaneroLady
    9 years ago

    I get discouraged and start to lose interest when I try to do too much and end up making a mess of it all. Ironically, that is usually the result of building enthusiasm up over a period of time.

    This year, I tried to grow 40+ different varities of herbs! fruits! and vegetables. It was really too much and I just lost track of how to make all of those plants happy. As a result of that and the weather this year, I've had a very poor year and I'm feeling discouraged,

    I should have stuck with my core group of plants (various varities of tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, and herbs). And then I could have just added space used for those and/or added a few other things. That's probably what I will do next year unless I end up moving. Too much just gets too hard to keep track of at the moment for me. And right now I'm having trouble mustering the energy to do too much of that at all.

    Angie

  • nancyjane_gardener
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Deeby.....YEP! Nancy

  • qbush
    9 years ago

    Wow has this been fun to read! I to was having this lack of energy for the garden work, it just seemed endless. But then I hurt my right hand. Nothing helped except staying out of the dirt, so the injury would heal. Three weeks of just watching from the sidelines and having to ask for help with everything has erased my disinterest in the garden. I just have to remember that gardening is not a race, and more is not always better.

    This year I focused on less, but better, and some of it worked! We ate broccolli until we were tired of it, less green beans, but fewer tough ones. Rolling crops of beets and carrots, but blighted tomatoes. Plenty of cabbage, more cauliflower than expected, but fewer onions. Melons failed, but sweet potatoes are taking over, well actually Have taken over green house. So I guess it is always a win some lose some proposition, at least winter arrives. Unless New England weather surprises me again!

  • qbush
    9 years ago

    Wow has this been fun to read! I to was having this lack of energy for the garden work, it just seemed endless. But then I hurt my right hand. Nothing helped except staying out of the dirt, so the injury would heal. Three weeks of just watching from the sidelines and having to ask for help with everything has erased my disinterest in the garden. I just have to remember that gardening is not a race, and more is not always better.

    This year I focused on less, but better, and some of it worked! We ate broccolli until we were tired of it, less green beans, but fewer tough ones. Rolling crops of beets and carrots, but blighted tomatoes. Plenty of cabbage, more cauliflower than expected, but fewer onions. Melons failed, but sweet potatoes are taking over, well actually Have taken over green house. So I guess it is always a win some lose some proposition, at least winter arrives. Unless New England weather surprises me again!

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