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| Grandma Ina and Aunt Lynn in 1950. Note zinnias behind Grandma. |
My raised beds aren’t big producers. I can think of half a dozen reasons: poor seeds / plants, improper amending of the soil, too little (or too much) fertilizer, poor plant rotation, too little (or too much) water, and last but not least, too much heat. It all equates to a brown thumb, but I keep trying.
This
season, the Burpee’s “Heat Wave” lettuce has produced well. And the spinach and
beets are okay, too – just such small crops. The zucchini is still problematic,
and I read that this could be the result of over watering. And I’m not getting
as many tomatoes as I would like either.
Since
my gardens don’t produce well, I decided if they can’t be good, maybe they
could look good. So, like the gardeners of yesteryear, I planted zinnias. They
germinated! They bloomed! And they are a delight!
Last year, my strawberry plants looked terrible and didn’t produce well, so as the season ended, I thinned the plants. Really, I didn’t know if the bed would come back or not, but in May, I fertilized with Miracle Gro, and they took off. These are everbearing plants, and the first crop of berries wasn’t great, but this second crop is lovely! Mike and I have had several shortcakes, and that’s all we care.
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Speaking
of shortcake, I hated to turn on the oven, so I researched for a microwave
recipe, and yes, you can make a delicious shortcake in your microwave. Recipes
abound online. KW
2 comments:
Last year we had zucchini and summer squash coming out our ears; this year, so far nothing. I'm still hopeful, however!!
Interesting -- because I was thinking Dan had found the secret to summer squash success. I have picked three young zucchini fruits. I thought they were rather hard when I sliced them, but they tasted all right. (Zucchini can be bitter, as I've learned to my dismay.)
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