Well, this spring, we had a very late hard frost at the end of may, Thankfully I had kept all my really tenders in till the first week of june. Having said that, it cut the garden season short by 9 days from normal..
Not to big of a deal really, we have had flood springs that have set us back just as much but overall in the grand plan it was a bit odd, because on most of the “Heat/Drought” years we started our spring really early.. getting a spring crops and a very good fall garden season.
This is year was different, we had a late start to the spring garden season.. it was cold enough that we were a full four weeks behind on even the early cold plantings, its not that we didn’t plant, its the seeds just said NOPE in the main garden.. only in the compost heavy raised bed in the gate garden did even the early pea’s go strong.
Then suddenly in JUNE it went full summer with heat into the 40c and right pretty much into on again and off again drought! BANG.. the early cool crops either stuttered to a stop or just bolted at a few inches high.. so lets be honest.. 80 percent of the spring garden was a bust.. and it just kept on going that way.. it was so hot and dry that I could not plant in the hot dust for the normal fall garden cool crops.. Normally end of july/first week of Aug.. NOPE! Not when its high 40’s and not a drop of rain in over three weeks.
So I said to myself, its ok.. every other year we have bad hot drought, we have these long extended fall growing season, I will start things in the house and move them out when the fall rains come..
Problem.. no fall rains yet.. and HARD FROST on SEPT 9th.. We normally get hard frost in Med -Oct.. that cut the frost tenders down by a full five weeks of garden season! Thankfully the few root crops I have gotten to start are unaffected by this so far and I have hopes for at least some fall crops to come in later.. perhaps I will still get that long growing fall weather till mid-oct
However when it comes to the frost tenders, the season is done! The garden season for the tenders was a full SEVEN WEEKS shorter then normal for my farm.. that is a lot of growing season missing!
Boy am I glad that I bought pre-grown peppers an tomato’s this year, because it means that I have been harvesting tomato’s since end of july and I have been able to put up lots of both, which if I had grown them at my normal rates, I know that I would not be able to say that. Instead I would be moving in buckets of green tomato, hoping that I would be able to get them to turn color to use them.
I am not sure where I am going on my fall crops yet. its totally up in the air, what will the fall weather bring. So how has the weather this year effected your gardens and overall food production.
Just another Day on the Farm 
We woke up to -6 this morning….yesterday a light dusting of snow. 🙄 My garden year has been similar – late late spring, hot and dry with no rain. Lots of smoke and no sun. Our season is (in theory) 90 days long – but in all the years here we’ve had hard frosts every month regardless. Despite the slow start, most everything caught up – but the few things I covered to squeak out more time pretty much gave it up this morning.
And this year is why ….we store food.
Enough said.
I have been making my new years predictions now. It will be called, C5 says, 4 more beers.
I’ll let that filter in slowly.
C5 yes, this is why we store food and why when the garden does well you put up two years worth of this or that crop when you can.
I have been watching, reading and I say.. hold on to that beer.. cause this year weather/garden/storm etc is the baby sister to what I believe we will have next year..
DH an I will be spending now till hard snow flies working different projects.
I might need some mead to go with your beer 🙂
The things that started early turned up their toes because of the really, really, long time Spring took to get here. Those that survived then had to deal with an insanely hot, albeit brief, summer topped off with a generous helping of wildfire smoke. The final survivors gave forth a decent crop but I strongly suspect they’re going to turn in early and try again next year.
That totally makes sense, glad the ones that made it gave a decent crop but yes, I also think will turn in early.. Thankfully each year is a new year.