How did our garden grow?

If you're in the Pacific Northwest, you can probably sympathize that we had an abysmal spring/summer & not only did it cause mild bitterness on my part (summer, hello? Is that you? 55 and raining in August? Really?!), but it wreaked havoc on our garden as well.

Here's what we planted this year:

• Cucumbers
• Tomatoes
• Lettuce
• Radishes
• Peppers (3 varieties)
• Strawberries
• Pumpkins
• Basil

The cucumbers were the winner, by far, & we ended up with about 40 smallish cucumbers. My kids love them for a snack, so next year we will definitely plant more. We still have a few left growing.

Tomatoes. Yield = 0. And, we have 8 plants. With the exception of one red tomato that's holding on for dear life, but not quite ripe, we have 100+ green tomatoes on the vine. And, no sunshine in the forecast.

The lettuce did okay until we went on vacation. We probably ended up with 3 heads of lettuce.

Radishes. We are overflowing with radishes. My father-in-law loves them, & has replanted several times. I can only hazard a guess that we've ended up with 150+, and more to come.

Peppers. We've had 6 peppers, total, across the three bushes. I pickled most of them & used a few fresh ones in various dishes.

Strawberries. Our strawberries never blossomed in early summer, but we do have two random strawberries on the bush right now. They are green, & summer appears to be over, so my guess is that these won't ripen.

Basil. We have more basil than you can shake a stick at. I've made lots, & lots, & lots of pesto (for the freezer). The in-laws eat entire plants of basil raw for dinner (they can't get enough of the stuff). I'm not quite that fond of it, but I love it to flavor dishes or use in pesto.

Pumpkins. The pumpkins look pretty good. We have a few just starting to get orange, so I'm hopeful these will grow to maturity.

Blueberries. We have two blueberry plants (this is our third year) & one didn't grow fruit at all. We probably had about 20 blueberries from the other plant.

Grapes. Our grape vines that we planted over our deck a few years ago are finally starting to produce. I estimate that we'll net out with 3+ lbs of fresh grapes by the end of the season. They are just now getting ripe, & they are delicious!

Blackberries. I didn't plant these, but they grow wild all over. I have so far made: 3 batches of freezer jam, a blackberry pie, blackberry muffins, & frozen another 3lbs for smoothies. I'd like to make one more pie before the blackberries go, and also make a few more muffins. My original recipe was not great, so I'll have to keep my eyes open for something better.

All in all, a disappointing garden experience this year.

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