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This was our first year growing a vegetable garden, and you might not be surprised that we were maybe a little overly ambitious. Also unsurprising, our results were very mixed. Here's how we did, in order from the most to least successful:

• Shallots: Now this is the ideal plant for me. Almost no work: all we had to do was stick them in the ground, water a couple of times a week, wait until the stems dried up and pull them out. We have enough shallots to last for months, and I have another set ready to plant for a winter crop.

• Swiss Chard: The plants grew big and healthy. We ate chard at least once a week until mid-summer. At first using no pesticide seemed like the right choice because we knew we weren't eating any toxins. Then the bugs took over. Now the chard plants are still there, but all the leaves are lacy with bug holes. This weekend I'm going to pull them out.

• Poblano Peppers: It took a while but these guys are going like gangbusters. Four plants are producing more than we can eat. We're going to have to make a sauce and freeze it or something. My only gripe is that the peppers are smaller than the ones in the store, and can be hard to peel.

• Beets: They did great in early summer, but when I replanted the seedlings didn't come up. I'm not sure if the heat killed them, or if they did come up but were immediately eaten by rodents, or if improper seed storage was the problem. I got a fresh packet of seeds so we can try again now.

• Tomatoes: We planted many varieties and results varied wildly. By far the best producer was the Super Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. It's still in overdrive, with lots of fruit and even new flowers! I don't know how long it will keep going; I guess the cold weather will shut it down. With the full sized tomatoes we had major problems with cracking. Over the winter we're going to try and figure out what caused that. But I think in general we'll move away from heirlooms and grow mostly hybrids.

• Zucchini: A massive producer until the squash bugs took over. (At the same time the plants developed some kind of fungus on the leaves, but the bugs were so bad that we'll never know if the fungus would have slowed them down.) Then we made matters worse by spraying the plants with insecticidal soap which must have been mixed improperly or something, because it burned up any leaf surface it touched. We pulled them out over a month ago. Next year we will research pesticides and be more vigilant about stopping the squash bugs before they get entrenched.

• Annual Herbs: The basil did well all year, and is still going strong. The parsley and cilantro took a big hit early in the year when the seedlings were all eaten by rodents. We bought plants to replace them, but the cilantro again got eaten up. We did end up with one parsley plant, which was plenty for our needs. The parsley is indestructable too: last month it was eaten down to little nubs by swallowtail caterpillars, but it bounced right back and looks healthy again. I just planted more cilantro & am crossing my fingers that it survives this time. The rodents and caterpillars ignored our epazote, which grew huge. Unfortunetely, we didn't use it much either.

• Tomatillos: We were totally unprepared for the size and sprawl of these guys. They took over the neighboring bed and encroached on the driveway. They also produced tons of fruit, but by the time it was ripe the bugs had completely taken over. I don't know if we ever got more than a handful of usable tomatillos.

• Yellow Squash: Total failure. Two plants which never produced any fruit and quickly became a squash bug farm. I don't even like yellow squash that much, so we're going to skip it next year.

• Pumpkins: We had a dozen seedlings that seemed to be doing well, but they all died while we were in Florida. I don't know if they didn't get watered while we were gone, or if they were victims of the killer insecticidal soap, or what. I have to admit this one breaks my heart. I was so excited about growing pumpkins. I'm friends with these two little girls, and I was going to scratch their names into two young pumpkins. So that when the pumpkins matured, their names would be embedded in the skin. What a bummer. At least it was a surprise, so I don't have to disappoint them.

Looking over the list, it's clear that our main problem was fighting pests. Not to put too fine a point on it, we were totally unprepared. Next year I'm going to research in advance, and be more open to non-organic products. After all, what good is an organic insecticide if it kills my plants faster than the bugs do?

Water was another problem. The bank along the driveway was ideal in terms of sunlight -- over 10 hours of full sun in high summer -- but with raised beds built up on a slope, it was hard to keep the plants adequately watered. I never realized there was such a thing as too much drainage. This fall we're going to build raised beds in the yard. It will be more level so water won't run off as fast. If we're feeling really ambitious we'll put in a drip irrigation system too.

