How’d your vegetable garden perform during the summer of 2021? Did it produce for you the harvest of your dreams? Thanks to a too-cold, too-hot summer, my own kitchen garden was (and still is) a prolific disaster. Here’s my “farm report,” followed, I hope, by yours:
My kitchen garden suffered from both neglect and bad weather during the 2021 growing season. An unusually-cold May was proceeded by an equally-chilly June. July that brought 17 consecutive days of rain. August delivered hellish heat, dangerous downpours, muggy air, and more mosquitos than I’ve ever seen in my life.
If your summer was anything like mine, please speak up. Misery loves company.
Here’s what the kitchen garden looks like today, September 22:
Butternut Squash. Last year, with near-daily assistance from me, this winter staple cheerfully climbed up and covered a cattle panel trellis. In 2021 I rarely visited the kitchen garden because…mosquitos. As a result, some vines ascended the trellis while others sprawled hither and yon. 
Now hefty bells of butternut squash can be found here, there, and everywhere. I shouldn’t complain. I’m grateful for the substantial harvest! Related: How to Harvest and Cure Butternut Squash.
Bell Peppers. These are presently ripening to yellow, orange, or red. I will have a decent amount to freeze this year. Related: How I Freeze Bell Peppers.
Acorn Squash. Despite my neglectful ways, the vines managed to climb their trellis. Sadly they did not produce an enviable bounty. Three plants provided just 10 squash.
Delicata Squash. This was my virgin attempt at growing this tender-skinned subject. Sources I trust claimed the plant grows like zucchini. That is, the vines are upright and bush-like. And this, my friends, is why I never write about plants that I have not grown myself. Delicata’s growing habit is anything but “zucchini-like.” The plant trails with utter exuberance just like other winter squash do. With help, I suspect that Delicata could be trained vertically on a trellis.
The seven plants produced a respectable crop. And that’s a good thing, because I love Delicata squash! Its colorful skin is tender and edible. No peeling required. Related recipe: Maple Glazed Chicken Dinner featuring Delicata squash.
Potatoes. I dug up a few of the ‘All Blue’ variety recently, and they are gorgeous. The remaining crop, which includes ‘Yukon Gold’ and ‘Red Norland,’ will be harvested in late October, when my cellar is cool enough to store them. Mercifully potatoes have a can-do attitude. They do not require constant coddling from the gardener.
Zinnias. Now that autumn has officially arrived and the squash and potato vines have died back, the zinnias are the stars of the kitchen garden show. Would you believe that I never once deadheaded the flowers during summer? Now the crop is providing colorful stems for indoor vase arrangements. I have them in yellow…
And pink…
And scarlet.
Now back to my original question: How’d your garden perform during the 2021 growing season? Talk to me in the comments field below. xKevin
Jerry Miller says
Well, since you asked, I’ll tell you about my garden. Like you, the weather wasn’t very cooperative; we had a cool spring followed by a very hot summer.
I’m only starting to harvest some cherry tomatoes. My big tomatoes are still green, on the vine. I planted 4 varieties, Early Girl, Sweet 100’s, Mortgage Lifter and Beefsteak. All over town, tomatoes are doing poorly.
I planted two varieties of butternut squash; I saw how well yours did last year and decided to give it a try. I might have 7 or 8. I don’t know if they will ripen or if I’ll be able to cure them before the frost. The 10 day forecast predicts warm days and nights in the 40’s. My fingers are crossed.
My neighbor gave me two varieties of icebox watermelon. So far, I’ve harvest two melon out of the three that were produced. They were around 4 lbs each but not as sweet as I expected. Plus, I let one on the vine longer to sweeten but it became spongey and still not very sweet.
I thought I would try growing potatoes in bags. I bought 10, 20-gallon bags and filled my pickup with a load of topsoil from our gardening center. I purchased a variety of seed potatoes: Yukon Gold, bintje, fingerling, russet and Pontiac reds. Nothing happened. Finally, a few weeks ago, I noticed some green sprouting in a few of the otherwise bare bags. I don’t know if the topsoil wasn’t properly cured or aged but I think it was too strong for filling my bags. I might harvest a few baby potatoes before the frost. Since I live in Idaho, the poor potato harvest is devastating; I thought spuds would do well. I only have to drive a few miles to find commercial potato growers.
On the bright side, pole beans, yellow beans, pickling cukes and green bell peppers finally started producing. My winter-sowed cauliflower did incredibly well as did my zucchini.
