Record breaking weather (again)

So it hit 67 today - December 3rd! Can you even believe it? It has been way too long since I updated this - bad blogger I am. The gardens have all been cleared out and cleaned up and I planted my green manure in my garden and Tom and I covered the Victory Garden with newspapers and cardboard in the hopes of keeping down some of the obnoxious weeds that grew feet in seconds all summer long. Although it was 67 today we have had a few frosts overnight so I thought I would dig up some of the parsnips.

and as you can see I still suck at growing root crops. The seeds were put down in mid July and should have been ready by mid October clearly these are not edible. Hairy, forked and REALLY pliable. I guess there is always next year.
Oh and because of this unseasonably warm weather we have been having my giant hyacinths and daffodils are now sprouting. I am hoping that they come back again in the spring when they are supposed to! They are a good 2 inches up already. I don't think mulching will help at this point. I also found some more asparagus spears growing yesterday. Those suckers grew from Spring till now. Fingers crossed that I get such a big harvest next year too!

A Disappointing Harvest

So the weather this Spring and Summer left a lot to be desired. It was AWFUL! Rainy Spring and cool Summer doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room for the crops I was attempting to grow. Let's see...in a nutshell:
Corn: was eaten by city critters. I'm placing my bets on raccoons. Not that the ears were bigger than 4: anyway. With all the rain in we had it drowned out the seedlings.
Delicata Squash - 1 squash per plant does not a harvest make.
Spaghetti Squash - none bigger than the size of a small bowling ball. And here I thought they were supposed to be oblong!
Onions - lost some to I have no idea what and the ones I did harvest were small, small small. But useful for a single size serving w/o having to store it.
Carrots - lets just say root crops aren't my thing!
Potatoes - they got so darn big they fell over and died prematurely so the harvest was small as well.
Lettuce - the seeds were devoured by the birds
Asparagus Bean - not nearly as plentiful as last year. But maybe it was because the seeds were a year old.
Zucchini - usually I can't get my neighbors to take anymore from me because I have such a huge crop. This year maybe 3-4 per plant - and I planted 6 plants!
The success stories are few:
Kentucky Blue Wonder Pole Beans - 12 seeds must have produced at least 5-6 pounds, if not more of beans. My neighbors are officially sick of beans! And I still have new flowers coming every day.
Sweet 100 and Bonnie Grape Tomatoes: WOW!!! That's all I have to say about those.
2009 wasn't the best of years but there is always 2010!!!!!

Me and Root Crops Don't Mix

Yeah, I obviously have been doing something dreadfully wrong when it comes to root crops! I dug up my carrots a few weeks ago – they should have been done mid-June. There were only 2-3 that actually looked like carrots. The others were so forked it was ridiculous. They looked like something out of a bad science experiment. Now the radishes in the Victory Garden are all misshaped too! I dug and dug and dug some more to make sure the ground was good and ready to plant the radishes and carrots, but still nothing. I do believe my soil is just too darn heavy. Next year I am making a root crop section and adding tons o’ sand.
As far as the potatoes they are growing like wild fire and toppling over they are so big. I have hilled them about 1 -1 ½ feet and still they topple. I know have them caged like friggin’ tomatoes! Who would have thunk it?
My asparagus continues to grow. What is that all about? It is almost August and I have 6 new spears coming up and that is not including the 5-6 that have already gotten o be about 8-9” high along with the original spears that are now all going to the ‘ferny’ stage.
The weather continues to be a challenge. If it isn’t raining buckets it is so damn humid and sticky. All this moisture is killing my zucchinis. They are starting to get moldy. My beans are being attacked by God only knows what and my cucumbers are the saddest looking things I have seen in a while. I have only picked about 10 cherry tomatoes and ONE yellow pear tomato. That is so not right. The only thing that is growing well right now is the parsley, which I planted to make gremolata for the beans that are not growing. S –I-G-H.