What did I learn from my garden this year?

Darling, it is snowing already! Where have you been? Hi, I am m31, and I fell off the planet Earth for a bit! Or, in other words, I wanted to write this post for a while but did not find time nor energy while actively working on Inktober this year, and, well, 27 days after the completion of the challenge, I am finally ready to reflect on some things.

I am not a professional gardener, but I have been gardening pretty much my entire life. I have experienced great successes and failures of various natures throughout the years. Despite having quite a bit of experience, I am still learning and also fail a lot.

How do I feel about the year 2021? It was an okay year. I definitely wouldn’t call it a great success in terms of the harvest. Due to my surgery in May, I was unable to do most of the prep work and was pretty much a weakling for the first part of the growing season. That greatly affected the growth in the big field since everything was sown and planted with quite a bit of delay. You snooze, you lose! Getting your stuff in the ground at the right time is of the essence. That would be lesson one. Each plant has its optimal life cycle and the time they need to start, or they are likely not to realize their full potential.

Lesson number two - critters don’t give a fuck about your goals of growing chemical and pesticide-free veggies. They will love them so much that they will sneak into your garden, snapping the leaves off of your beetroots (which hinders their growth too), and there is nothing you can do about it unless you want to build a high fence which I had no time to do. Rudolph, you better stay away from me this Christmas! Yerk! And, of course, caterpillar invasion has no end ever!

This brings me to lesson number three. The cabbage covers as protection from caterpillars work. Sort of. I used frost covers which are prone to breaking apart, and after a while, there would be holes in my protection layer, and the white cabbage butterflies managed to get in and lay eggs. I was removing the covers when it was time for weeding and would check each plant for the eggs and caterpillars. I found a bunch each time, but not nearly as many if I had no covers. It was manageable. But I think it was also stressing the cabbages a lot. And you don’t want to stress out the cabbages! I think the covers also were stressing the cabbages out. If I ever use the cover system again, I will find a more durable material. And get the poles that are a lot higher so that the covers don’t touch the plants, stress them out, or even smother them.

That would be lesson four. Don’t smother your plants! Plants need a lot of room to grow. That is the reason why on the seed packages, they note the spacing between each plant. Plants compete for space to expand their leaf and root systems. My cabbages did not explode in size as I expected them to. They just remained tiny because they did not enjoy the touch of the covers. I did not remove the covers since the cabbage butterflies were active in the area until at least mid-September. When I took the covers off in hopes my cabbages would increase in size, it was already too late.

The final lesson I would like to mention is that sometimes you can give all the love and care to your plants and in the end, it doesn’t even matter, because an idiot with a tractor shows up! So it was late October, and it was still quite warm. While I was tackling my art challenges, I decided to postpone bringing my cabbage harvest home in hopes for them to grow a bit more. That is when the person who usually plows our field after the season, decided it was okay to plow the field without even asking us first. I was devastated. Countless hours of weeding, watering, de-caterpillaring, removing, and putting the covers back. Gone! Just like that. I understand that they did not look like much to the person with the tractor, but to me, that was blood, sweat, and tears. Yes, tears too! The garden this year helped my recovery, and it wasn’t an easy fucking year!

Anyhow, at least my raised garden boxes were a great success, the cucumber, bell pepper, onion, and tomato harvest was amazing too! And I harvested a lot of medicinal plants from the garden and nearby meadows as well which I dried and stored for later use.

I enjoyed every moment in my garden despite the difficulties, horse fly hordes, the heat, and asshole neighbors.

Now, let’s have a look at the last glimpses I captured in my garden and of my harvest too!

_{Some of them were pretty nice, little cabbage heads! RIP!}

_{It was not the bean season. None of the varieties grew much.}

_{The covers need to be a lot higher up so they would not touch the cabbages in any way. I think it should take care of smothering the plant issue.}

_{I missed the timing for the milk thistle. Maybe next year, I will harvest it in time. Calendulas enjoyed the company of the parsley. The dill and asparagus also seemed to get along just fine.}

_{Kale did not mind the more chilly nights for a long time and kept flourishing.}

_{Marigolds, hyssop flowers, calendulas, chamomile, peppermint, red clover}

_{I dry my medicinal plants and herbs either in bundles and hang them around the house or in the loose form and then store them in jars. I am so pleased with what I have gathered this year! I will be working with them hopefully soon as well.}

_{My poor cabbages. I tried so hard, but in the end - tractor :(}

_{Now, look at that! All those giant zucchinis are from a single plant! And so many pattypans squash too!}

_{The crown piece! The giant sunflower head!}

_{And here is my beetroot harvest, leeks, a tiny bit of beans, carrots, and turnips!}

Gardening is not easy. It is not for everyone as some people will even say it is not worth it! To me, the great harvest or a tiny one doesn’t matter. I enjoy the process! And I will garden even if I have only a single window to garden until I am grey!