How would you rate your '05 garden?

This year's severe drought in the Northwest adversely affected my gardens. Bell peppers failed completely, and many other crops did poorly, despite my watering efforts.

The daylilies just get bigger and better every year. The DG trades I've received added so much to the garden! All of the vegetables met with our own praise and that of the neighbors: they judged them the best tomatoes and cucumbers EVER.

We're working hard to make next year even better.

Edited for spelling.

This message was edited Sep 18, 2005 8:33 PM

Not so great. My mother had a serious illness effect her in febuary which put a serious crimp in the gardening plans, to say the least. I didn't even get to plant anything until June, and I have an entire new shade bed I didn't even get to.

I'm not whining and I don't mean to be a downer, because even with all that I did have some success. My lobelia is growing pretty good as are the sunflowers and zinnias I grew from seed.

However, many of my mornada are dying. All the butterfly weed I planted died, and my Echinacea hates me, it started turning black and some of it has died too. We did have 2 weeks of almost constant heavy rain a while back and I wonder if this effected the Echinacea and butterfly weed.

This was my first year gardening and I learned alot and as a result I have high hopes for next year and plenty of empty spots for a fresh start!

Maureen

Not so great. We are in an Official Drought area. Just fighting a loosing battle with the water hose but managing to keep them alive. To the point of allowing non-noxious weeds to cover the ground as a living mulch. The weeds are clovers and it helps to retain some moisture.

Again because of the severe drought we have been having,plus abnormal temps to boot.We need a break I am so ready for fall.:-)
Jody

great because: lots of butterflies and hummers, I was able to acquire lots of plants and lots of plants are beginning to have that "established" look to them. Fell in love w/ OGRs.
bad: lost a few tropicals due to our 20 second snow storm last x/mas and freakish dry (no water and not moisture) spring, which got surviving tropicals to a precarious start. Lost 2 big oaks in 2005 (but got a beautiful red maple!)

overall great because I feel more secure in my knowledge about plants in general, thanks in great part to DG

Other: vossner, I like your outlook! We did see lots of wildlife, which was a wonderful treat. My husband and I moved during this summer, so I never got a chance to plant a garden. Our new house has a great garden space and some perennials, so we got some berries, rhubarb, asparagus, and potatoes. It's neat to see how the landscape was planted with the wildlife in mind. Although we didn't really have a garden, I'm learning about what we do have. Next year I have high hopes!

JUST MOVED TO THE SOUTH AND AM LEARNING WHAT DOES
''AND DOES NOT'' GROW HERE. SOME OF WHAT I BROUGHT FROM PA. IS DOING WELL. MY ''SOUTHERN PLANTS'' ARE
DOING GOOD TOO. BIGGEST PROBLEM IS REMEMBERING TO WATER AND FERTLIZE MORE
BMWRX7

Just starting gardening, etc., in new house in Lecanto, Fl. Will know better next year. But so far all is ok except for my few faux paux......

JIM

I voted worst ever because I've been plagued with back problems since December and haven't been able to keep up with much. Not the plants faults... all my fault, but never-the-less.. hard spring and summer here for me.

Although, you CAN check back in Dec. too--I gave myself two thumbs up; remember, I got "Yard of the Month!"

And, my beloved neighbor is moving, so I inherited a crop of cannas, turk's cap, daylillies, arrowheads of all varieties, oxalis......etc., etc. My husband is going to kill me.......lol

Not so great...it was my first year doing a garden. Had problems ranging from my own stupidity, way too hot summer and now, spidermites. I have gotten a dozen or so tomatoes that were very good, but not what I hoped for.

It looked like with a bit cooler weather (it is finally under 100) that I'd have lots of maters...but now the spider mites have hit...and hit hard. Everything! Marigolds, Cosmos, vincas...etc. I have heard from my buddies from the TX Gardening forum that usually in late August, everything starts to get worn out and looking bad. My pal Saint promises a better crop next year since we will know better what we are doing. :)

Michelle

I voted not so great because the drought has kept everything in the ornamentals pretty much at a standstill from last year and the produce hardly produced. I don't like to use my well to water unless it's a necessity to keep from losing my plants altogether. So I'm watering today because we've had no rain for a few weeks and none in the near forecast and the heat is starting to take its toll even on the trees now. But i"m still planting new daylilies and a few other things. I've found DG this year and that's keeping it from being "worst ever." :)

Most of the veggies died in the garden died and I lost more plants (perennials and such) then any other year despite my best efforts.

