I think we have learned more from this year of gardening than any other.. and it's only July.
For starters, corn+hills=good, especially in 100+ degree temperatures. It doesn't hurt that our cornfield is on the edge of a wetland, and so even when it's crazy dry and we need rain, there is moisture in that ground. Thankful for that. We've got a pretty decent corn harvest in the second section - I need to get it picked and preserved. However - I am not happy about our pumpkins and greenbeans. Squash bugs were especially brutal this year, and so so many of the pumpkins that I planted simply never came up. Even the yellow squash and zucchini are not doing well. Eternal optimist me decided that even though it's July, it's not to late to try to sprout some pumpkins and get them going. I'm trying to get them started in the house and then plant them outside, where I will water them dilligently every single day until they are thriving, because I need pumpkins. NEED them. This must happen.
Our second planting of beans was pretty much a total loss as well. They sprouted and then promptly shriveled in this crazy heat. I'm going to rip out our snap peas this week and plant bush beans.. I really want to can green beans this year. I'll buy them if I have to, but I'd rather grow them myself. Nothing beats home canned green beans. So - 3 sisters prognosis is this... it works great for the corn and for beans that we're going to dry on the vine, as long as the beans get started before it gets too hot. I don't like it for green beans, and I'm very disappointed in the squash this year, though whether that has anything to do with the 3 sisters method is unclear. They just never got going. Soil test time, perhaps?
The vegetable garden, on the other hand, is rockin' this year. Tomatoes and peppers are growing like mad, the tomatoes especially are the biggest and best we've ever grown and I've already picked enough cukes for 2 jars of refrigerator pickles. I'm about to pickle some banana peppers, as soon as I can work up the nerve to fire up the canner in this heat. I've got my first ever eggplant, the onions are looking great, and my optimism potatoes appear to be thriving. Parsnips look great, and we got 8 whole peaches off our peach tree! All in all, it has been a good year so far, and I am already looking forward to next spring. Of course, there's still a lot going on in this year's garden, and this fall to plan for and plant, but I am excited. Every year we learn so much more and things begin to make more sense.. it becomes second nature, like an old friend. An old, good friend.
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| Fermenting pickles - in a few days they'll go in the fridge to slow the fermentation process. This is the best recipe I've found for pickles.. they taste like Claussen pickles. For real. recipe here: http://www.lesleycooks.com/canning/delipickles.htm |
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