Alas, that most feared occurrence by real farmers struck my wife’s little garden........ crop failure.
In 2025 all of the vegetable producing plants under performed at a high level. Tomatoes were small and did not properly ripen. Egg plant did not produce fruit. The yellow squash produced only three or so squash and then just died. The pole bean plants flourished but the flowers budded and then dropped off. Few beans were actually produced by large and healthy looking plants. The Okra has resisted the trend and is continuing to produce pods in an almost normal manner.
Strenuous efforts to resolve the issue early on were un productive. There was no lack of care, sunshine, water or fertilizer.
There was what seemed to be abnormal rainfall and night temps have been cool.
The other wild plants were similarly affected. The large old maple trees produced the winged seeds that are still on the branches, never released. On one such maple, half of the very small leaves are already gone but the clusters of winged pods remain on the naked branches.
The large old oak trees produced less flowers and so far almost no acorns.
The New York Iron Weed grows up high and produces a purple inflorescence. I allow it to grow wherever it wants. This year the plants never exceeded about 18” in height and did not flower. The Joe Pye Weed grew only about 18 “ high rather than 4’ or so but did flower. The wild orchid Virginia Ladies Slipper that grows in a patch of the yard flourished as well or better than normal. I don’t mow the area where is grows.
Others have reported disappointment with garden yields including the professionals we turned to for the vegetables the garden did not produce.
In retrospect, 2025 was a bad year for the garden.
For some reason, I keep thinking today is Friday.
Spent the afternoon outside planting the 4 Helleborus. The ground is horrible with lots of rocks, brick & slate bits in the top couple of inches, then solid red clay. It took me until 7:51 PM to get those plants in the ground. They’re in 1/3 top soil, 1/3 compost, & 1/3 dirt from the hole (minus rocks, slate, roots, etc.
So this leaves (out of the original 15 things-to-plant) seven: 5 Rose of Sharon, 1 lilac & 1 rose bush. I might get done by Thanksgiving.
I came up with this idea for a camper decal and pitched it to my buddy Terry earlier in the summer. He owns a souvenir trailer that he takes to the tracks around here most weekends. He liked the decal idea and had some made up.
Howard hasn't been sufficiently domesticated for travel yet so he stayed home while everyone else went to the races. He wasn't very happy about being left behind but Booger enjoyed a few days without being drug around by the scruff.
I picked peppers and tomatoes before we left. Didn't make it out to the garden after we got home but there will certainly be more peppers and toms to pick after work today. I'd have gotten it done yesterday but another round of thunderstorms rolled through just about the time I got finished cleaning out the camper. So we went inside and relaxed instead of doing outdoor chores.
And speaking of the peppers... I took a dozen jalapenos and two dozen lunchbox peppers to the track to make poppers, AKA Atomic Buffalo Turds. The ones made from lunchbox peppers were super nice. The ones made from jalapenos were pure hellfire and brimstone - they tasted great going down but the burn after swallowing was darn near unbearable. The women folk wouldn't even try them after seeing their big strong men drooling and crying like little babies. It was pathetic. lol I was a little worried that I'd come home to raised beds with a bunch of dead baby plants, but got lucky with the mild temps. I've got a decent stand of kale/collards one one bed and semi-decent stand of rutabaga/turnips in the other. Need to get spinach seed in the ground in the next couple days.