The continuing saga of the gardens can be summed up in three words: What a summer.
As we roll into the fall, here is what happened (still is, in fact) in this year's gardens:
The cauliflower? A total loss.
The cabbages? Two small white cabbages. When I say "small," I mean probably under a pound. In the two prior years, I was harvesting cabbages in the four to five pound range. The red cabbages developed some outer leaves but nothing beyond that.
The zucchini? Poor production. Not a lack of pollinators. Not a lack of blossoms. A seller at our local farmer's market (yes, I had to buy zucchini this year) said she'd had good luck, but many of her friends had seen similar results to mine: blossoms and pollinators, but no zukes. She said her friends had male blossoms but no female blossoms this year. I'm sorry: this season has been rigorous enough that I am not going out to sex my plants.
Peppers? Decent. Not stellar, but decent.
Tomatoes? A strong season, far surpassing last year. I only planted hybrids this year, and the issues (Bugs? Disease? Aliens from another galaxy?) that I had last year did not pop up one time.
Basil? Best. Year. Ever. And I have had good basil seasons most years.
Friday I had a close friend coming over to learn how to make pesto. To save time, I went out to the kitchen garden in the morning, while cool, to cut basil.
The basil season is coming to an end. If it rains as predicted, there might be one more growth spurt and one more harvest. So I cut with that in mind, meaning I did not cut down to the ground. Even this late in the season, there was plenty of basil.
Some of the basil is starting to flower. There had been flowers earlier this summer, and we cut them off to prolong the growing. This time, I let many of the flowers stand. I want the basil to flower; I want there to be bees in the basil.
My friend learned how I make pesto (without a recipe) and exclaimed at how simple it was. Afterwards, we sat at the kitchen table and talked of life and Life. She carried home two containers; I assured her we already have plenty of pesto in the freezer.
Perhaps there will be more basil. Maybe I will make one more batch of pesto. I don't know.
But I do know there will be bees in the basil.
