The fruit rats also liked my eggplant. But we are blessed with a long hot summer so it looks like I have a second chance with them. Our citrus trees had a good bit of die back and had to be trimmed back a lot. Hopefully they will be encouraged into some new growth, same with the avocado (large green alligator pear that) . Our banana trees finally have a couple of hands , so we have those to look forward to in the next month or so.

August and September are the beginning of our planting season. So I'll have to try again for some greens, and some cooler weather crops like kale that can be picked a few leaves at a time and last through the winter.

Having studied and practiced wilderness survival for over 10 years, I've always felt pretty confident if things got bad, however since recently becoming a father and husband, a lot of those wilderness skills are difficult supporting someone besides yourself (my wife isn't too keen on living in a leaf hut with me out in the middle of nowhere with out baby daughter) Hence the need for other types of knowledge/skills (food storage, gardening etc.)

With that in mind, this year has been a first for me and gardening as well. It's so far been pretty successful thanks to having first read a book called, “Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times”. Check it out if you have a chance, the guy knows his stuff.

- Erich

Weeding has always been the reason my husband didn't want a garden again. But with this method, we will add two more boxes next year!

I MAY have some apples this year– they're almost ripe, and I don't see chewed ones in the tree (some of ones that fell have been). Pomegranates still unchewed and uncracked. Got lots of lemons– and more still are ripening; juice is in the freezer. Still have oranges to pick, but need a taller ladder or something. Guavas are still hard and green. Dragon fruit did not bloom this year, so no fruit; ditto for the pineapple plant. Hoping the lime tree doesn't lose its set (again); tangerine tree lost all its set at marble size.

Snow Peas– got too hot before they really got going, so got maybe 10 peas out of a dozen plants. Something ate the string beans– both the ones I direct seeded and the starts I got at the garden center. Tomatoes– rats got most of them; they chewed some of the eggplant fruit, too. For all my vegies: have had problems with water– even though I do water, the heat/dryness is such that the plants lose water (through their leaves) quicker than they can absorb it; lost about half my spaghetti squash because of this. A lot of my plants are in pots– and those dry out quickly, so have lost herbs and “starter plants”. Apricot tree– only had ~ 20 fruit– winters have been too warm, and the rats got most of the fruit that did develop; dwarf peach– started with a dozen, got one (and it was still pretty green). An unknown pepper plant (planted 2 years ago) has been going crazy– fruit look sort of like jalapenos, but they aren't hot (seeds are a bit spicy, though).

This year–our third year–the garden is doing much better. We had more tomatoes than ever (I also planted twice as many plants). We had a longer spring, so the tomatoes set longer (they don't set fruit above 90º, and we usually get 6 months of hotter than 90º weather).

We had over 100 artichokes this year. We had lots of lettuce, turnips, sugar snap peas, and spinach from our winter garden. This was our first year to harvest our asparagus. We harvested four quarts of blackberries.

Our fruit trees (33 of them) started producing this year; by next year they will be an even greater blessing to us. We are looking forward to harvesting pomegranates this fall, and I'm preparing to plant a fall garden soon. I am planning on planting a lot more in my fall garden this year, and I am going to plant earlier (I learned that January is too late for broccoli; I will be planting it in October this year).

We have 1/4 of an acre, and yet we are able to grow quite a bit in our garden.

You can see pictures of my garden and some of my harvest here: http://theprudenthomemaker.com/thekitchengarden...

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...

Now the bad part. some of my garden just didn't do well or went to waste. Lettuce just never got used. I had broccoli and califlower that went out of control. And my green peppers got smothered. My green beans had a few tiny harvest but nothing to write home about.

Over all it was a good learning experience and I know what I want to plant more of and less of next year.

http://www.myspace.com/smallwoodlisa

However, I confess I didn't even attempt a garden this year. With The Hubs deployed, and twin infant boys to take care of this summer, I knew I wouldn't be able to do it on my own. I'm hoping some friends will pass on a bit of their harvest.