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My Vegetable Garden in the Year 2020

 Copyright © September 12, 2020 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.
All Rights Reserved.

Introduction

I am 71 years old and I have been planting vegetables seeds since I was about 11 years old.

Some years I planted nothing, some years I planted a small garden, and some years I planted a large garden.

The purpose of this short article is to discuss what happened with my vegetable garden during the spring and summer of the year 2020.

Discussion

In mid-March of 2020 I began planting a few vegetable seeds in my vegetable garden in north Georgia. I continued planting a few seeds each week for about six weeks. The reasons I do this are as follows:
  1. If there is a late frost then only a few of my tender young vegetables will be lost.
  2. If there is not a late frost then I will be able to harvest a few vegetables sooner than if I had waited until I was sure the chance of a frost was past.
  3. Planting a few seeds each week usually results in a longer harvest period because the vegetables gradually mature over a period of several weeks. This provides fresh vegetables for the table for a longer period of time.
It is now mid-September and only a few tomato plants still have a few tomatoes on them that are still ripening. Everything else has been harvested and the ground has been leveled for next spring.

Overall this was one of the worst harvest years I have ever had. None of my vegetables yielded an above average harvest. Some vegetables yielded an average harvest, some a slightly below average harvest, some a poor harvest, and some yielded nothing as follows:
Peanuts
  1. Average harvest: peanuts (picture of harvest from one peanut plant on right).
  2. A little below average harvest: carrots, tomatoes.
  3. A poor harvest: potatoes, sweet potatoes, okra, cayenne peppers, cucumbers.
  4. A zero harvest: sweet corn, dent corn, onions, beets, turnips, radishes, watermelons, cantaloupes, pumpkins, squash, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, sweet bell peppers.
The reasons for the above poor results were due to the following factors:
  1. Temperature: We did not have a late frost. However, the weather remained cool for several weeks longer than usual. This resulted in a lower ground temperature and the seeds did not germinate well. When the weather eventually began to get warmer it happened suddenly in just two or three days and the ground temperature became a little too warm for good seed germination.
  2. Rain: We had a reasonable amount of rain early in the growing season. But then the rain just stopped and we didn't get any rain for about six weeks. However, it did rain occasionally a few miles away from us but not on our property. We watered our garden in the evenings so the vegetables could absorb the water during the night. However, the days were so hot that the sun leeched the moisture out of the vegetable plants during the day. Some people do not understand that when it rains during the day the clouds provide protection from the sun and the vegetables can absorb and retain the rainwater and this helps them to grow and mature. But without the appropriate cloud cover during the day the vegetables simply dehydrated. Our onions, radishes, beets, and turnips were just tiny little things that were about 1/8 inch thick. Our above ground vegetables produced lots of flowers and the flowers were pollinated by bees, but the tiny, miniature fruits fell off the vines because the vines could not support their growth due to the extreme heat every day. (Note: We planted a variety of pretty flowers beside each vegetable plot in order to attract the bees.)
  3. Insects: This year we did not have very many insects attacking our vegetables. For some reason the insects focused on the Brussels sprouts and the cabbage and we were able to control the insects by dusting these vegetables.
  4. Wildlife: At night the forest wildlife would enter our garden and nibble at anything that appealed to them. This is the primary reason we lost our Brussels sprouts and our cabbage. The wildlife also damaged some of our corn stalks. Between the wildlife and the scorching sun our corn did not have a chance this year.
In summary, we invested a lot of time, money, and hard work in a vegetable garden that yielded about $30 worth of vegetables.

I decided to share my gardening results on my website because I have mentioned several times on my website that growing your own vegetables does not always yield the results you expect for reasons that are beyond your control.

Conclusion

Having a reasonable supply of vegetable seeds in your refrigerator is still a very good strategy. Some years your seeds may yield an abundant crop of vegetables, some years an average harvest, and some years almost nothing.

The best overall strategy would be to also have some emergency food in your home that your family can eat if for some reason you cannot buy food from a store (or online) and if your gardening efforts are not successful.

I strongly recommend the following emergency foods:
  1. White Rice: in 5 or 10 pounds bags that you vacuum seal yourself to significantly extend its shelf life.
  2. Dry Pasta Noodles: spaghetti, elbow macaroni, fettuccine that you vacuum seal yourself to significantly extend its shelf life.
  3. Complete Meals in One Can: beef stew, chili with beans, roast beef hash, spaghetti with meatballs, mini ravioli, beef and noodles.
  4. Canned Meats: tuna, salmon, mackerel, shrimp, crab meat, roast beef, chicken, ground beef, ham, Spam, Vienna sausage.
  5. Canned Vegetables: corn, potatoes, mixed vegetables, sweet green peas, beans (pinto, kidney, black, great northern, navy, red).
  6. Canned Fruit: pears, peaches, fruit cocktail, mandarin oranges, fried apples (not apple pie filling), pineapple, apricots.
As I have mentioned in some of my other articles, the Walmart "Great Value" brand is a very good choice for many of the above items because of its quality, taste, and low price. Most of the "Great Value" brand vegetables are $0.50 per can, their beans are $0.58 per can, their fruit is $0.98 per can, their beef stew is $1.74 per can, their roast beef is $2.74 per can, and their canned pastas (spaghetti and meatballs, etc.) are $0.60 per can.

The only "Great Value" brand item that my family does not enjoy is the "Great Value" chili with beans ($0.92 per can). However, taste is a very individual experience and your family may enjoy the flavor of the "Great Value" brand chili with beans. And your family may not enjoy the flavor of some "Great Value" foods that our family does enjoy. The best thing to do is to buy one container of each "Great Value" product and serve it to your family and allow them to determine if they like it or not. Then you could purchase more of the "Great Value" foods that your family likes to eat and you could store that food in a safe location inside your home for a future emergency.

Respectfully,
Grandpappy.

Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com

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