Worst. Gardeners. Ever.

 Tom and I had big plans for our garden this year. Much like last year, we grew yellow beans, green beans, spinach, peas, carrots, rainbow carrots, green onions, lettuce, zucchini, beets and tomatoes.

Our spinach and yellow beans were decimated by slugs. Our zucchini plants have been overcome by mold. I've finally realized that I likely played a huge role in both the inundation of slugs and the mold. And it's all because I kept watering the garden at night. Getting out to work every morning is challenging enough, while herding a 2 and 4 year old. Getting out to work every morning while herding two kids and trying to water the garden seems impossible. So, I had been watering the garden every night after the girls went to bed. Oh yes, this was a mistake. The garden was moist all night long, so the slugs could have their feeding frenzy, and water would sit on the zucchini leaves all night, creating the perfect environment for mold growth.

Needless to say, our slug beer traps were very, VERY full this year. Gross.

Despite these setbacks, our first harvest of beans and cucumber was quite impressive! 

I got to pickling them immediately!

While harvesting the cucumbers, I came across quite a surprise... Mainly, this giant bright orange freak cucumber that was nearly the size of a mango. My first thought was, "WHAT IS THAT!?" Some quick googling told me that this was an overripe cucumber. Even now, I'm not sure how it grew so big, and how we missed it. It's at least five times larger than any of the other cucumbers on the vine... And the colour makes it hard to miss.

Another recent discovery has led me to believe that it is possible we are the worst gardeners, ever. While clipping off some of the moldy zucchini leaves, I discovered a MASSIVE zucchini that had been growing, unbeknownst to us. You can really get a good appreciation for how big it is when Scarlett is holding it!

So, gardening lessons were learned in 2020. There will be no more night time watering in 2021. I'm looking forward to tasting our tomatoes, when they (eventually) ripen. And I'm looking forward to the multi-coloured jars of pickled rainbow carrots that will be in our fall future.