Mixed Results

I have been planting a vegetable garden three years in a row now.  Mike has planted his in ground garden for only one season.  Our success has been mixed.

First, although we planted about five crops in Mike's garden only three of them actually grew- potatoes, corn and sunflowers and at this point only the sunflowers look healthy.  I say they look healthy because they are very tall and stand out above the weeds.  The only problem is that they did not produce sunflowers until just this week.  We were so excited to see this one sunflower that we recorded it here for posterity.

I planted eleven different kinds of vegetables.  Seven of them have produced vegetables that we have been able to eat so far.  

The biggest failure are the tomatoes which are producing fruit with end blossom rot and are inedible.  The spaghetti squash produced fourteen squash but only seven of which we could eat mainly because I killed the plant when I trimmed it.  (Note to self, do not do that again.)  The zucchini plant appears to be dying too.  I may have trimmed that by accident.  We have gotten many cherry tomatoes but those plants are dying too.  I think they are diseased.  

The good news is that I tried japanese eggplant for the first time this year and they are producing long purple eggplants.  But the best news of all is that the peppers are doing well.  Mike picks a jalapeño for lunch everyday and says they are very hot which is perfection for him.  

As for our fruit production that results are definitely mixed.  We were trying to grow an apple tree and a raspberry bush.  The raspberry bush died mysteriously.  It had blooms and raspberries one day and then the branches began to die from the ends towards the plant stem the next day.  However, we will get our first fruit from the apple tree this year.  I see two apples and they actually look like it will take more than two bites to eat them.  

Inadvertently our neighbors made me feel better.  They went blackberry picking and brought me some fruit.  Now I do not miss my raspberries so much.  

Oh well, there is always next year.  At least, my freezer is well stocked with spaghetti squash, chocolate chip zucchini bread and eggplant hummus.