Most years that I have grown a garden they have been reasonably successful ones. Yes, I have battled with the cucumber beetle and a little tomato blight now and then, but for the most part I have had a nice little harvest at the end of the summer.
This summer though has been a very sad exception…..and I have to believe it is due to the huge volume of rain we have received.
I don't think that we have had a day without some sort of rain since mid-July. This along with the never ending humidity that we do not usually get this far north has made for a very damp garden.
In addition to the wet soggy soil, I have been battling these damn fornicating Japanese beetles who are eating up my bean leaves.
I have really resisted putting anything on my plants over the last few years, but there are just too many beetles out there to keep hand picking them off, so I will be picking up some Rotenone today in hopes of salvaging at least some of the beans.
The only positives in my garden this year have been my Roma Tomatoes, inspite of their blighty leaves, my basil and of all things, my super hot peppers.
It really is frustrating to spend all of the time getting a garden prepared and the money spent on plants to pretty much lose more than half of it. I know that I am not the only person up here in Northern NH who has taken such a hard hit on the garden. Garden Soup for sure!
Over the last few weeks, I have done a bit of researching on better ways to garden. Of course I can't control the weather, but I am hoping with some new methods such as Lasagna Gardening to increase the amount produce that I can reap from our garden.
Hopefully your gardens out there are faring better than mine this year 🙂
The Woolen Rabbit 
Everyone in the north east is complaining about the damage rain has had on their gardens. Good luck and I hope you can salvage some of your harvest and your hard work!
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Hi Kim,
Your stack of Books look interesting.
Id like to read that Victory Garden Book.
I love roma tomatoes.
Ours was a bit small this year.But im managing to can some.
How do you generally handle blight?
Oh ,my son had a good potatoe garden this season.Yukon Gold.
But his russets did not do as well.
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Hi Kim,
Your stack of Books look interesting.
Id like to read that Victory Garden Book.
I love roma tomatoes.
Ours was a bit small this year.But im managing to can some.
How do you generally handle blight?
Oh ,my son had a good potatoe garden this season.Yukon Gold.
But his russets did not do as well.
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Nope. Here in southern Connecticut it’s been pretty bad. Like you, I have GREAT hot peppers this year and planted enough beans that the beetles didn’t do too much damage. (And beans LOVE this much rain!) My cukes have been very good…prolific and sweet, again a result of the rain. However. We shall not talk about my poor tomatoes! I’ve never had problems like this year with some kind of disease, and fruit just dropping off before ripening, and…well, it’s sad! Next year we’ll be complaining of drought, for sure! I’m going to try some late season stuff, though, and hope for a nice fall.
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We have also had unforeseen amounts of rain this year. We did not plant a garden though, as we just got our own place in mid-July. Hopefully next year will fare better!
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Milky spore powder, only needs applying once in about every 3-5 years since you’re in New England and benefical nematodes sprayed in either the spring or fall-no chemical pesticides, no harm to good insects and the Japanese beetles will never get to the stage where they can fornicate on your beans again. 🙂
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Same thing happened to us last year–too much rain. This year we didn’t put in a garden, which is probably good because we’ve had almost no rain at all.
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My brother just told me about the Lasagna Gardening book. He was very excited about it. Our garden didn’t do well this year, either.
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Milky spore does work – but does take a few years to work. Delphinium are toxic to the JB’s. There are also traps you can get – but put them where the beetles don’t have to stop off on the veggies on the way to the trap. Between the traps and the milky spore I went from 11 gallons of bugs captured a day down to 2 qts every other day in 2 years.
My favorite is the original Victory Garden book – plus the others in the original series by James Underwood.
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I live in New Mexico – average rainfall?
8 inches a year. I miss the rain & East Coast living. Can send squash…pls advise : )
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nahhhh… my garden is pretty poor this year as well. We haven’t had any heat to grow any veggies nor summer annuals. It’s been overly cool here this year – and quite frankly I love it – BUT the garden is not quite so happy.
So sorry that yours has suffered such rains.
It’s a weird weather year all around I think.
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I love that you shared pictures of your garden. Sadly, our tomatoes and squash are showing signs of blight and mildew. I hate that since I worked so hard this summer to get more out of our garden. So live and learn! It’s been fun anyway. Next year will be better. Love Bee. The color is perfect!
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Hi Kim, I have used (and highly recommend) Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Garden!!! It was hard for this farm girl (me – LOL!) to convert from long rows at first, but I am a true convert now for many years. Start small if you like, maybe with just four 4×4 squares and see how you like it. I like nice pathways in between, too. Good luck! Oh and for us in the upper midwest, we are frightfully dry this year ;(
Cary at Serenity Farms
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