I always start the gardening season with such hope.  This year, so many things interfered with my gardening motivation. I overextended on both the work and volunteer fronts. At the same time, I didn’t want to miss any of Hannah’s senior activities. Throw in multiple college visit trips and graduation, gardening has been the last thing on the “to do” list.

My “yard” has turned into a meadow – the weeds and wildflowers the only thing growing in this very dry season.

Last fall I planted 180+ cloves of garlic. I mulched and did everything I should have done. This summer I only had the chance to trim the scapes off some of the plants. I’ve always been told that cutting the flowers will result in larger bulbs. Given this year’s garlic harvest, I tend to agree. I harvested at least 180 bulbs, but I those I cut the scapes from were huge – the others not so much.

I managed to only clean up three of the four greenhouse beds for use this year. The one I didn’t get to it totally overrun by tall grass and weeds. Today I invited The Girls in and let them scratch and peck to their heart’s delight.

I did plant tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, green beans, and peas. However, I watered only once all season and didn’t mulch or weed at all. Bless those little cherry tomatoes – they didn’t seem to care that I left them to tend to themselves.

My flower garden finally got some attention last month. I pulled all the weeds close around my lilac, lavender, and peonies and then took a torch to the rest of the weeds and let them burn. Hannah held the hose at the ready while I used the torch. A blank slate, I planted my milkweed, more “hand me down flowers” from mom, and mulched.

My real worry in this disaster of a veggie garden is how to recover for next year. There’s always hope when thinking about next year, right? Every spot that I didn’t have garlic mulched with straw was covered in weeds. I mowed the entire garden plot and then crawled around yanking weeds out by their roots. Once that was done, I topped the entire garden with black plastic and prayed for some warm, sunny days. My goal is to uncover part of the plot in November to plant garlic and leave the rest of the plastic there until next spring.

Once that was done, I topped the entire garden with black plastic and prayed for some warm, sunny days. My goal is to uncover part of the plot in November to plant garlic and leave the rest of the plastic there until next spring.

You reap what you sow and this year, it’s a garden of neglect.

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