We had our first hard freeze last night, so our first season of growing vegetables is over. We would be starving if we had to depend on the results.

I planted seeds in our raised beds May 31, and the results are not at all what I expected. For example, the pumpkin plants (Early Sweet Sugar Pie) vined all over the place and produced plenty of blossoms but only one pumpkin. Here's part of one of the vines Sept. 25:



 
I found this Oct. 2.

It's still just as green. I see tonight from the seed packet I should have picked it when the rind was hard but before the first heavy frost. Darn!























Here's the whole pathetic garden Oct. 7, more than 4 months after I planted the seeds:



Can you believe those are sunflowers?

Yes, you do only get one carrot per seed, so it looks as if we have eight carrots—wow! That's supposed to be lettuce in the near right corner. We had five tiny ears of corn and a handful of green beans (below). The peas died at a few inches high. The plants that look like weeds in the photo below are petunia plants, which are supposed to keep pests away(?).




I put in broccoli plants from the nursery, but I must have done something wrong:




The cantaloupe (Sweet 'n Early Hybrid—Burpee's "earliest and longest bearing melon") got to the size of an apricot) and stopped growing:




There are a few green Roma tomatoes, but not enough to make sauce or anything with. We had a few Early Girls throughout the summer.

About the only real success was the potato patch (you can see why I call this Rabbitbrush Ranch):



It's definitely disappointing, but I'll try again next year. With the raised beds and drip watering all in place now, I should be able to get an earlier start. I intended to plant "fall crops" but didn't realize until recently that you're supposed to plant those in from mid July to mid August! I still have lots to learn.