I can’t wait to plant next year’s garden. I won’t let this year discourage me.
Mary Laiuppa says
I grew onions for the first time and harvested them. Thanks to your guidance they are hardening off. I also grew radishes and garlic although I still haven’t harvested that. I may have missed the window. It is late garlic and it doesn’t seem to be ready every time I check. The bed is so overgrown now I’m not sure I can find it. I did have some successful lettuce before summer hit. I have two volunteer tomatoes but so far nothing.
I never got any of the raised beds built after the first was finished. I lost time caring for my Mother after a horribly accident and when the rains stopped early the ground got too hard to work so between that and covid the building ceased. Now I hear we will have a mild, dry winter. I may end up having to water my front yard just to be able to clear and level it and get the other three raised beds built. Since I am moving dirt from the back yard to the front, that means they either won’t get filled or I will have to water the back to get that dirt dug up and moved. I will also be buying supplemental soil, mulch and compost to mix all together. The water lines are already in so extending the drip irrigation is not a problem. Everything is on a timer as well. I have a list of all of the components I need, thanks to the experiments of the first bed.
With the gas lines replace, the patio bricks restored and a refrigerator finally delivered (but not the one I ordered a year ago, that is still out of stock) I can finally put things back and move forward in the back yard. I have put my little greenhouse table back in it’s spot and moved Freyja’s feeding station underneath. she doesn’t seem to mind at all. I’ve moved an old baker’s rack that has been rusting to a lovely cottage shabby chic on the north side of the house around to the south side next to the little greenhouse. It has four shelves, three of which will hold my germination trays. The very bottom will have some potted plants for stability. I will be moving Diana’s feeding station and the food bin today. Then I’ll see what else will be moved. Some things will remain in pots and some will eventually be planted. I want that rain so I can dig holes in the front for a blood orange and lime trees and some rose trees and bushes. Now that I’ve finally settled on a plan I want to get the front yard planted and finished. I even have the landscape lighting waiting to get installed. Then maybe I can get back to making my stained glass stepping stones for the front and back, get that all cleared away and finally let down the hammock, grill some burgers and relax in my pergola space.
Now that I’ve written it out, it sure seems like a lot of stuff to do.
Basically I’m still at the building stage with minimal plantings here and there. I know what the goal is, I just have to get there. I want entire beds of basil and tomatoes for canning and freezing of pesto. I want to start living off my harvest. I do have enough onions to get me through until the next crop is harvested.
Maggie says
How do farmers keep their sanity?
Martey says
We’ve had a pretty good yield of tomatoes from our partially shaded raised beds, as well as a nice assortment of sweet and hot peppers. The Shishito peppers were particularly prolific, making me very happy! The potatoes aren’t harvested yet, but we grow them in bags that my husband doesn’t water, so we never get much of a yield. I just planted more lettuce, arugula and radishes in a protected, sunny spot. There’s garlic to go in when the tomatoes come out. Not a bad year for our tiny garden!
Ellen K. says
We tried vegetable gardening for the first time after reading your instructions for winter sowing. The sowing was a great success, producing lettuce, parsley, spinach, tomatoes, carrots and peppers. We live in a major city, so space was limited. Our yard is very shady, so we eked out a raised bed in the sunniest spot and tried our hand at square foot gardening. All were successful with the exception of the carrots, that were so stunted that I just chopped them up and froze for soup.
I learned a few things: Parsley is indestructible! I planted way too much. Also, peppers are a perennial, and intend to overwinter in my basement. All in all, a good first attempt at gardening. Thanks for the inspiration!
Belinda says
Every year is so different in our summer garden in the ADKS. Our potatoes and cherry tomatoes were ok, considering I fought blight all season. The german onions, garlic, collards, cabbage, turnips, kale, green, beans, and green peas have had an outstanding year. We grew zucchini well for the first time, but our old reliable winter squash haven’t had a good year. My Zineas have been gorgeous for weeks. Eggplants were a bust. Btw, the wild mushrooms are outstanding right now. Have you checked your grounds?
