Every season in the garden is different. There is no magic recipe that makes the same thing happen every year, especially when you take the organic approach that we do. With that in mind, after a particularly bizarre summer season, we wanted to share some of our observations and experiences, as well as things we may do differently next year.

Tomatoes:
The Good: They loved being started in soil blocks, and were almost too leggy by the time it was safe to put them in the ground. There was no transplant shock, and they grew so, so well. In fact, they might have grown too well. The tomatoes we did harvest were delicious – nothing tastes quite like a fresh tomato. Also: spoon tomatoes are the cutest things, and have the most concentrated tomato flavor, definitely growing again.
The Dubious: In spite of {or maybe because of?} the abundance of beautiful green vines, the tomatoes themselves were … meh. In fact, quite a few started rotting on the vine before they ever turned. We were not able to harvest nearly as many tomatoes this year. There was also an impressive amount of horn worms that chomped away on the plants, and army worms that ate their way into the tomatoes.
Things to Try/Do Differently: We’ve seen a lot of other growers trim their tomato plants, cutting out all the suckers {shoots that start growing in the V where branch meets vine}, and removing the leaves under green tomatoes {to promote airflow}. It is something we’ve never done, because we’re trying to maximize our harvest in the smallish space we’ve got, however after seeing how the lush greens seem to have hindered the tomatoes this year, we’re reevaluating. Trimming may make it easier to stake/tie-up our vines too, because it has been an ordeal this summer as everything just kept growing. Speaking of staking – we want to give trellis clips a try as well, see if that will help support the vines better, in addition to being more “streamlined.”

Cucumbers:
The Good: After an uncertain start, the cucumbers took off and we actually got cucumbers this year! A lot of cucumbers. I’m not sure how many I gave away, and we ate a lot ourselves {some of them in delicious pickle form!}.
The Dubious: The cucumber vines were so very healthy and vigorous they took over the panels somewhat. Not only did they wind their way among tomato and pepper plants, but they draped along the ground too. Which means we missed some cukes that morphed into swollen orange giants. {The cows apparently love these however, so that was a fun discovery, haha}. After TS Debby came through, the cucumbers pretty much decided “we’re done” and turned icky {or maybe they just grew themselves out}.
Things to Try/Do Differently: Similar to the tomatoes, we’re going to experiment with trimming up the bottoms of the vines and really focus on sending the shoots were we want them. Trellis clips will come in handy here too, and hopefully trimming the vines a bit will help control the growth and keep them from overextending.

Peppers:
The Good: Once the heat kicked in, the peppers got happy – even the ones in the middle of cucumber vines. We should be able to keep harvesting and enjoying these until frost now, as the plants are still very healthy and lush.
The Dubious: They took forever to really start growing? Soil blocking helped tremendously, but even with that head-start, it took months before they started looking like real plants.
Things to Try/Do Differently: Keep working to figure out the sweet spot for setting out young plants, and try to save seeds so that we’re not having to rebuy the same varieties every year.

The garden definitely has the End of Season Blues at the moment, as we’ve been working to clear out the spent vines and get things ready for fall. Aside from my zinnias, the peppers are all that remain from summer.

To replenish nutrients and keep the soil covered, we’ve spread a cover crop seed blend {red clover, vetch, and borage}. Those seeds are starting to sprout, so they’ll grow and work their soil magic, making the bags a happier, healthier place for the next round of planting.

The fall garden will be scaled back, but hopefully we’ll be able to add cabbages and broccoli plants. And we’ve got teeny tiny baby sprouts appearing where we’ve sowed lettuce and radish seeds, so we should be able to harvest and devour fall salads if all goes according to plan.

This summer garden may have looked very different from summers past, but we were able to eat our own veggies – with enough extra to share – and that’s a victory. Time to take our observations and turn them into theories for next time, and move on with the seasons.

How did you summer garden fare? Are you ready for fall?