The Garden Blues

What a disappointment....I've really worked hard to make sure that I had this incredible fall garden,and now this.........a complete crop failure. My daughter Kennedy and I worked so tirelessly all summer long in our garden,and we had a very successful summer crop of tomatoes,peppers,basil,cucumbers, peppermint,eggplants,beans,okras,zucchini and even cantaloupes.So, this year we decided that we'll try to have a "real" fall garden this time around. You know,the fall garden brimming with a bounty of pumpkins,winter squash,cabbage,turnips,Swiss chard,carrots,and leeks.  Well, that's what we wanted to create. So, Kennedy and I mapped out our garden strategy. She designed how the garden will be set up and I did research on crops that we've never grown before (i.e. cabbage,leeks,pumpkins and leeks). My father even came over and tilled up the far end of our backyard. So much time and effort was put into this fall garden and so many cooking fantasies too. Oh how I imagined going out to the garden,as fall temps hit the Atlanta area and I don't have to go grocery shopping for a pumpkin....I'll just walk outside and viola!

Well, that fantasy is no more. All of my pumpkin plants are dead and my sole survivor winter squash plant (it even had tiny fruit on it)is dead too.I know what killed the pumpkins,it was a Mexican bean beetle infestation. These little boogers took out 5 pumpkin plants and then made their way to my very productive zucchini plants and eventually destroyed them. It really didn't hurt to lose the zucchini plants because I had them all summer and they produced like crazy....can you say saute zucchini,zucchini in spaghetti,raw zucchini,zucchini and blah blah blah....well, that's how well the zucchini did. I just wanted my pumpkins and winter squash to be able to produce too.  Like I mentioned before,I had plans for them and besides they would've been great staples to have in the kitchen.

Every gardener knows that we'll lose some vegetables from time to time,be it from the elements,bug infestations or soil issues.But this seems to cut like a knife for me. I guess it hurts so bad because the summer garden was such a success---Hey, I even grew cantaloupes this year and they were pretty good!!!

I just need to focus and remind myself that I'll lose somethings,and losing a few crops is better than losing all of them. 

Tell me about your loses in the garden and how did you feel about them? Did you stand in your yard and scream to the heavens......NOOOOOOOO! Or did you just not sweat it?

P.S. I really wanted to show some pics,but for some reason my pics wouldn't upload.

-Shelly