End of the Gardening Season Thoughts

Now that the gardening season is over and I think about how thing grew I have decided the following:
1. The warm weather crops just didn't have a chance of growing big.  The growing season was just too cold this year.
2.  This is the first year I watered everything by hand instead of using the automatic watering system. I don't think I gave anything enough water.
3. Growing tomatoes in pots was not successful, because of the extra calcium potted tomatoes need.  Next year I will put the tomatoes in the ground and something else in the pots. Maybe.
4.  Brussels Sprouts are not worth growing.  They never got big enough to harvest and the bugs were awful on them.
5.  The bugs were thick on the cabbage and broccoli too.  Next year I think I will cover my cabbage and broccoli with netting as soon as it is planted and keep it covered until harvest time.  They do not need to be pollinated to make the crops develop.  One less thing to worry about later.  Thanks Karen for this suggestion.
6.  The copper strips around the squash and pumpkin seems to really work.  I will test it again next year to make sure.

September Garden Pictures Finally Posted

This working for a living is really interfering with my blogging fun.  LOL.  Here are some pictures I have wanted to post for a while.

The beets I harvested the day this picture was taken.  Notice the heart shaped one and the one with two tops.

My poor Big Max Pumpkin will never be big enough to carve.

The garlic is growing very well.  I later covered it with netting because the quail were digging their holes to sit in around it and dug some up.  Last week I found most of the garlic tops eaten to about 1/2 inch above the soil.  What I thought were chipmunks, and have since found out are Antelope squirrels, are eating them.  Now the netting is raised off of the ground so they can't eat any more garlic.

The grapes are getting ready to pick.  Picked the grapes the third week of October.  We made 20 quarts of juice out of approximately 65 pounds of grapes (stems included in weight).

The cool weather gave me the best crop of onions I have ever had. I was so proud of my big onions until:

My mom's onion was placed next to my onions.  We both grew Walla Walla onions.

A close up of mom's onion.  Five inches across.

My bell peppers are on the plant.  Mom's bell peppers are sitting in the pot.  Gardening in the high desert region of Nevada is a lot of work.

 The refrigerator drawer full of potatoes from Mom's garden.

A close up of the biggest one.  All of  my potatoes were tiny and most of the plants died.