I enlarged my garden this year from the five 4x10' and 4x10' beds to one about 30x80'. Too much at once. And it wasn't helped by my brother, who decided that he needed to rototill the neighbor's garden before mine. It wouldn't have been so bad if the tiller hadn't broken down, and then got a flat tire before he could get to my garden.

I've also been having trouble with the neighbor's Mastiff getting into my yard. Once here, she panics and knocks down the gate or the fence and lets the chickens in. They've scratched away much of the mulch without me knowing it. They did a real number on the young watermelon plants.

I'm still having trouble with my soil. I put the lime on too late to do much good. I had intended to bring in several loads of composted dairy manure, then lost the tranny in the pickup. So I was reduced to dragging home some horse manure in my decrepit old cart (wheels but no tires) from the end of the street. The street is longer than I thought.

One batch of potatoes is ready to harvest, the other is still green. The tomatoes and peppers are way behind, due to an unusually cool summer. Some cucumbers so far, but not overwhelming. A few zucchini -- unusual...

I planted some melons, but what is growing doesn't look like what I planted. Funny-looking for melons.

Beware harvesting your own seeds. LABEL THEM immediately. The English shelling pea bed somehow turned into sugar snap peas, 6' LONG and sprawling all over instead of 18" tall and tidy. The chickies didn't help that little situation, either.

Planted all the beds and realized too late that I had forgotten the leeks. The poor things are strugging in a 1x3' nursery bed, planted too close for comfort. Maybe I'll get one pot of potato/leek soup out of them, as they're only the size of green onions.

The butternut squash that did so great last year aren't doing so well this year. Again, the lack of warmth, maybe. Or the soil.

One good thing this year: no bugs. Fewer bugs of all kinds since I got the chickies. Some of the weeds they avoid like poison, but they do a good job on the bugs.

I had decided on doing a fall garden, then suddenly got a P/T job AND my regular job picked up, so maybe I can start something on my next days off.

More manure. Plant cover crops. Let the 4-hen demolition crew in after harvest to clean up. Start some fall greens and sweet peas.

"In case anybody was thinking it's easy, I've learned that it isn't."

That's the truth!

Sue