Almost every year at some point in the late spring or early summer I start questioning my gardening ability. You can tell well before harvest time how things are tracking. Often by that time the vegetable garden looks a little more like a weed patch than a garden. I’m usually out trying to spray for bugs in the fruit trees, wondering if there is any hope. I second guess the pruning I’ve done a month or two before, and worry I’ve killed the trees. At a minimum I’ve pruned all the branches that could bear fruit. Should I just give up on trying to grow things?
By this time of year I can start to see the fruits of our labor. I still wasn’t very successful with the vegetable garden. We do have one nice big sunflower, and some zucchini, and tomatoes. We’ll get some pumpkins and a couple of ears of corn. Not nearly as much as I had hoped we could get, but something just the same. I won’t bother with the list of things I planted that don’t appear to have grown at all, it’s a little too long.
Even though I’m disappointed with some of those things, there are a couple of redeeming crops. We went out and picked a couple of bowls full of raspberries the other day. I imagine I could do the same again tomorrow if I can find the time to get out. They are pretty tasty. When I harvest it’s often one for me, one for the bowl, one for me, one for the bowl.
Peaches will be the other winner this year. They are so delicious. I wish there were a way to keep them coming for months, or maybe even all year. If they were available fresh and delicious all year I may start to get tired of them. Probably not though, they are so good. I guess I’ll have to try again next year. One day I’ll figure out how to grow corn.