elfs | A retrospective on gardening season...

Sep 25: The Amazing Snack Plant

I threw about $150 and barely twenty hours of labor into maintaining my garden this summer. That's ten minutes a day; some days I spent an hour or two, some days I spent none.

Was it worth it? I'd say it was. I got many good lunches of salad greens, both spinach and lettuce, out of the garden. Four heads of broccoli, two cauliflower, and two cabbage. Not many onions or carrots, and something kept eating the corn. The strawberries didn't produce much, and were a struggle to keep slug-free.

On the other hand, the tomatoes were spectacular. Despite having the poorest soil of all the beds, the four plants here grew tall and leafy and climbed up the wall and produced almost a table bowl full of tomatoes daily. These were amazing, sweet tomatoes, the likes of which you cannot buy. Even the one big "heirloom" plant produced a few huge, tasty results, thick with flesh and bare on seed, that combined with ground sirloin or bacon to make memorable sandwiches. You really have to click on the photo to see just how heavy with fruit these plants are.

I'll be adjusting the plan for next year. The beds are still a little productive, and there's still tomatoes to be had. I haven't dug up the horseradish yet, but that's coming soon. First week in October.

The weather is turning cool. We're already getting nights below 50°F, which is death for tomato plants. But still, it has been a good summer of eating and enjoying, and I and my family appreciated much of it.