A strange vegetable gardening summer

As an experienced gardener, I became out of practice during the pandemic years. 

Was I going to be able to leave North Carolina to get to Quebec? No, as it turned out that first summer, but my NC garden wasn’t fully planted, with sub-par tomato varieties that pandemic summer. The second pandemic summer, we were able to return in early August, much too late to plant even cool-season greens, I thought at the time.  And indeed, my “main” vegetable gardening spot becomes quite shady by mid-September, so isn’t so conducive even to greens, although they’re doing fine now.

Arriving in mid-May, in 2022, it seemed much too cold to put in transplants or seed.  June remained chilly, too, so I sowed seeds of squash and beans and transplanted tomatoes and an eggplant given to us by friends.

It’s turned out to be way too late, of course, although developing tomatoes and eggplant are still out there. A very small harvest of beans has been welcome, along with excellent Swiss chard from

Bean harvest in early September 2019

transplants, along with beet greens and kale from late sowing.

My take-home message to myself: plant in early June, no matter how cold you think the soil and outdoor temperature is.  

It’s getting nippy now, and the upper bit of the trellised baby butternut squash was frosted last night.

A photo of a bean harvest in 2019 reminds me of how productive those vines were!