Cindi says
Not 1 pumpkin & only 1 summer squash! No cukes not one. The plants started up nicely & I bought high quality seeds. But with the dryness &cool weather then all the rains they turned mushy & died! I did however get a huge bumper crop of tomatoes , turnip & collards greens & Kale! My tomatoes cover my kitchen table! I have canned,frozen,eaten, GIFTED(ALOT),Salsa, soups.ect..I will have to rely on our local farm stands for winter squashes as I did this summer. Hope we will have a better harvest next year here in Limington,Maine ❣
Brian from Camarillo ca says
A disaster. Critters consumed everything except o few cherry tomatoes.Thet ate my Rutger variety from seed,even peas and flowers. We consulted a pest expert and discovered we share our garden with gophers,skunks,raccoons,ground squirrels and mice….lovely.
Mariska L says
My garden wasn’t the best it’s been this year.
My zucchini and some tomatoes did not grow well. This year I surrounded my tomatoes with marigolds and that seemed to help but the rain was relentless and made everything a soggy mess. My peppers are taking their time and my cucumbers all but disappeared. I have my fingers crossed for the butternut and spaghetti squash to hold their own. My kale and collards look like Swiss cheese. I’m in zone 7b and our weather was just as horrible as yours. Along with battling the hot sticky rainy days, and flooding, the insects have been thriving on us and our plants. Going out has been like starring in a horror movie. Within 3 minutes I had 12 mosquitoes on me at once.
I’ve been having major trouble with Pill bugs. Last week I put out new Japanese turnip, broccolini, watermelon radish seedlings and surrounded them with food grade diatomaceous earth. A week later I have nothing but a few stems left. They are voracious eaters. Too bad they don’t eat mosquitoes instead. Better luck next year. Thanks for the time to garden vent.
Susan Lathrop says
My garden is in zone 5b in central Iowa. Followed your advice about amending the soil in my garden beds this year. Wow! What a world of difference that made…my gardening life is transformed! Unfortunately Mother Nature did not cooperate this year in our part of Iowa. Early cool plus lots of rain delayed germination, then dry dry dry. Just 4 butternut squash and even my zinnias are puny. Good garlic harvest. Tomatoes are fine but not robust. Hoping for better conditions next year!
Diane Luther says
I had mixed results here in New England. Half the amount of tomatoes and cucumbers as in past years and the zucchini squash and green beans were pretty scarce.
Not the best year for sure. The weather here was exactly the same as yours so there is our explanation!
I don’t know how farmers survived these ups and downs especially if one had a larger family to feed and also depended on crops to sell.
For those of you who happen to like farming and history, I have been watching the BBC 12 episode show, “Edwardian Farmer” and enjoying how much ingenuity they had to have to survive the harsh English winters….not unlike ours here in New England especially if their summer crops did poorly.
Sharon says
Hi Kevin, lost all my basil this year but it was a fabulous year for tomatoes and eggplant and red peppers. Those little gold cherry tomatoes were our garden snack. There were hundreds and we ate them every day right off the vine standing in the garden!
Elizabeth King says
Here in Southern Ontario my garden did better than last year but still not great. I planted potatoes, Yukon Gold, for the first time in my square foot garden & I got about 30 small potatoes as I harvested them in late summer. I won’t do potatoes again I don’t think as they take up too much room in my small garden. I also planted garlic last fall & have had a good yield of that for me. My cherry tomatoes did quite well but the the yellow pear ones didn’t do well at all. I harvested a few but most rotted after all the rain we have had recently. I had a good yield from my bush beans & my lettuce was enjoyed as was my spinach. Also had some beets this year & carrots which last year were totally absent. My first attempt at Delicata squash failed. The first plant died with a late frost & the second one produced only one smallish squash that I almost missed when I cleaned out my garden last week. I still have kale growing as well as marigolds, tarragon, chives & lavender but the rest is empty now. We have to move our gardens this year. I am in a senior’s apartment building & they have sold the property that my garden is on. Hopefully we will know soon were we can have them again. Only my neighbour & I garden. The rest have small border gardens on their patios.
Hopefully next year will bring success once more.
gene says
I always have a great garden. At 78 years old I’ve learned that each plant does a little different each years. Some years one or two types of vegetables do outstanding and others not so well. I’ve also learned not to spend so much money on pest controls. The chipmunks, voles, moles, and pest/bugs seen to have cycle of growth and garden eating. I am most thankful for whatever the garden give me each years. I’ve also learned to live and work with nature and not fight it. It just won’t grow my way, so I let it all grow its natural way. Besides so many of what I used to call and fight as ‘weeds’, make for some good eats. I now try hard to live in harmony with nature and it seems that God amply provides for me with vegetables, great happiness and joy in life.
