Lessons Learned

It’s been a tough year for gardening. At my place, we battled drought, weeks of 100-degreeplus weather, and grasshoppers galore.

Looking back, I should have done some things differently.

I love planting new and interesting varieties of heirloom vegetables. But this year I wish I would have planted more “old reliables.” None of our heirloom tomatoes produced very well. The only tomatoes that really grew for us this year were “Early Girl.” We should have planted more of those. I also love planting pole beans. I enjoy watching them grow up trellises. They provide an interesting architectural element to the vegetable garden. But the varieties I grew this year did not survive the drought very well (with one exception). I wish I had planted some bush beans as a backup. Bush beans don’t require as much care. They tend to shade the ground better, which might have helped to conserve soil moisture during this dry summer. One variety of pole bean we planted seemed to survive the drought better than others. It was an heirloom black-eyed variety of lima bean from Alabama. A few of the plants are still producing. I didn’t plant enough of them for a huge harvest, but I’m saving the seeds for next year. From what I understand, all varieties of lima beans tolerate drought better than other beans. We planted several heirloom varieties of okra this year, and none of them produced well for us. Again, I think we should have planted some of the “old reliable” varieties like “Clemson spineless” or “emerald green velvet.” Grasshoppers were particularly destructive to our pepper plants and eggplants early in the growing season. The grasshopper damage stunted these plants. My peppers and eggplants are now several months past maturity and they’re finally starting to produce fruits. We’re thinking about digging up some of the best plants and potting them in molasses tubs that we can protect during the winter.

I also failed to follow my own advice regarding squash this summer. Some readers might recall my recommendation last

The Fayette County Record year to plant a variety of squash called “Tatume.” This baseballshaped squash, native to Mexico, grows from a solid vine, unlike other squash varieties, which grow from a hollow vine. The biggest pest to squash in our area is the squash vine borer (SVB) insect. These bugs burrow into the hollow vines of most squash varieties. They eat the vines from the inside, eventually killing the plants. They’re resistant to pesticides because pesticides don’t penetrate the surface of the vines. Tatume squash is resistant to SVBs because the bugs cannot burrow into the solid vines.

But I didn’t plant any Tatume this year! I even had some seeds, I just decided to use the space for other squash varieties, and they were all decimated by SVBs.

On the other hand, I’m surprised at how well a few plants survived this difficult summer.

This year we grew several specimens of Cuban oregano. This semi-succulent herb in the mint family loved the heat.As the name implies, the herb provides a strong oregano flavor for dishes like tomato sauce. We planted three or four true oreganos in the herb garden this spring, and none of them survived. However, our Cuban oregano seemed to love the drought. It was my only source of oregano flavor in the garden this year.

Let’s hope the winter garden does better.