How Does Your Garden Grow?

Well actually, my summer garden has struggled this year. It did good, just not great. And since last summer's garden did great, I think I got kind-of spoiled and was a bit disappointed by this year's harvest. Last summer, I harvested around 300 tomatoes. This summer, only around 30. But, with all the rain we've been getting here lately, my tomato plants have come back to life and are now producing a few more tomatoes. I picked these in the picture above last weekend. I planted 6 tomato plants this summer, 1 of which is a tomatillo plant that has made for some really tasty fried green tomatoes and salsa verde. Yummy!

Last summer, I planted 3 pepper plants and harvested around 10,000 peppers. Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit, but it felt like 10,000. So this summer I decided to plant only 2 pepper plants, and guess what? I've harvested around 100,000 peppers! :-) My pepper plants out-did everything else in the garden, by far. And they are still growing like gang-busters. This picture below is of my Tabasco pepper plant. There's got to be close to 500 peppers growing on it right now. And the next picture is of my jalapeno pepper plant, which also did really good this year. A couple of night's ago I made stuffed jalapenos. I made about a dozen of them. Muy delicioso!

Now then, we like our fresh peppers around here. But with so many peppers, I've been pickling them, and I'm running out of space to store all of them. Hector and the kids do not like it when I pickle things. They're not the biggest fans of the boiled vinegar smell that seems to over-take our house. Go figure! :-) Perhaps I should sell some of my pickled peppers. Say that 3 times really fast!!! But seriously... I will almost assuredly give some away, but should I try to sell the rest at my local farmer's market? And if so, how much should I charge per jar? Suggestions, comments, etc. are all greatly appreciated.My cucumbers this summer were a BIG disappointment. Last summer, I made enough pickles to last all year long. This summer, I pickled only 10 jars of cucumbers, and I've only got 2 jars left. My okra plant has done good. But some of you might remember that last summer, the plant grew to be taller than the fence. Here it is this summer.But perhaps the biggest disappointment has been my pumpkins. It's so heart-breaking, really... You see, we have no pumpkins this year. Boo... Sniff... Sniff... Last summer, I planted the pumpkin seeds according to The Farmer's Almanac. I planted the seeds in May, which seemed very early to me, but The Almanac had never done me wrong before. So, I went with it. Sure enough, the pumpkins started growing way too early. We got a few good ones. And even though I knew I should have picked them, I kept them on the vine in an attempt to have them get a little bigger and actually have them not rot out before Halloween. Unfortunately, the slugs found them, and all our pumpkins were killed. I told you it was heart-breaking. So this year, I decided to wait a month later than The Almanac suggested. I planted the seeds and was thrilled to see the plants sprouting. Unfortunately, that's all I've gotten... just the plants... no pumpkins... I honestly do not know how these pumpkin farmers do it. Looks like we'll be heading out to the pumpkin farm again this year...So, I know I always ask, but it's only because I'd really like to know... How does YOUR garden grow? What have been some of your successes? What have been some of your not-so-successful ventures in gardening? And it doesn't have to be just fruits and veggies. Have you planted something non-edible in your garden that you'd like to share with everyone? If so, let us all read about it in the comments section. Happy Gardening!