Joan says
The past two years my tomato plants were hit with early blight. the soil isn’t the issue as I had raised beds built this year and brought in new soil. I’ll certainly try next year again but so disappointing. Anyone have a solution for early blight?
Had great results with the Asian eggplant variety Fairy Tail. Planted way too many green beans or should have spaced the planting times further apart. They produced a great crop as did the butternut squash and zucchini. Potatoes and green peppers were so-so.
Had zero luck with the Persian-type cucumbers. Th germination rate was very low so I had to replants and the they did practically nothing. Regular cokes were fine. Don’t believe I’ll try the Persians again.
I’m always amazed that anything grows well so I’ll be out there again this coming spring with hope in my heart.
Kara says
We’re in southern GA, on FL border, so cope with a lot of heat and humidity. My gardening is divided between trying to encourage a woodland environment with tropicals and a variety of ferns, and a small veggie bed.
Tomatoes were OK, but only through mid-summer when horn worms showed up, and I didn’t catch them in time. Peppers were a great success. Next year hope to do more vegs., but the climate is daunting… i resist going out in the heat to weed and do other care; it is too hot except early AM, and then only if it isn’t raining! But I HAVE to have something growing. Guess it’s in my genes! You are a great encouragement, and I enjoy seeing your space in a temperate climate. SOMETIMES, I miss that!
Had some volunteer cherry tomatoes show up in odd places (flower pots) that were persistent and did well without much attention from me.
I love all your squashes! Beautiful!
Nancy says
Our kitchen garden in NH faired pretty much like you have described yours there in NY, down to the mosquitoes! I am still growing and picking lettuces of various kinds, beets, carrots, a second crop of green beans, leeks, shallots, potatoes, winter squash—and zinnias. Yeah for the flowers too! The tomatoes did poorly, with just enough for the two of us to eat and cook with, from a total of 12 plants; most unusual as that many would produce plenty to put by. Cucumbers did poorly as well and peppers just OK. So it’s been better, but hey, I’m happy.
Rachel says
Kevin…do you call that garden a disaster? I don’t. You have lots of vegetables for the fall and winter and pretty flowers as well.
Here it’s been dry dry dry with a few days of light rain, repeat pattern. Every storm and hurricane passing divides like the red sea going around us. My water bill garners frowns from the water company.
On my front slope of various nonvegetable plants it takes an hour of water every other day just to wet a half inch below surface, but it’s holding its own.
Having little sun, I can’t grow many vegetables, only herbs in pots, which usually do well. This year, parsley and chives, of all things, wouldn’t grow past a tendril…usually garlic chives grow wild in and out the back ivy…none this year. Basil so so, enough to eat on, ditto sage; Swiss chard barely; mint and oregano (started from a root yanked out if my neighbor’s overgrowth) prolific.
What gives?
In the one really sunny area where my son put in a raised plot the beets are taking their sweet time, some onions ignoring growth; Everything else he put in didn’t bother.
I’m rethinking veg gardening and relying in the farmers market.
Suzanne K says
I just wasn’t up to a garden this year so the only thing that grew was a volunteer cherry tomato plant. I didn’t even water it because I was battling the ground squirrels for the few tomatoes it produced. I ended up trapping and relocating an entire family of the ground squirrels (one at a time) and by then, was totally fed up with the whole thing so the cherry tomato volunteer died of the early heat.
The only thing I did bring in from the garden was about 60 pounds of grapes. Many given to my new(ish) neighbors in exchange for eggs from their chickens. I ate a lot and then dried the rest to make raisins for winter oatmeal.
Perhaps next year I will be more in the mood and maybe So Cal will have had a good winter rain year and we won’t be in a drought.
deb says
worst garden I ever had…just like you..too everything!
For the 1st time in my life, I did not get any cucumbers….The tomatoes got blight…DISASTER.
Jesse says
Gardening has become a masochist activity. I will do my gardening from now on in the produce aisle of the nearest grocery store, with the exception of growing malabar spinach and some herbs nearly year ’round and assorted lettuce year ’round except for summer. Bugs, disease, floods, drought, wind, sun scorch, rot, varmints, cannot be over come.
Your squash looks delicious? Is it as good as what is in the grocery store or the same? Your maple glazed chicken is now a regular dish at my house in Houston. I also sent the recipe to a Mississippi Gulf Coast cousin and he loved it too.
Thank you for your Sunday emails. I find them much more exciting and worthwhile than watching church online! You are my Sunday Sunshine!