This year was not so great for me. I was pregnant last year, so I didn't do any Fall clean-up or weeding. Needless to say, the weed population and yard debris was out of control this Spring! We also had an abnormal amount of rain (even for the PNW) this year. My garden is about 75% bearded iris, and quite a few rotted...and if they didn't rot, the bloom quality and quantity was poor. Hoping for a better year in 2006!

I voted worst ever! I know you've all heard me complain everywhere else, but I lost so much this year to gophers or some underground critters.... Nearly completely wiped out a new bed, with lots of pretty new things..... still struggling to get rid of the darn thing(s). And we didn't get as much sun and warmth as usual - my veggies mildewed and rotted before I could harvest.... BUT! That's not to say I haven't enjoyed myself..... I'd be lost without my gardening.

Sanna

We have a lot of rain in the summer, but not this much. It started raining during the last week in June and never stopped until Katrina pulled everything into the Ohio Valley. We had flood warnings in the valleys constantly.
Now we are having a drought. Ferns have turned brown and crispy. Impatiens wilting. The roses haven't done well and the brugmansias haven't shown one bloom!
The biggest success was the raspberries. Neither storm, nor rain, nor drought have bothered them. We are watering them a bit now, though.

Pretty average, what can I say? Everything pretty much perfomed as expected.

Spring here started out wet, then it got hot and I am not a summer heat type of person.
I avoided doing things I knew needed to be done. The neighbor kids busted a ton of my pots on the patio and I just couldn't face dealing with it. I lost 3 clematis. Oh, and I forgot to dig up an give away this pushy dahlia and the thing lurched up to about 6 feet and fell over onto the sidewalk where I politely left it laying and proceeded to ignore the "sleeping giant" all summer. His head is coming off this weekend and a friend is going to bury him in her yard:)
My sure thing plants were amazing...tall bearded iris and my lilies. They never disappoint. I had my season off and am ready to jump back into things now. I have a master plan...evicting some long time residents so I can get some fresh young new tenants:) So the cannas, dutch iris, sedum, dahlia and possibly my underachiever peony should probably be nervous right about now. Looking forward to next spring already!

This message was edited Sep 12, 2005 6:41 PM

It not so great this year that not enough tomatoes and squashes this year!

I voted "other" because this is only my second year to garden, and I'm still learning. There have been good and bad points to this year's garden. A long, hot, dry summer claimed several of my potted plants, but on the other hand, I was able to learn from some of last year's mistakes. I also planted herbs for the first time. Some of them didn't make it, but I'm very proud of the ones that did. I guess you could say that even though, some efforts failed, I was able to learn from last year's mistakes, and hopefully will learn from some of this year's mistakes.

I think I say pretty much the same every time we have this question but I'm going to say it again :)

The garden is fantastic!

Some plants did better than others, some died, some excelled themselves, I made some mistakes, the plants did a few things I personally didn't agree with. We've had lots of wildlife including slugs, snails, frogs, hedgehogs, aphids, ants, ladybirds, tons of nectar seekers and dragonflies, not so many wild birds. Lots of weeds, armfuls of flowers, scented breezes and bright splashes of colour. We've had a dry, hot year for here and we've all muddled along very well. I could have voted for ask me in December as there's still something generally going on.

I almost never do quite enough work in the garden but it's a hobby not a chore. If I wanted perfection I might consider clock making but until then I'm going to enjoy the garden now and worry about other things later on.

Very dry this year. Still got enough tomatoes to eat and give away and make 16 qts. of juice. Daylily seedlings are my passion and hobby - I had to water them this year and got few blooms.

Yet God in his mercy has given me and mine good health and the strength to plan for next year LOL

i am sooo new at this. i just learned the difference between an annual and a perrenial this summer!! crazy right? where i come from we paint our sidewalk green and call it "our garden"!!! i am a long time city dweller and this is the first time i have ever had dirt of my own to do whatever i want!

even though some of my plants have died some have survived. so, i consider this a small victory and look forward to my next go-round. and, i have to say being outside diggin in the dirt has really made my summer. i couldn't be happier. who knew?

