It's been a long time since I've rock and rolled....

An entire growing season has come and gone since I've posted last.  What a shame.

Three big things occurred that led to that.

1. We had a lot of illness in the family this year.  Hobbies tend to get put on the back burner when that's the case.
2. When I felt like doing hobby stuff, I spent a fair amount of time doing woodworking instead of gardening.
3. I decided I wasn't going to track the harvests this year as I did last year.  That led to a lack of attention on the blog as well as general garden upkeep.  For much of the summer, I had a hard time getting out there more than once a week.

Some reflections

• We had a huge crop of beans this year.  I planted two crops.  That worked pretty well.  It would have done better had I trellised the 2nd crop effectively.

• Tomatoes did okay, but suffered because I didn't do a good job staking/caging them up.  The bell peppers did better this year than last.  The hot peppers didn't do much, though.
   
• We had three okra plants that survived.  Twice that would allow for more frequent picking.

• Kale was very happy.

• The cucumbers grew reasonably well.  It took a while for female flowers to appear for some reason, but we did get some good cucumbers.  They were oddly-colored, too.  Yellow/orange.  They did taste good, though. 

• For the last month of the summer growing season, I allowed beans that I wasn't able to harvest (read: they got bulbous before I could pick them) stay on the vine and dry naturally.  I've harvested a lot of green beans as well as some scarlet runners and shelled them for next year.

Where we are now

I have lettuce, daikon, and kale growing in the garden now.  The walking onions in both beds are still quite happy.  I've cleaned out a few beds to prepare for planting garlic which needs to be done this weekend.