Susan says
Hi Kevin, I have three small 6 x 6 raised beds and this year since we have a wonderful weekly farmers market by us, I chose to only grow tomatoes and herbs. After a cool rainy spring, the deer found my tomatoes and topped them…grrrr…..The blossoms that they left eventually turned into really nice tomatoes ….I watched a giant “Mortgage Lifter” slowly ripen and when I went to pick it I discovered that the deer had eaten half of it on the previous evening! Did not know they like tomatoes… they also ate all my parsley, no matter where I tried to hide it they found it. Interestingly they left basil, sage, oregano, thyme, bay, marjoram, rosemary, regular and Chinese chives. Go figure. Now that they have discovered my veggies I will be figuring out how to deter them through this winter.
BTW, I grow all my plants from seed using your wonderful plastic water container method. Best ever!
Anna says
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for sharing your garden update.
We added a cattle fence arch this year after seeing yours. I planted 2 plants on each side and they got off to a good start until…… the temps hit a historic high for our area of 107! It was down hill from there. All in all we have 3 butternut squash. Tomatoes did fairly well as did the cucs. Zucchini grew poorly as did the peppers and green beans. 3 weeks of horrific air quality from fires through out our western states and historic drought added to the veggies being stressed. Climate change is real.
Mary in Iowa says
Yes indeed, weird weather, including drought and a couple of loud hail storms machine gunning leaves into Swiss cheese-like holes. Garlic, lettuces, Butternut squash and zucchini did well, onions and potatoes okay, nothing to brag about. Seven varieties of dry beans from 4 continents and 2 Native American tribes are now lining my counter top in jars sporting a rainbow of colors. Scantiest raspberry crop I’ve ever had. Peppers and large tomatoes are still trying to get their acts together to ripen.
The real fun this year has been SEX IN THE GARDEN!!!
I do hope nobody clutched their pearls at the “S” word. Let me spin you a “Once upon a time” tale of romance between a regal prince of royal tomato land and a simple commoner of unparalleled sweetness, an orange cherry tomato who, at her birth, was named Sungold for her glorious hue.
Once upon a time, in the notoriously perilous year of 2020, Principe Borghese, a handsome, robustly red, oval Italian drying/sauce tomato was snuggled up closely to little Sungold in the tomato bed. As where so many garden bedroom sagas often lead, the prince, with the able assistance of the bees, contributed his pollen to the dainty little miss who had ended up in his bed.
Chapter Two
This year, several unknown and unplanned for guests arrived on the scene, the fruits of which appear to be the love children of last summer’s romantic liaison. These offspring have produced a prodigious amount of tomatoes exhibiting Sungold’s lovely orange shades, coupled with Principe Borghese’s oval shape culminating in his telltale sharp point. They’re larger than sweet little Sungold, but smaller than the regal prince.
Quarts and quarts and quarts of these delectable morsels have made their way onto pizzas, into salads, incorporated into sauces and juices, and popped directly into the head gardener’s mouth as she plucks them warm from their stems in the sunny summer garden.
Meanwhile, across the way, the pepper patch features a sequel to Bizet’s famous opera. Carmen, a red bullhorn pepper, at last is reunited with her bullfighter lover, Escamillo, a yellow bullhorn. And they all lived happily ever after. Except for a beefy sauce tomato–and the plot thickens along with the sauce–Signore San Marzano, who’s seething with jealousy over the Prince’s dalliance with Sungold. Music cue: the ominous opening strains of Bach’s Toccata. Gardens: always a scene of high drama.
JoanMeldrum says
Hi,
We are part of a community garden in Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia. Everything did well except for our tomatoes which were the Rutger variety. Last year they ripened quite well. What happened this year is that the tomatoes were very big, but very few ripened on the vine. We picked them as there was a risk of frost ( we are in the valley between the Rocky Mountains and the Purcells). We had a very hot summer with a heat dome for about 2 weeks. Also very smoky for several weeks. I am wondering if the smoke affected the ripening. Any ideas?
Joan from Canada says
Hi,
We are part of a community garden in Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia. Everything did well except for our tomatoes which were the Rutger variety. Last year they ripened quite well. What happened this year is that the tomatoes were very big, but very few ripened on the vine. We picked them as there was a risk of frost ( we are in the valley between the Rocky Mountains and the Purcells). We had a very hot summer with a heat dome for about 2 weeks. Also very smoky for several weeks. I am wondering if the smoke affected the ripening. Any ideas?
