frustration

Remember all those seedlings from March? Well, they died.

So I started them all again.

And those died. Maybe there was something wrong with the potting mix?

So I was forced to rely on the kindness of friends (thanks, Lisa M!) and the surplus of the 4H garden club and the varieties available by retail. Sigh. No hand-selected heirloom tomato or pepper varieties. No unusual veggies like bok choy or purple cauliflower.

Fortunately, there were still lots of plants to be had, and my friends also like unusual varieties. So my garden has tomatoes like Isis Candy and White Queen and Black Trifele that I got from Sugarbush Nursery. And Amish Paste and Beefsteak and Early Girl that I got from 4H. And, of course, the annual Mystery tomato that Lisa always ends up with. They're growing well, and so far the squirrels have not started eating them. Of course, I haven't either, as they're still green.

It's kind of a drag to go from 50 pepper seedlings to 10 stunted last-picks. But at least there are some pepper plants growing in my garden. Still have to see if they actually bear. Last year's didn't, so I don't have high hopes.

We added some more raised beds this year -- two 4' x 8' beds full of mushroom soil, peat moss, and Rodale Institute compost. One has just tomatoes (and a few peppers), and the other has 3 pounds of potatoes -- fingerling, yukon gold, and purple beauty. These are the best two beds of the farm. I cannot believe how lush the growth is in these two beds. I'll try to get a photo soon. Hopefully the potato plants are not just leaves. I'm really hoping for some yummy potatoes next month.

The other plots -- the ones with the PVC-and-chicken-wire cages around them -- have all been infiltrated by varmints. I have replanted my beans so many times that I've given up -- and I can't for the life of me figure out how the (bunnies? chipmunks?) are getting in!! No beans this year. The carrots are fighting to survive -- the tops are mostly gone, but hopefully there will be some bottoms in the end. Argh. The only plants left in these beds are things like onions, garlic, and turnips. Try to make a meal out of those.

It's a real bummer to try to sit down and blog about gardening when everything feels like a failure. Maybe in some future year I'll have all this pest-control figured out, then I'll look back on this and... what? Laugh? Cry? All I know is I look back on my last month or two -- all the time spent working in that blasted garden -- and cry over all my wasted time feeding the stupid animals.