Gardening Confusion

This has been an odd year for gardeners in Northern Ohio! My first clue was when my onions failed to grow. I was growling at myself for being the first gardener in the history of the world to fail to grow onions when a patient who is a master gardener mentioned that her onions and garlic did not grow either. I felt better. The peas fried. For the second year in a row, the broccoli plants grew amazing but did not grow broccoli. My herbs – especially basil but with the exception of my cilantro – are doing absolutely wonderful!

Tomatoes. Where to start?! I grew everything from seeds – tomatoes included. The packet of tomato seeds I bought were for the big, juicy tomatoes you slice to put on burgers. My plants grew beautifully! I kept 10 of them thinking that would be enough for my parents and myself. I watched them flower and started watching for the fruit! My dad came over, and I took him over to see how well they were doing at which point we realized the tomatoes were growing in rows on the vine. They were cherry tomatoes. I have hundreds of cherry tomatoes. I cannot keep up picking them all! Yesterday, I was out mowing, glanced down into my garden, and came to a halt. There, growing on the same plant as cherry tomatoes, were three regular sized tomatoes!!! I have never heard of this happening. My parents have never heard of this happening and actually did not believe me until I said I had pictures. I called my grandma who, once she stopped laughing, said she had never heard of this and asked my grandpa. He said the only thing he could think of was cross-pollination.

My grandparents started a massive asparagus patch years and years ago. Over the years, sections of the patch have not survived leading it to be strips of asparagus here and there and really unorganized in an area that I want to plant wildflowers. I told my dad I wanted to dig up the plants and put them nearer my garden. He said good luck and that those plants are over 30 years old rooted there, so I am stuck with them being all over my yard. I do love to eat asparagus and have often wished the season for it to grow was not so short. This year, they kept growing! Their season should have ended back in May or early June. It certainly should have been done by July. However, yesterday, the first day of SEPTEMBER, 6 days after the last time I mowed, there were still asparagus stalks growing, the perfect size for eating!

In conclusion, I am not getting the harvest that I wanted, but the plants that did grow turned out very, very healthy and larger than I normally have grown them! I definitely like the hugelkultur style of gardening and will continue to grow this way for years to come!

Pictured are my regular tomatoes growing with my cherry tomatoes, and on the right is one of the asparagus stalks still growing in September!!