Every year I grow at least a few things. There are almost always tomatoes in my garden, sometimes more; sometimes less. Except for maybe a few minor changes from time to time, I grow things the same way I always have. Last year, I did not get one tomato. I don’t have a clue what happened. I planted about the same time I always plant. I babied those tomatoes. I fertilized. I watered, I pruned. There were very few green tomatoes and not even a cherry tomato got ripe enough to eat. This year, I planted 44 tomato plants. Twelve of those are for Chad. Not exactly sure how/why I’m growing tomato plants for Chad but . . I’m a mom. I guess that explains it. 🙂 I have a feeling I’ll be making and canning tomato sauce for Chad too.
This year, I am totally over run with tomatoes. So far, I’ve rinsed tomatoes, put them in bags in the freezer and so far, I have over 25 pounds of tomatoes in the freezer and they have just started getting ripe. At the rate we’re going, I’ll probably have well over 100 pounds of tomatoes to process once it gets cooler. What’s different this year from last year? I have no idea!
Last year, most everyone I talked to had a bad garden. I felt really bad for those who were growing a garden for the first time. It’s so much work, not terribly inexpensive and to get nothing is heartbreaking. So, my advice is . . never give up if you really want to grow a garden.
Also, this year I’ve grown so much in bags and everything except squash (because of squash bugs) has done great. The tomatoes are either in 5 gallon buckets or grow bags. Most of my tomatoes are in 7 gallon grow bags. My peppers are in 5 gallon grow bags and the potatoes were grown in 30 gallon grow bags (5 seed potatoes per bag). My raised beds have the following:
4 x 8 Raised Beds:
- Asparagus (This one never gets replanted)
- Potatoes (These are all volunteers from a few left behind potatoes last year)
- Sweet Potatoes
- Rhubarb (mostly – some cucumbers near the front of the bed)
- Okra. I planted garlic in the fall, pulled it out June 1 and the same day, planted okra which I started cutting today.
4 x 4 Raised Beds:
- Walking Onions (These are fun but I may take them up and use that bed for something more productive next year.)
- Purple Onions (I pulled these out this week so this bed is now empty.)
- Horseradish and eggplant. (The horseradish stays and the eggplant should produce til frost.)
- Sweet Potatoes.
In bags, I still have a couple of squash plants but they’re so overrun with bugs, they aren’t producing. I have about 20 pepper plants in 3 gallon grow bags.
There’s actually nothing planted directly in the ground. It’s all either in grow bags, 5 gallon buckets or raised beds.
I spent the day canning potatoes. What I had planted in grow bags has all been canned. All I have left is whatever is in the raised bed. From the grow bags, I’ve canned 36 pints and 21 quarts of potatoes and kept out about 10 pounds for us to eat. I think that’s a great harvest from those grow bags.
We’ve ordered a thicker weed cloth for next year and I plan to do everything pretty much the same as I did this year – grow bags and 5 gallon buckets on weed cloth and whatever I can plant in the raised beds.
My advice: If you want to grow some of your own veggies, start out small but remember that it’s easy to grow some things with inexpensive grow bags and a few bags of raised bed garden soil, maybe a bag of peat and a bag of composted cow manure.
Laura says
Although I live far away from you (so there’s probably no connection), our fruit trees and tomato plants also are producing way more than last year’s. We did have a lot more rain (for us), and I planted the tomato plants deeper in the soil. Still, the difference was remarkable.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
We’ve had almost zero rain but I’m watering a lot. I always plant my tomatoes really deep (sideways so they’re kinda laying down in the soil). Since mine are in bags, the soil settled and I added more a couple of times.
I’m glad your garden is doing better too. It’s so sad to put that much work into a garden and not get much. I can only imagine what it was like for our grandparents and great grandparents who depended on the garden to survive.
Amy Kollasch says
I live in Northern Iowa and we have had weird growing seasons the last 2 years. Last year we had less than normal and this year is even worse. Our weather this year has been cooler and last year it was hotter. The rain we got this year made my tomato plants drop branches and they look worse than they have ever looked. It has been colder and we have had a lot of cold rain. We plant in whiskey barrels lined with paper and used raised bed garden soil. Never had this happen ever. We will continue planting. Some years are just better than others
Joyce says
I hid 2 tomato plants in one of my flowerbeds, but the deer found them before the flowers got tall enough to really hide them. They chomped the top part of them, but they have grown back. They have had a few flowers, but I haven’t seen any actual tomatoes on them. I also planted 4 pepper plants. I picked about 8 peppers the other night, and I left a another 4 or 5 on the plants to mature a bit more. What is odd about the pepper plants is that 3 of the 4 are about 2 feet tall. The 4th one is only about 6 inches tall. They are all the same variety and are all planted in the same bed. If they were planted in different spots, I could blame that, but that’s not the case!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Growing a garden seems to have no rhyme or reason and sometimes, whatever happens seems to be totally out of our hands. I have the same thing with one pepper – just not doing much and struggling to survive and it’s the same as the three plants around it and they’re all doing great.
Dotti says
What do you do with the walking onions?
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Not much. I cut the bigger blades, freeze dry them and ground them to make a green onion powder. The bulbs are spicy and I like to use those in cooking but they’re fairly small. For the space they take up, I don’t feel like the yield is worth it but they are so fun to grow . . I hate to get rid of them.
Jean says
We had so much trouble with squash bugs we could never get any squash. The last 2 years we have planted them in early august for a fall crop. The plants now produce abundantly and no squash bugs or vine borers. We froze enough zucchini and yellow squash last year to last us all year. Oklahoma location. Also had trouble getting a green bean crop and started growing them for fall crop and also got enough in the freezer to last us a year. Our entire vegetable garden is grown in raised beds because our soil is all that awful Oklahoma red clay.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
That is exactly what I’m going to do next year. In fact, the next two weeks, we’re going to have temps in the 100’s so once I see we have just a few more days, I’m going to go ahead and plant more squash. I don’t think I’ll be able to get the candy roaster and Thelma Sanders because they take longer to produce. My soil is all rock so we only plant in raised beds too. Thanks for the tip about the green beans. Maybe I’ll try some of those once my beds are all emptied.
When we were passing through OK a couple of weeks ago, just east of Broken Bow, there was a lady out picking green beans and she had them growing in 5 gallon buckets and I’m guessing there were over 100 buckets all lined up with a nice trellis.
Jean says
Wishing you much success! Looking forward to hearing how it turns out for you.