2020 is shaping up to its strange reputation nicely. Our garden is among the odd things, and I’m glad to hear that others in our area have the same issues. We did a few things differently this year some experimental and some repeats of what we did in the past.

We started most of our plants from seed. Since we were both working at home in March – Bridge tended the greenhouse faithfully and we had a great start with quite a few vegetables. An unusually warm spring helped germination and growth. When it came time for planting – it got cold and rained constantly for a couple of weeks. This caused overwatering issues and stunted the growth of quite a few things. Our tomatoes were affected the most.

I had installed drip irrigation for all the beds but neglected to give shut off controls for each bed – that meant everything was getting the same amount of water – even those vegetables that didn’t need it. This aggravated our wet spring stressed plants even more.

Then we ended up with some super hot days in June and again in July. Anything in the brassica family essentially bolted and we didn’t get anything particularly good from those plants at all.

However, it wasn’t a total loss. We did get quite a few things and others are coming on strong now that we have a more consistent water schedule and a bit cooler weather.

Where are we going with our Gardening? Along with better self-sufficiency, we want to market the garden in 2021. We definitely feel seed is the more economical way to go and learned quite a bit about when to start seedlings (earlier than we did).

For a future project – we have ordered a high-tunnel that will help us extend the season and have better control of water. I’ll put in valves to each bed to give more fine control of how much and when to water. The high-tunnel will also help control temp, shade cloth in the summer in addition to heat retention/frost protection in the early summer late fall. We’ve heard of a few people that manage to keep some of the cold-tolerant vegetables growing all year in high-tunnels in our area.

Some considerations we have for next season:

1. Order seeds early. COVID really imparted to people the importance of self-sufficiency and there is real concern about shortages. We were able to get most of what we wanted in 2020 – but somethings were delayed or unavailable.
2. Diligence – gardening isn’t a plant and walk away project. It takes time and effort to manage correctly for better results.
3. Soil Amendment – this one is still a bit of a mystery to us – but we know its critical. balancing acidity and nitrogen loads is key to having a better crop.

We have our fall vegetables planted and are really looking forward to Spring with the High-Tunnel. Look for an update soon on that project.

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