These pictures make it look like I have a beautiful, thriving, vegetable garden, but that's not really the case. Not at all.
I actually have a struggling, dying, wilting, diseased, bug-eaten garden. The flowers are happy -zinnias, sunflowers, and marigolds are keeping things cheery, just not edible. (What color is your thumb if you can grow flowers but not vegetables?)
Obviously a few edible things have come out of it, some cucumbers, a pepper (yes, just the one), carrots (that had a strange rubbery texture and bitter taste), lots of basil, and two tomatoes that I salvaged just before the plants keeled over dead. Dead I tell you. Sigh.
So it's not a total loss at all, just not a success either. The corn and beans are toast, but zucchini and tomatoes have been re-planted and new mushroom compost added (Thanks, Grandad!) So if I can figure out my pest problem and not have everything drown in another three-day rainstorm, we might have a good summer harvest yet. Or maybe just these deceivingly pretty pictures.
Time will tell.
I am not a garden guru, by any stretch. But I remember reading that carrots grown in warm/hot weather have a bitter taste. We had good luck planting our carrots as a winter garden and harvesting them in early spring. Maybe that would help?
ReplyDeleteI think you're right, Katy. We harvested some winter carrots around February that were fine so this bunch was just too late. The last of my lettuce was bitter as well for the same reason I'm sure.
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