My First Garden Bounty (Or Lack Thereof!)

As I had previously posted on My First Garden, http://sistersobrien.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-first-garden.html, we put in the first garden of our ten year marriage in July of this year.  It was late but I must admit that I expected more than this:

This is seriously the ONLY produce we received from the garden!  That is right six mediocre (mostly unedible) products...

What were the contributing factors to our agricultural flop?  First, we planted at the tail end of the growing season.  Second, we planted in mulch (being new to our house we didn't have time to properly prepare a garden this year).  Third, we didn't have room to plant very much of anything.  Fourth, we were inundated with stink bugs and grasshoppers who wreaked havoc on our meager crops.  Fifth, we tried creative means of getting rid of the insects which ended up killing our plants too!!  (As good members of the internet generation we googled it and used someone's tried and true recommendation of a very diluted dishsoap/water mxture sprayed over the insect-infested plants - I would not recommend doing that!)

Was our first garden worth the effort?  Certainly not in the agricultural bounty department!  But the experience of planting, watering, weeding and watching it with our kids was priceless.  The reward of experience and time as a family was bountiful indeed.

We will definitely plant a garden again next year for the fun experience for our kids but I have to admit that I hope we are able to harvest more than six items next time!!!