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Letting nature take its course on the garden

Embarrassing truth: Gardening just wasn’t a priority at Wayward House this summer.

This fact disappoints even little Scooby.

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

Although I began the season with great seedy intentions, weird weather and my tendency to overcommit led to a very poorly managed garden in 2012.

There was much death, underproduction and waste – of money, water, plants and time.

Fortunately, a few species persisted in spite of my neglect. There was that bumper crop of mutant squash.

And my uncaged, untied, laying-down-on-eachother, half-mowed-over tomato plants managed to produce a bounty that, while very modest, dwarfs our total tomato failure last year.

At least three varieties of cage-free, homegrown red and yellow tomatoes.

The tomatoes are so sweet, delicious and few that we have been careful to savor every single one.

A few other plants in the garden still show promise.

Some of the healthiest things seem to be the ones I didn’t even plant. Lots of basil self-seeded from last year.

Volunteer lemon basil.

Volunteer Thai basil

A rosemary seedling we bought at the Waldo Farmers’ Market seems rather robust.

Fragrant, green rosemary.

The only eggplant that remains from my own starts is struggling to survive at the foot of our sad, dead pear tree. The bright purple blooms give me hope.

An optimistic eggplant blossom.

If the weather cooperates, we could get some sweet potatoes this fall. These vines were started from last year’s huge sweet potato harvest.

Sweet potatoes ready for a watering.

Although there are signs of life, this summer’s garden will not go down as a success. I allowed it to get truly wayward, in the bad sense of the word.

So, what’s the takeaway for next time? Simple:

Focus on fewer species and overall quantity of plants.
Plan out the design instead of planting willy nily.
Figure out how to make watering easier so that I don’t get lazy and skip it for too many days in a row.