Garden Confessions and Questions

Remember that beautiful garden we planted in early May?
Click HERE for the post. This is what it looked like then.
It held such promise and hope for delicious summer salads. YUM!

Below is what it looks like now. Pretty depressing, I know. Not much has changed. 

It's been three months and we have had barely any harvest. :( 

I've been analyzing the situation, and I think we have four problems.

Problem #1: Tunneling animals. There are several spots throughout the garden with holes. 

Remember those chipmunks my kids like to lure with our fancy almonds? Pesky critters!

Problem #2: Not enough water. My water helpers lost their joy 

for watering and unfortunately, their careful technic quickly 

turned into a daily water park experience. I'd usually be alerted to

them getting off track when it sounded like our house was getting power

washed. They were typically wetter then the garden. 

Our pepper plants are just starting to take off, but it might be 

too late in the season for them to bear any peppers. 

Problem #3: Notice the pine needles in the photo above? 

Our garden is near a pine tree and it drops lot of needles. 

I suspect the pine needles are affecting the soil???

Problem #4: Not enough sun for my tomatoes. 

The GOOD NEWS is that the tomatoes are finally starting to grow.

The kids ate the five tiny grape tomatoes in the photo above and I 

hope they savored the taste. It may be the only tomatoes we eat from

our garden this summer. They reported the tomatoes were very sweet. 

 I must add that we have had great success with the herbs.
(cilantro, rosemary and basil)

I suppose I should wait until the end of the season to make my assessment, but 

I'm beginning to wonder if the fabulous garden bounty we had our first year

was just a fluke?? All you happy gardeners out there, I would love to 

learn from you. It's not in the budget to splurge on the Tower Garden, but I 

have to wonder if the expense of planting the garden is really paying off??

Do I try again next summer? Perhaps I should join a CSA instead? Hmmm...