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Thursday, August 9, 2012

Over It

I try to keep my blog upbeat and happy because so many people need a place to 'escape' to and I've been told that they like to come here for that.

But, my blog is also about life here on the wanna-be farm/homestead so every now and then you'll get a glimpse of reality and the not-so-nice parts of the wanna-be farm/homestead.

And today's post, my friends, is just one of those posts so bare with me...

Every winter Country Boy and I start talking about the vegetables we want to plant in the garden come spring.  We get excited!  We enjoy gardening and we especially enjoy eating the fruits of our labor.

After deciding what we want to grow we purchase the seeds and start cleaning up the garden and amending the sand soil.  I start many of the seeds in the greenhouse during the winter months so that we'll have a jump start before spring actually arrives.

Every year the plants begin to grow and start looking lush and beautiful.  You can read HERE how this year's garden was coming along.

And every year, we hardly get any yield from those lush, beautiful plants, sigh.

I'm over it!

I read a blog this morning that was showing beautiful images of their crops.  I was so happy for them.  I really was cuz I'm not the jealous type.  I started to leave a comment but decided against it because I didn't want to come across as jealous or complaining about my own lack of yield.  But, it got me thinking about our crop and what little we bring in year after year for one reason or another and how I was feeling about the whole gardening thing... I'm disappointed and over it!

So, I grabbed my camera so that I could show you what our garden looks like now.

My tomato plants...


A couple of days ago something ate every leaf on all 24 of my tomato plants... overnight!

I had big dreams of canning tomato sauce, tomato paste, salsa, you name it.

The yield from said tomato plants?  About six small tomatoes.

Here's the lima beans...


They don't like a lot of rain and we've had a lot of rain.  (Sorry to those of you in the midst of a drought.)

The yield for lima beans?  About one half a sandwich baggie.

I didn't bother taking a picture of the blackeye peas or potatoes.  They're pretty much dead.

Blackeye pea yield?  About one half a sandwich baggie.

Potato yield?  I've only checked a couple of rows but I got two tiny potatoes the size of my thumbnail.

What IS doing OK and still slowly producing you may ask?

The okra.


And my rescued green pepper plant from the compost bin is beginning to produce some green peppers.


Apparently they both don't mind our amended sand soil. 

While I love to show y'all pretty pictures of life here on the wanna-be farm/homestead the subject of the pictures is not always that pretty.

Country Boy and I are at a loss as to what we need to do to actually get some vegetables from our lush, beautiful plants.

I know we're over it right now but come winter, we'll probably get excited again about growing some vegetables and we'll try it again.  It's who we are.  We want a farm.  We want home grown vegetables, dad gummit!  And preferably our own!

Thankfully, I have still been able to do a bit of canning this summer thanks to some generous people who can actually grow stuff and had an abundance of their crops.

In other 'over it' news...

I'm over PC's and all their issues.

Some day I will own a Mac, sigh.

Well, that's reality here on the wanna-be farm/homestead.  It's not all fun and games and pretty pictures, haha!

Linking with


Till next time,



 



14 comments:

Tanya Breese said...

oh how discouraging...that's gotta be a let down...hope your fall/winter garden does much better this time around!

Country Gal said...

Your not the only one . The farmers here have lost crops due to the drought we have had it is sad but that's real life on a farm , ya win some and ya loose some . I remember the times on our hobby farm as a kid where my mum didn't have very good veggies due to the weather and mother nature it sucks but you just have to keep on keeping on . I love the fact that your blog is true to all of us readers , keep it real girl we love it ! Have a good day !

Anonymous said...

I am soooo sorry about your garden. It's just been an extremely poor growing year for most of our nation due to the droughts and the incredible heat this summer. Are you doing raised gardens with new clean soil? That;s what we did some years ago in Arizona... yes, in the middle of the desert and 100 plus degree temperatures. We brought in all fresh dirt and had everything on a drip system. It wasn't a huge garden, but it did give us the veggies we wanted. Where there is a will, there is a way. I say don't give up.

ANd, yes... by all means get a Mac. It's what we have used for years and years and years and never one iota of a problem. Desk tops are best for blogging with but I have also used my laptop once in a while. Just love the huge screen on the desktop. Good luck!

TexWisGirl said...

here i was expecting a full-on rant about life's woes and it was all about the non-garden. :)

Lisa @ Two Bears Farm said...

I hear you. My garden is pitiful this year, and I worked so hard. You know what's thriving? The two birdhouse gourd plants I put in for fun. Which of course, are inedible. They've taken over the whole garden. Talk about irony.

Janet said...

Aw, so disheartening. Sand is certainly not the best garden soil either! Hope you don't stop trying though.

Buttons Thoughts said...

Wow this is refreshing I thought I was the only one. Gardening in a drought basically sucks so I have only one Kale plant and a tomato plant that came up from last year lucky me.
Blogging happy all the time is exhausting and not real life. B

Parsley said...

I have never had luck with anything but yellow squash. I understand your frustration and wish you better days ahead.

Gail Dixon said...

Awww...I feel your pain. Nature sometimes doesn't cooperate! I spent $30 on one tomato plant and so far it has yielded ONE tomato. A lousy one at that. Right now it has 5 little green babies, but I'm not expecting anything from it. So disappointing, so I can imagine how frustrated you are since you seem to have some land. Don't give up. Ask around and get online to see what will grow in the sand. Maybe there's still hope.

Lynn said...

Sorry you're disappointed and please believe me when I say-I understand! All I did this year was feed the rabbits. But I know you'll get the "itch" and try again:@)

Pat said...

What could have eaten all those leaves in such a short time?
We have good luck growing tomatoes and peppers in Earthboxes.

Shannon@Cozy Home Scenes said...

I feel badly for you about your bad luck gardening this year. We don't have a place where we can garden but we have one squash plant, one zucchini and five tomato plants. Thankfully the tomatoes have done well so we have had plenty to eat for sandwiches etc. but the squash and zucchini were very slow producing. We have only had a few of each. That situation concerning the stripped leaves sounds like a deer to me. You are probably feeling like the settlers felt when their crops were lost. At least you have a grocery store and generous friends. Don't give up on your dream of having a productive garden...... next year.
Shannon

Linda at French Hollow said...

I'm so sorry to hear about your garden. Please don't give up! I've had pretty good luck this year in spite of the rabbits, birds and drought. I planted directly into bags of inexensive garden soil and my hubby waters every morning. It is a small garden, only 12 x 12, but we have loads of tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and herbs. It was a little bit pricey this year counting the soil and the fencing, but it ended up paying for itself in tomatoes alone and next year we will remove the plastic from the bags and plant directly in the soil, so it will be much less expensive. It looks as though Barbara Pleasant's method is actually working - and it is easy!

Kindly,
Linda

Karen @ Pieces of Contentment said...

Sounds not unlike some of my attempts. Fruit fly, soil viruses/fungi/disease, tree roots, shade from neighbours' spreading trees, too much rain, too hot, too windy......

Last spring I planted some flowers instead, they did ok and gave me much more joy, yet I still hanker after growing some decent food!

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