In review: Summer of success, challenge
I know that when the pandemic hit and we all tucked in at home, many turned to gardening, not just for something to do, but also to feel grounded, and few things can ground us like digging in the earth, and taking part in growing things. As late summer slips into autumn, and we wrap up this year’s main growing season, I’m interested to know: What felt like successes and what didn’t go so well in your garden this year? If it was your first time growing vegetables, will you do it again?
For me, the successes were a bountiful crop of mixed leaf lettuces that produced well into the hot weather, plenty of kale, a bumper crop of tomatoes, and a small harvest of potatoes that I’d started from an old spud in the vegetable bin. With the news worldwide worsening by the moment, it was wonderful to be able to feel like
I had control over something in my life. (Hahaha. More on that later!)
Another delight was adding more containers of annual flowers to the patio. On even the really hot days, it made a nice little get-away. And with the flagstone surface, and an assortment of decorative, terra-cotta pots, it was easy to imagine that I wasn’t in Kimberton at all, but rather someplace on the Mediterranean coast.
As I mentioned here earlier in the season, Charlie created a new planting bed along one edge of the patio, and I planted it with pollinator-friendly perennials. That was, and continues to, be a separate joy— watching these plants grow and flower, and observing the constant activity of bees, butterflies, and now birds as well, as some flowers have gone to seed.
On the negative side, the vegetable garden took some hits. Powdery mildew clobbered the zucchini plants. Leaf Curl virus brought the rampant tomato vines to a listless, drooping stand-still. Larvae of the cross-striped cabbageworm moth discovered the kale and transformed the leaves into lace. The sweet peppers started showing the dark, sunken patches typical of anthracnose. The fungus spread to the remaining tomatoes as well, after they had surprisingly recovered from the leaf curl.
The damage to the kale could have been prevented if I’d done a better job of anchoring the floating row covers, i.e., there’s an easy solution to that: Just keep the moths away from the plants. When it comes to the powdery mildew and the anthracnose, though, I think that the problem is climate-related. We had many days of non-stop humidity, and funguses thrive in humid conditions. I also planted the tomatoes and peppers closer together than usual; they probably would have benefited from better air flow.
While there’s nothing that I can do about the weather, I can plan to leave more space between plants, especially since my vegetable garden is in an area that over the years has become shadier, for more of the day. (Shady conditions can help promote funguses.) I’ll also look for varieties that have resistance to these fungal diseases. And, of course, it’s important to clear away and dispose of affected plant material rather than compost it; some disease-causing organisms can winter-over.
Hopefully, next season the seed companies and gardening suppliers will be ready for another bumper crop of gardeners. As you may have experienced yourself, it was challenging this past spring to get plants, seeds, and supplies when there was unprecedented demand for all things “garden.”
The greatest joy for me last summer? The potatoes: they were perfect. I never saw a single potato beetle, and there was no blight. As always, I’m grateful for any and all successes. But with everything else that happened, this one in my little potato patch really surprised me.
Pam Baxter is an avid organic vegetable gardener who lives in Kimberton. Direct e-mail to pamelacbaxter@gmail. com, or send mail to P.O. Box 80, Kimberton, PA 19442. Share your gardening stories on Facebook at “Chester County Roots.” Pam’s book for children and families, Big Life Lessons from Nature’s Little Secrets, is available on Amazon, along with her companion field journal, Explore Outdoors, at Amazon.com/ author/pamelabaxter.