Nancy in New York says
Overall, I would say this was a very good year for vegetables here in southern New York, zone 7A. We have narrowed down our varieties to just things we really like to eat and not just to grow so many different types of veggies. Tomatoes: very prolific but not very many large ones; cukes – all tiny deformed but tasty. Okra – average. Sweet peppers – best year in a long time, red, orange and yellow. Summer squash – not a lot of production. Only a few of zucchini on several plants when in the past we had a tremendous amount. I believe location – not enough sun. Better production with yellow squashes which had a bit more sun. Three poles of green beans. First one produced a tremendous amount of foliage and only recently started flowering and producing beans, quite a few all at once. Two other locations for pole beans produced a steady decent amount of beans . Got only a few spaghetti squash from quite a few plants, better production on butternuts but they didn’t get as large as they have in the past. A few delicatas but much smaller than usual. Had a decent crop of kohlrabi. We usually have great broccoli. Very skimpy this year. Better luck with cabbage. Nice crop of eggplant, still a few left to harvest. Also still harvesting beans, tomatoes and peppers. Some kind of brassica re-seeded from last year, which we are guessing is a green kale. We thought it was cabbage but never headed up. So we are preparing it for the freezer as we do kale. Planted trombone squash which we usually have quite a few of but planted too late this year so none so far although flowers but probably too late to mature. Our garden is usually tended by two people but this year only one person could work in it. The up side of that is that we did more succession planting – out of necessity – couldn’t get all the tomato plants in early so some waited for another month and now while the earliest ones are petering out, the later ones are coming into their own. Oh, and had good lettuce early on and have now just put in seedlings for the fall. Always have good arugula coming up everywhere even in flower beds, same with dill and often with parsley. Perennial herbs that we like reliable as ever. Observation: hardly any squirrels and chipmunks this year when usually we are in a constant battle with them; much fewer rabbits also. Maybe due to more hawks around – at least have spotted more than usual.
Ana says
I have been gardening a long time and this was the weirdest year I have experienced. Some of it can be explained by a drought followed by torrential rains , repeated twice. Other things are a bit of a mystery. I sowed celery in early may. It germinated in late August. My zucchini produced 3 fruits. I can’t explain this. Fortunately other things went well. Every year is different.
Your potatoes are beautiful.
Cynde says
I garden on the South Shore of Massachusetts. Our summer was one of extreme weather–too much rain and too many days above 90 degrees. My pickling cukes Max Pack produced enough cukes for me to make 8 dozen pints of bread and butter pickles. Vines are now dead. I started red Pepper “Carmen” plants from seed and they produced an abundance of long red delicious peppers. Some will be eaten fresh, some are already made into 5 dozen jars of red pepper jam and the rest will be pickled for winter enjoyment.
My favorite flowers are dahlias and they grew 6 to 8 feet tall (tallest ever!) this year with an abundance of beautiful large flowers. I plant them in my vegetable garden that has an 8 foot fence around it to keep the deer out. Delicata and Spaghetti squash was a bust when we have had good crops other years.
We tried your squash arbor idea this year and Butternut climbed and produced well but did so well that the arbor collapsed. We’ll support in the middle better next year. Tomatoes did very poorly when other years have had bumper crops. No blueberries on our bushes but the raspberries this Fall have been good. Brussel sprouts are forming on their stems. Hopefully they will mature before a hard frost comes.
Elaine Renaud says
got 2 cherry tomatoes – but they did taste good
Linda k says
Hi Kevin
Here in the twin cities my garden did ok. My pole beans did ok. The bush beans did better. My cucumbers were done mid july. Most of the rest of my garden is still producing some. I watered mostly by hand with water from rrainbarrels. Flowers were not a high priority. . But as with Minnesota sports there is always next year
Charlotte DiPaola says
I too live in Columbia County. My tomatoes, eggplant and green beans grew gangbusters. The July rain killed my zucchini so I tried to start again with seeds under row covers and it was a disaster. I just pulled them up today. I also tried buttercup squash on trellis. Got lots of vines and the few squash I picked were inedible. So I start my garden clean up this week and dream about next year.
Celeste says
First year I have EVER gotten bitter cucumbers! 🙁
Have read that it can be uneven watering or extreme heat. Mine had both.
Love seeing your winter squash growing on fencing. I’ll try that next year with acorn squash. I usually don’t like to grow squash because mine rambles where ever it darn well pleases and makes for a messy looking garden. I’ll try it next year on fencing or trellis.
