Tired of gardening?

[Claire]

I just pulled a dozen "Amish Paste Tomatoes" off the bush. They aren't great eating raw kind of tomatoes, but make great sauce. BUT I've made more sauce than we can eat in a year, and have given away tons (I'm having the house painted and gave a huge bag away to one of our house painters!). I tore out my cucumber bushes because there was way too much, I've been accused of giving away cucumbers at the grocery store. I've frozen as much pesto, sauce, etc as my freezer can handle, and I think my neighbors hate to see me coming. This is only with a few square feet of garden. Enough is enough!

 

[Uncle Bob]

Me too Miss Claire.....It has been an exceptional year...It's like every seed came up twice, and every plant produced double....I'm tired, and ready for a break...

 

[pdswife]

Wish you guys lived by us.. poor paul has had a bad year. I think we had way toooo much rain. Three or four red tomatoes and only 2 zuchinni!!! What's up with that. Nobody in Seattle had much luck this summer. Oh well, next year the sun will shine and we will be over flowing too.

 

[Uncle Bob]

It was over-all dry here this year, and I had to water a good bit. I can deal with dry weather...it's just the rainy years that can be a pain, with low production, and disease!

 

[suziquzie]

I had a bad year too. May be lack of rain, late start, cool summer all blended in to one.
I almost don't want to do it again next year, all I made this year was compost.

But, I know I will because I want to so badly!!!!

 

[larry_stewart]

Just an average year here. Even after all the changes I made from previous years to try and improve, got just an OK year. I will get the garlic in soon though.

 

[JMediger]

Great year for some things (carrots, beets, beans, tomatoes, zucchini, spaghetti and butternut squash) ... Bad year for others (cuc's, yellow crook neck squash, brussel sprouts, peas). Some of it had to do with bunnies and replanting but some was the weather. We had a terrible storm in mid-July that hurt alot of things ...

I'm ready for a break too but then I try to think of February when I will be willing to give anything to just see the garden!

Claire, I have found that my neighbors take much more produce when they are not home .

 

[sparrowgrass]

Not a possibility. Like asking a crack-head if she is tired of dope.

I will be switching to indoor gardening soon--counting the days til I can start the seeds for next year.

Just brought some of my outdoor plants in, and look what happened:

This is my night-blooming cereus (doesn't that sound like a Dr. Suess character?

And a close up of the flower--it was as big as my hand.

 

[bethzaring]

nope, not tired of the gardening process and I am already sad thinking about the day when I no longer, physically, can garden. I rely heavily on the garden for foodstuffs and am so glad I buy so little from the grocery store. Right now I am harvesting cabbage, broccoli, carrots, celery, peppers, parsley, tomatoes, black eyed peas, kale, and collards. And we haven't even dug the potatoes yet, we need to do that soon cause that is where the garlic will be planted.

 

[attie]

Anthracnose disease has developed in my Mango tree this year which means we'll have very few fruit for Xmas. From there it has spread to the Bananas, the Pawpaws, the Monstera and now the citrus trees so it's been a constant battle trying to save them. I think I will take to the Mango tree with the chainsaw after the season and hope we don't get it next year.
I have just some shallots, bokchoy, long beans, pumpkins and rockmellons in at the moment.
Not a good year for me I'm afraid but I never get tired of gardening.

 

[GotGarlic]

Not at all! The summer garden is pretty much gone, but we have a fall garden going - various lettuces, bok choy, green onions (I'll be using them before they get big) and of course, my herbs. Some of those are perennials here.

 

[Claire]

Funny, when I lived in Hawaii and in Florida I did year-round gardening and didn't think too much about it. But as my husband says, in those places we had dirt, here we have soil. By this time of year I've spent so much time putting up tomatoes that I'm going crazy (my kitchen isn't air conditioned). Now I'm looking at the tomato, cucumer and pepper plants that have to be pulled up and hauled to a vacant lot that our neighborhood uses for a compost heap and my back hurts just thinking about it.

 

[JMediger]

I don't mean to sound sadistic but isn't it a good kind of pain we all feel after all the work? I'm in my car alot during the day and usually arrive home with stiff shoulders and a sore ankle and it makes me grouchy. After we riped everything out this past weekend, I was sore all over but it felt kind of good. I know that I accomplished something this season and what I harvested will keep DH and I in veggies all winter. I don't know ... just a thought.

 

[smoke king]

Yup-hasn't been my best year. Tomatoes & cukes were OK, something got to my peppers early on and they never really came back.

With nighttime temps dipping down into the 30's here in balmy Nebraska, the gardens gettin' a little shabby.

In fact, I think I'll pull it this weekend.


But I've got BIG plans for next year ...............

 

[GrillingFool]

My 2 cayenne pepper plants are FINALLY producing lots of peppers....
and the temperature and sunlight level is too low now for them to redden.
But that's OK, I like them green too.

The rest of our paltry garden is done for. Time to rip it out.

 

[Claire]

This year seems to have been strange for a lot of people locally. We had a horrid winter and a lot of rain in the spring. Many of my friends had no tomatoes at all -- beautiful plants that didn't set fruit early enough to get anything. My early girls came in for me, though. My sense of smell and taste got altered by the "Big M" and something I used to love -- cucumbers and watermelon -- I really dislike now. Next year, no cukes. Our season isn't long, so I've cut back what I grow to what I know we (and my friends) like. It is my herb garden, my tomatoes, "super cayenne" chilies (pretty soon I'll harvest all the green ones and use the fresh, hubby's job all summer is to harvest the red ones and string them. When dry I'll put them in my food processor and have chili flakes for the year), poblamos (hubby will roast them and I'll make a big batch of My Cousins New Mexico Green Chile). Pretty soon I'll email my neighbors and tell them all to come by if they want fresh herbs (I do that a couple times a year). But the huge job of cleaning my few square feet of garden is coming up and I'm not looking forward to it!

 

[JohnL]

Night time temps are starting to get close to the low 40's now, so the veg garden needs to be pulled up. I also have some outdoor plants that have to be moved indoors if I can find the room.

 

[Maverick2272]

Veggie garden? No, wish I had done more. The peppers and tomatoes were great, and plenty of herbs gathered this year.
The rest of the garden? Yes, in fact spent most of the year getting the wife to pare it down so it is more manageable. She does gardens for a living, but has no time for her own garden. Besides I want room for an outdoor kitchen, larger patio, and fire circle.

 

[PytnPlace]

Never. I love my garden and it's starting to go to sleep ;-( Took lots of pictures of my flowers and coleus today, as I know their days are numbered. Took my last tomatoes and peppers off the vine. It always makes me sad. I love Fall but winter I'm not a fan of. To me it's dreary, dark and cold.

 

[Claire]

Brother! Do none of you get tired of the trimming and hauling of the dead and dying vegetation in the fall?