What can I say! We had one of the best growing seasons ever. (Been here 20+ years.) Got a nice early start. April 1st. It was a litte cool in May, but not cold enough to stop growing. I should have kept track, but I think we had a nice rain at least once a week all summer.
We just got back from picking green & yellow beans. Plants are still loaded. We did some later plantings which we are picking now. The early plantings still are producing but we had to give up on them, just not enough time to pick them.
Also picked slicing cukes tonight, they are slowing a bit. We've been picking this patch 3X a week for about 6 weeks now.
Watermelons & squash have unbelivable flavor this year. Must be the 90º days that we were blessed with.
Looking forward to another good year next year!
Bernie

Worst ever.. we've had so much rain that many plants rotted... :(

I voted pretty average, because some things did well and/or better than before: chinese cucumbers, banana peppers, yellow squash, cherry-sized tomatoes, chinese string beans. While other things did poorly or the worst ever: larger tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplants ( I got almost none this year, when I've had good crops in the past), potatoes (the plants actually died this year due to disease, so I only got one crop). And some things did just average: brocolli, string beans, and bok choy.

The jury is till out on the sweet potatoes, because it's not quite time to harvest those yet.

I also have a fall planting still to do, and I'm hoping that will be better.

The flowers, on the other hand, didn't do too badly. I lost a few new plantings, but most did well.

This year's garden was not so good.

I used George Schenk's book on Shade Gardening as a guide. Unfortunately, the weather in Seattle has changed. The summer of 2005 was one of the driest and that dryness killed off a lot of plantlings.

Last year, the Johnson's Blue Geraniums would have been flowering for the second time in September. This year, they do have green leaves, but no blooms. Even the always reliable Autumn Joy sedums are looking rather wilted.

I gave a big "not so great". My flower are doing wonderful and giving me great joy, but my veggies????? I have been plagued by pests in my veggie garden all season. It really is my fault. I didn't protect it as I knew I should have and am paying the price.

I'll call this a learning year.

On the other hand my perenials, shrubs, and others are FANTASTIC!

This has been the worst year for insects in my garden - I am even considering spraying next year although I am usually dead against it. The green worms decimated my roses, iris borers took out at least half my irises, and for some reason this year had a bumper crop of weeds and crab grass. It is a never ending battle to keep them out of the garden!

That and it has been so dry... I waited too long to water my grass, and the sod part died (although the seeded part recovered). No big - wanted to relandscape that area anyway...

Not So Great: This will be my benchmark, since it's my first September here. I don't plan enough to make a great garden. I just get plants and seeds and stick them where they'll fit. I suppose I can resolve to reform for New Years. On the other hand, the green beans and tomatoes worked out, and almost all of the fruit trees are still alive. I didn't touch the back acre, so I suppose the trees there have grown.

Well, I said it was a great year because it was my garden's first year. I don't know what to compare it to! I had Japanese beetles and evil rabbits and squirrels. I killed a lot of plants but decided it was suicide and replaced most of them with things who seem to have more of a will to live. We enjoyed sitting outside looking at everything, even though we had to douse ourselves in OFF or be eaten alive. Ordinarily, we would have been inside watching tv, so I call that a success :)

Rachel

I volunteer to oversee the garden at work which means I do most of the work. On top of that I have lots of gardens and pots. And we've had a drought and my husband is delaing with cancer (we're winning!) so all things considered, my gardnes look pretty darn good!

not so great....cold and dry in May kept growth to a minimum, on to the hottest and wettest June on record, to the hottest July...stressed a lot of plants. The perennials hung in there fine, cucumbers, beans, potatoes, and corn did fine, not stellar. The tomatoes under performed. On to next year's performance!!

I think it was a banner year considering it's only my 2nd year gardening and not only did I manage to keep victims of my inexperience to a minimum, I learned a great many valuable lessons for next year.

Average, most flowers did okay but veggies not so great (didn't plant many so not too great a loss). My greatest accomplishment was the smaller number of slugs this year. Almost all of my garden space, front and back, get the sun full blast for several hours; with better choices of plants I have watered less and thus the fewer slugs (?)

Hekate, you live in Austin hu? Did you or are you having lots of problems with spider mites? I have mostly full sun in my backyard and my dad told me that spider mites love hot weather and no rain...I guess the rain tends to knock them off.
Michelle (in North Austin)

New to Richmond from Phila and am still getting used to the different soil and humidity levels here. Guy that had the house before me left me with 7 years' worth of yard and construction debris to clean up so that has taken priority over planting a lot of new stuff. Am hoping bulbs will help brighten spring 2006 and help me get this property looking as lovely as the picture in my head... if only my energy level holds up!

Great year. Third year here-not a brutal winter for here. Didn't lose much. All the work I did the last 2 years is showing now. Because I was on a garden tour, I've kept up on mulching and weeding and dead heading more than ever before. Not a very relaxing summer (3-4 hours a day) but all my co-ops, trades, auctions, and plain ole money spending has been well worth it. Only down has been the japanese beetles. The place was shining all season. Hope next year's even better. Couldn't have done it without DG members' help.