Slugs loved my beans and peas so I didn’t get any.
Tomatoes and zucchini are flying out the door to neighbors, mailman, and food bank.
Love your web site Kevin.
Carol says
Without a doubt, 2021 has been my worst gardening year in my memory! It started out being too cold, then too much rain, and ended with too much hot weather.
Sorry to say this, but I’m glad I’m not the only one♀️
Raine D. says
How doth my garden grow, Kevin? Terribly. I’d all but given up before even beginning this year, but in the end planted toms & some herbs. The deer came right up onto the deck where I’d put the pots to keep them safe & ate everything to the dirt except some basil & most of the rosemary. So I have no tomatoes & only tattered remnants of 2 herbs, but I do have an abundance of herb & tomato-flavoured venison walking around my front yard. I like venison. If I could think of a way to get it into the freezer without actually killing anything, I’d do so. Failing that, I’ve officially given up & next year am simply going to buy everything from the farmers’ market.
Mind you, for all my complaining, it’s possible the wretched deer saved me from the frustration of dealing with the alternating blistering heat & torrential downpours we had this year. As well, because I live in a valley surrounded by mountains with the sea on one side, our nights get very chilly regardless of how hot the day was, & few veg appreciate that huge a temperature swing. Locally, everyone seemed to be battling mildew & rot this summer & I don’t think anyone had much success without a greenhouse or at least some cover to fend off the heavy dew. It has been a trying summer on all fronts!
Diane C says
Tomatoes and green beans did well, small yield of cukes but really tasty, poor luck with summer squash and zucchini, only one butternut, no eggplant grew. Only half my glads flowered and none of my calla lillies flowered despite beautiful foliage for both. Any suggestions?? Last year both were spectacular. Gardening in western Maine.
Pat Hrubiak says
Hello Kevin, my garden is a jungle, but it’s long on fecundity! Some folks just never master order My asparagus was prolific–lots in the freezer as well as pak choy and green beans. It was a good year for nightshades in central Maryland and my eggplants and tomatoes, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Gold Medal and Hillbilly, supplied friends and yielded lots of tomato chutney; onions and leeks were good but not enough planted and pole beans, my favorites, will bear until hard frost. Melons (Charentais and Fordhood Gem) supplied me generously but needed cover from the midday sun. I don’t much eat potatoes but St. Patrick’s day rolls around every year so they must be planted. Still blooming are nasturtium, tobacco, basil, zinnia and borders of marigold and the pumpkins adorn family porches. Thanks for your fun blog! Show us Tiger.
Gretchen B says
I’m in NW Wyoming. Just now getting lots of cherry tomatoes. Some delicata squash, but fewer than I’d hoped for. This should have been the year to let the soil just rest. I was too busy enjoying the ability to get out a little more to really care about a garden! It’s awfully hard to resist just one tomato plant, but then you’re on a slippery slope!!
jackie serba says
I live in southwest WI and Every thing I planted did fantastic. green beans, radishes,green peppers, kayl,tomatoes, pumpkins, carrots and garlic. I love pop corn so tried that the year and it did great. I planted 8 seeds got 8 stalks and 14 ears of red popcorn. I can’t wait to try it. I also planted 2 plants of basil and it bushed out really big, all the neighbors use it. Most of my flowers are perennials except zinnias which I do from seed and they are still doing awe some. My dahlias are also doing great. I wish every year could be so successful, I totally enjoyed harvesting my goodies.
Olivia says
Catskills zone 5B…I share your pain.
Mid-summer extremes of heat/cold, dry/rain were the death knell for most of my tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and crookneck squash, and even the usually reliable cosmos flowers (which grew 4 feet tall from the early rains, then promptly toppled over when Henri passed through). What had been lushly growing basil plants turned black and spotty overnight. The beets never grew…I’ve harvested a grand total of one beet all summer. Harvested 2 baseball-sized cantaloupes, one of which was watery and pallid, and the other which molded in the fridge before I could eat it.
Bush beans, Swiss chard, peppers have done okay…except I could barely bring myself to harvest them because of the God-awful mosquitoes. Whatever I could grab/cut in the 2 minutes before the hordes descended, would be dinner that night. I think I may have 7 inch long beans still out there, untouched! Zinnias and sunflowers have been the saving grace of this year’s garden. What a year! We’ll get ’em next year though.
