I’d be dead at the Little House on the Prairie.
A reflection on failure.
I had big plans for my kitchen garden. I even made an extensive spreadsheet and shared it on my blog. Don’t try to find it. After everything I’ve already learned this season, it needs hella revisions.
Here’s how it’s going:
My tomatoes are one inch tall and have been since April. This has never happened to me. I never have issues with tomatoes. This was supposed to be my sure bet, my reliable companion, my fall-back school if all the other veg failed.
My peppers are the same. But I'm less disappointed because I’ve never grown this from seed before.
Eggplants: same as the peppers.
The pak choi are all but bolted. Was I supposed to eat those when they’re smaller?
The cabbage keeps getting infested with this, that, or the other. Daily inspections are helping.
Ground cherries are half an inch tall with four small leaves at most.
I suppose it’s not all bad…
I have a flush of cilantro, but that will probably bolt in the heat wave. That’s fine. I’ll let them go to seed and harvest coriander.
I have two whole zucchinis that are almost ready to pull.
And the carrots are almost ready for plucking.
Green beans are climbing like Alex Honnold and starting to flower.
I have three happy volunteer tomatoes that will probably supply my entire crop for the season.
But really… the lettuce has been my most loyal companion in the edible garden.
If I let my brain acknowledge the good (these lists helped), I suppose I can say it’s a fairly even split between the shitskies and the not-shitskies. But the jury's still out on everything.
So what went wrong?
My problem (lol, which one) is that there are too many variables to figure out what could have gone wrong, especially with the damn tomatoes:
I got a new greenhouse. Is it total crap?
I had to buy different pots. I ran out of the old ones…maybe the tomatoes have a preference?
I sowed varieties I’d never tried before. But c’mon, you’ve sown one, you’ve sown them all, right? RIGHT?
What stayed the same, at least, was the type of soil and sowing times.
Why not throw in another wrench: this spring was a constant temperature fluctuation. It’s possible I started the seeds too early for such a spring - but how could I have known? Maybe the heat-loving veg were too nervous to put on growth and then just decided that 1” tall was good enough for them.
I’m seriously about to start craving winter if this shit doesn’t turn around. Fingers are crossed hard that the heat loving tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants start shaping up with this week’s heat wave.
As I stare at my pitiful bounty, I thank my lucky stars that I wasn’t relying on these crops for my survival. I would have been voted off the Little House on the Prairie. I would have died on Mars. I would not survive the apocalypse.
I suppose there’s still time. It’s July 1. It’s possible that I could get three more months of growing. I say this as I anxiously pick my fingernails.
Stay tuned! (un)Happy planting!