We ended up not eating these 2 eggplants, the first of about 5 that we harvested, because they went past their prime while we were on vacation. The plant was fairly hardy, and I think if we pay closer attention next year, we can expect a better eggplant production.
We tried planting potatoes in "potato bags" that I bought from Gardeners.com. The theory behind these bags is to fill them halfway with dirt and seed potatoes, then fill in dirt as the plants grow upwards. We ended up with pretty small taters and VERY leggy plants. We're going to go ahead and stick these guys in the ground next time.
One happy success this year was our peppers. We planted green, red, and yellows, and they didn't really take off until the end of September. Every time we harvest some of these little guys, the next group gets bigger. I've been chopping them up and freezing them to throw onto pizzas and into sautes.
Ah, the zucchinis. Has anyone ever NOT had success with zucchinis? We ate these guys in several different forms--pastas, breads, baked, soups--pretty consistently for 3 weeks or so in August. They went from tiny baby squashies to mammouth monsters seemingly overnight (documented by our lovely neighbor, One Acre Homestead here). Then, due to negligence on our part to nip them in the bud, we waged an epic war with squash bugs.
The cantaloupe vines we planted from seed had great potential and pretty much took over an entire bed by themselves. We might try trellising them next year. Something was wrong with the timing of these, though, because although the vines set out several good-sized fruits, we only managed to harvest 2 of them at the right time. The rest quickly rotted on the vine, even though they didn't look fully ripe yet.
The carrots were pretty disappointing all around. Most were woody and/or too small to do anything other than be thrown into the compost pile. A wise neighbor suggested that she planted her carrots according to the lunar cycle and had success, so we will be doing this next year.
I like to call these pole beans "tease beans." In late June we harvested a small handful of what seemed to be a promising crop. For the next 4 months, however.....nothing. These plants were setting several blooms, but no beans. Something about the coolers temps in September got the plants moving again, and now there are big beans all over the place. We decided not to harvest these, though, and will instead till them back into the soil as green manure. Bush beans next year.
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