Beth Camero says
This was a bad year for some of my crops. The tomatoes said, with unmitigated disgust, that it was TOO DANGED HOT TOO EARLY. I got very few tomatoes out of 10 plants. None of them reached full size. The Japanese cukes were divine and prolific for about 6 weeks and then succumbed to bugs. The other cukes (straight 8 and one other I can’t recall) were Terrible. I watered the heck out of them and they were still bitter. The peppers did pretty well. All smaller than I was expecting but they tasted good. I had every variety known to (wo)man. The zucchini …. so sad. I had to actually buy zucchini this summer. Good Lord. That was a travesty. Next year if it seems like it’s going to be this hot (climate change is real) I will put up the shade cloths a lot earlier. I had a few potatoes and they were good, first time growing them. Next year I will plant a lot more of them.
Susan says
I gave up on mine mid June due to excessive heat and wildfire smoke. Have been hanging out at the local farmer’s market instead.
Judy says
I live in West Virginia. I grow green beans, tomatoes, corn , cukes, cabbage, brussel sprouts,zucchini, peppers ,beets and potatoes. The only thing that did not produce was the cukes. I had plenty to can and some for the neighbors. One of the better years for a garden. Fruit trees are also loaded this year.
Pat C says
We had a family of deer “commandeer” our garden. We have always shared with the local wildlife, but these beauties devastated everything. Most of our plants were ruined even before they produced anything. I thank God for the local and commercial farmers that provide us with their abundance. We need to re-think the whole way that we are gardening in this area.
Kathy says
Although overall our gardens did well, we did have a few issues. Very little rain in the late spring and early summer and the most humid summer I can remember. Leeks were a huge fail – and we’ve been growing them for several years – and the onions didn’t do very well either. Garlic, on the other hand, did great. Tomatoes did well although the heavy fall rains have resulted in a lot of cracking. Peppers have been great this year. We grew cayennes, hot portugals and giant marconis along with bells and jalapenos. Yield has been really good but I still have an awful lot of green bells that I hope to get to red! Greens bolted early but I replanted some in August and they are doing really well now.
Julie Culshaw says
Not a good year. FIrst tomatoes that I grew from seed got a frost and I replaced them with plants from the store. They were stunted and barely grew and produced few tomatoes. Even my lettuce was pathetic. I did get carrots, stunted ones too, as I think the soil is too heavy.
But I had great flowers, dahlias and snaps.
I live in central Ontario, everyone said it was a bad year.
Rosie S says
MN summer weather was NOT good, at least where we are at. Cherry toms were the only things that did well. Peppers, cukes, zukes, and big tomatoes all tanked, I think my soil was not quite right for the high heat and drought conditions. NEXT year!
Cindi McMurray says
Kevin, I thoroughly enjoy your blog, but this time, your readers brightened my morning with their gardening tales. So many dashed hopes and unexpected successes!
The way the climate is changing, I believe we’ll need to plant a bigger variety each year and hope something matches whatever the weather throws at us. For me, it’s hot, smoky and dry, and water shortages have me worried. Maybe, next year will be better?
Phyllis says
My My My: I am not the only one with veggie problems:
1. Japanese Beatles loved my green pole beans more than I did;
2. Insects loved my beautiful kale, but was able to harvest some for a meal or two;
3. Snow peas were prolific, planted lots of seeds;
4. Japanese Eggplant, harvested three;
1. Yellow beans were picked at the right time, as I enjoy them small;
2. Cukes were prolific;
3. Sungold Tomatoes were the tastiest as always, planted too many plants;
4. Cherokee Purpose Tomatoes were delicious, only planted two plants and it was not enough;
5. Delicata Squash was planted vertically and not prolific;
6. One zucchini harvested (no idea what happened);
7. Bell Peppers did well;
8. Carrots did not do well;
9. Turnips did not do well;
10. Herb garden was good as usual, except for the thyme (died before I could dry any for the winter.
All in all, I need to change my 2022 plantings. Add more different plants and less of tomatoes, beans, squash and cukes — back to the planning board.
I enjoy reading everyone’s experiences. God bless us and Mother Nature!! Thank you.
Lori Scheuer says
Kevin, despite needing a little TLC your garden looked fine and you had a decent harvest.
We have a small raised bed garden and this was not the year for growing vegetables. We lost the cucumber plants and our tomato plants, the yield was very low. Not enough to do canning but I did freeze a gallon bag of whole tomatoes.
daniel gray says
Amazing post,I am heartily impressed by your blog and learn more from your article. Thank you so much for sharing with us.