So, to wrap things up, it’s now October 7th and the garden has been mostly dismantled. I am still awaiting the sunflowers seeds to develop and bees are still visiting the dying marigolds.

It was a horrible weather year for my first garden. It rained just about everyday in the month of May. In fact, I think I lost a green bean seed due to flooding and overflow in the container. June, July and August saw maybe (1) light rain event each with upper 90 deg f temps throughout most of July and August. It was as hot and dry a season as I can ever remember.

The marigolds did well. I observed no difference in insect populations with them around or away. They are technically still going, but are in their last stages of dying. As the bumblebees are still visiting, I’ve allowed them to remain in their pots. They were nice in that they did not require much effort.

The muncher cucumber plants were put to rest. Three plants delivered about thirty delicious cucumbers. The trellis worked well, though they did fight it a little bit. They also outgrew it. I should have probably built it a bit taller. I also had to extend it in several different directions on the fly as it popped up side vines. The fruits were delicious, though small. Somewhere around 5" long at 1-1/2" diameter were the average. It seemed that I had to really allow the fruits to over ripen and start turning yellow before I really got a good shot of the goop that Dale likes. I did self pollinate some of them which turned out to be pretty easy. I had several issues in July where I would spontaneously lose baby cucumbers en masse. I am not certain, but i’m thinking it was due to the heatwave. The cucumbers did NOT seem to appreciate full sun and would wilt in the heat of the day.

The pole style blue lake green beans, also put to rest, had the same issues with their trellis, though they WAY outgrew it. I also had too many plants in one container which led to conflict, infighting and entanglement, which sadly led to pruning shears during flowering. They got planted a week later than the cucumbers (May 17th) and took an additional month until they decided to flower. They had a very small yield, but they did make some nice green beans which Dale also loved. I lost a lot of baby green beans in July, presumably from the heatwave. I lost a lot of green beans in August to cabbage white caterpillars. I was really unprepared for how big these plants get.

The catnip did not do so well either, though I may have contributed to it by fertilizing them a few times before learning you shouldn’t do that. It went into a high plant growth pattern, which made for a lot of buds, but they were all really weak sauce.

The sunflowers were pretty much a disaster. I had (2) pots with a plant each that did not survive the catastrophic flooding at the end of May. I replanted them mid June, much to the happiness of some asshole creature living in the area as it would show up every night to dig around under the mulch. They at least made it to a natural demise, so I am hoping to get some sunflower seeds. (6) other plants in other areas of the yard made it to flower only to get dramatically trampled by (presumably) the ‘self-appointed fire marshall’ from the movie ‘the gods must be crazy’. They were a complete loss without time to replant.

Overall, it was kinda frustrating, but worthwhile. Dale got his munch on, which always makes for a happy baby bird. I learned a lot about several things that before I knew really nothing about. It was slightly pricier than I planned due to buying the containers and soils and slightly more demanding of my time than I planned.

I may try again next year. Additionally, I purchased some stinging nettle seeds which I am going to plant in containers in the spring. Most will be utilized for plant fertilizer but I want to try making the drinkable tea with it as well to see if it helps my allergies any.

Thanks all. Live and help live.