Well, here we are. Lots to talk about so lets just dive right in!!!
Well, isn’t that just about the most pathetic thing you’ve ever seen? Our japanese maple, which did pop back and was hanging on after the awful freezing temps we had last winter, has officially croaked. RIP. Not really sure what happened – it did leaf out – but only part of it, and then slowly more and more of it died. The melons around it were not planted – they were all volunteers. And they did okay – not great – just okay. More on the melons in a bit…
The blueberries are on the left and are fine except for some strange browning of leaves taking place on the left one. The raspberries are doing fantastic! See all the berries? And that’s after Noah and I grabbed a bowlful!
The strawberries were a pain the entire season. First the chipmunks. Then even through we heavily protected them they were still being eaten. Critters and bugs. They also didn’t produce very heavily. And now a few plants have died for strange unknown reasons…we’re at a loss with these!
The corn and melons were…well, let’s be honest. Pathetic. We already decided we’re not growing melons again, and the corn we’re going to try again but differently next time. Out of all those stalks, we only had one decent ear of corn. ONE!!! The beans did fantastic though! The melons don’t get any bigger than a baseball….not sure what the problem is there.
A bed that already holds our fall stuff. Peas, carrots, lettuce and spinach. All doing great!
It’s also ironic that our squash is doing FABULOUS!!! (we planted a late 2nd crop) and yet is also covered with this horrible white stuff (which I can only assume is a fungal disease of some sort). Anyone out there have a clue?
Isn’t that just horrible? UGH!!! I need to research it because there are some nice squash coming in on these babies!
And then there’s the tomatoes. Don’t see any? OH! Well, that’s because ours were so badly damaged from septoria we eventually tossed them all. We did get quite a few nice ones though, and have canned some tomato and pizza sauce, so all was not lost!
And finally, last but not least, the morning glory/bean teepee. The morning glories have all but choked out the beans, so next year I’ll be sure to plant only ONE thing on there. And since we want to get as much food out of our garden as possible, the beans will probably win out! 
So there you have it. We’d LOVE feedback/advice from any of you reading this! This was definitely our biggest garden year and we learned a lot but also have a lot to learn.
The white stuff is indeed a fungus: Powdery mildew! Squash leaves are SO susceptible to it and no matter what we do ours always end up with some kind of affliction at the end of the season. I always figure it is Mother Summer taking her squash with her! haha
How was watering this year? I know you had a LOT going on? I can’t remember if you are hand watering or managed a drip system with a timer or something like that? I think consistent watering is critical, as is really good compost to begin with. Some of your stuff was SFG I believe and that only rec’s 12″ of good soil which is really hard to maintain imo. Not much for the plants to eat. Did you keep up with consistent feedings? We do kelp, of all the things we have tried it seems to be what the plants respond to the best.
I think your garden looks GREAT for the first year! It’s a journey, that’s for dang sure!
I can’t wait to see what our golden raspberries do next year, I got them in too late this year to amount to much. I think we got a total of 10 berries from them and the 3 year old got all but one! haha!
I have minimal fall stuff in…..
We do kelp too. The depth of the beds definitely could contrib to small fruit. My corn failed miserably too though! I got a few ears of strawberry popcorn but NO sweet corn. I think that fungus is a function of two things – season’s over and needs more water. IME, anyway.
Echo Erin, great job — step on the journey!
I’m hoping both all my berries come on strong next year! I had grand plans of planting onions, carrots, peas, garlic, broccoli, in hopes of coming home to crops. No, I’m still cleaning out closets….
My corn failed too… and you know what else I was thinking is MULCH! I did a lot more mulching this year (I used rice straw, it’s cheap and looks really pretty!) and I could really tell the difference.