Late Evening in the Garden

The kids were so difficult today, so I put them to bed early. It still took awhile, so I didn't have as much light left as I had hoped for to work in the garden. There was a beautiful sunset though, much prettier than this picture:


I need to spend more time in my garden. Most things aren't growing too well. I've had lots of strawberry plants die. My tomatos are way behind since I didn't fertilize them as seedlings, but they are growing. My carrots and lettuce didn't come up. I only have a handful of chard plants and they are not really growing well. That makes me sad because I LOVE chard. The broccoli was damaged by a hail storm. The cucumbers are struggling. The other stuff I can understand since I used old seed, but why are the cucumbers struggling? Grrrr.

So I hoed, I fertilized, I watered. What else can I do?

This was not an optimum year for a garden. A new baby, a move, breaking in a spot of ground that hadn't been gardened before, lots of trips out of town. I will be grateful for everything I do get out of the garden, and in the fall I will dump lots of leaves on, and next year things will be much better.