Finally started gardening again today. We started with a trip to the farmer's market. The plant vendor area is only about half full, but my three favorites -- Messenbrink, Archer Lodge and Bramble Woods -- are still there. Their prices are a little higher than the big box stores, but it's so much nicer to buy plants that were grown here in NC, so you know they're suited to the climate. Not to mention having an expert to talk to about how the plants will handle the conditions in your yard. Last fall the guy at Bramble Woods warned me not to buy something that was a tender perennial unless I had a place for it indoors. How many Home Depot employees would do that?

It was especially nice that the guys at Bramble Woods and Archer Lodge remembered me, even though we hadn't been there in a couple of months. The guy at Archer Lodge gave me his email address and said they're working on putting their catalog online. When they do, I'll be able to email them and tell them what I want, and they'll have it waiting for me at the farmer's market the following Saturday. God bless the Internet!

So what did we buy? Well, we got some ground covers to go under the hydrangeas. Creeping jenny for the sunnier parts of that bed, and peacock moss (selaginella) for the shadier parts. The creeping jenny is a light lime green that turns chartreuse in sun, and the peacock moss is a darker blue-green. The guy at Archer Lodge suggested them. They look nice together and I think they'll look great with the hydrangea foliage.

We also started buying perennials for the bank along the driveway, which is now the vegetable garden. Two rain lilies, two coreopsis in dark pink and white/light pink (colors I hadn't seen before), a yarrow, a butterfly plant called "blue mist shrub," and a silvery foliage plant whose name I forget.

Also we admired the beautyberries, which are showing their berries now. Birds are supposed to love the berries in winter. Georg suggested we make a small round bed out in the sunny part of the yard, put a beautyberry in the middle, and smaller perennials around it. I think that's a wonderful idea. We can put other bird feeding plants around it, like dwarf echinacea. And we can use those extra bricks to make a ring around the bed so it's easy to mow around.

After we got home I went ahead and planted the ground covers in the hydrangea bed. Georg watered the vegetable and herb gardens -- did I mention that I planted brussels sprouts a few days ago? My seeds never came up, not one, so I bought seedlings from Home Depot. I hear that brussels sprouts actually taste better after frost, so I'm not worried about planting them so late. Anyway, the baby brussels sprouts are doing well so far.

Then I took a few hours off to wait out the heat. Once it had cooled off I did a little weeding around the bed under the oak tree, and around the blueberries. They are looking good! Two of the four are going like gangbusters; one is growing at a respectable rate; and the last one (the one which had gotten completely covered by weeds over the summer) is at least still alive and seems to be sending up new growth. I have more work to do out by the blueberries, but at least I took care of the weeds that were right near them.

After that I mowed the lawn. Which is always a big job because our mower isn't self-propelled. A rechargable electric mower is great: it's so much quieter, you don't have to fool around with gas fuel, no fumes, and less maintenance too. But there are downsides, mainly the motor is underpowered compared to gas, the battery runs down after about an hour, and it's not self-propelled. Still, it's well worth it.

Anyway, the point of that digression is that mowing is a bit of a chore with a push mower. Especially when you let it go for a few weeks and the grass gets really long, as we had done. I don't know if gas mowers do this too, but the electric mower has a bad habit of stalling when you push it through long, thick grass. My tips for preventing a stall are to go slowly, overlap already-cut grass so that only half the mower is passing over the long stuff, and if you hear it start to stall, stop (or even back up) to give the blades a chance to clear themselves.

By the time I finished mowing it was almost 8. At which point we realized that we weren't going to make it to the drive-in movie which started at 8:30. Oh well, we were sociable last night.

I am so ready for fall. Beyond ready. The weather is finally right for gardening, but alas I'm probably going to be working all weekend. (Except of course for the sniffing party this afternoon!).

If I can't do any yardwork this weekend, at least I can start preparing for fall planting season. This morning I ordered hydrangeas! We had to replace a couple which had died -- Leuchtfeuer was dug up by Thirteen, before we got her on the crazy pills, and Sensation didn't survive the summer, I think because the tiny little shrubling bloomed last fall right after we planted it. I let the blossom stay because it was just so beautiful. But I think that was a mistake. It never grew like this others this year, and it collapsed under the summer heat. I guess it didn't have the root structure of the others. Word to the wise: when they say not to allow a plant to bloom or fruit in the first year, they mean it! And we added this one just for fun.

I asked for a 10/1 delivery date, figuring by then it will be nice and cool, good weather for planting shrubs. I wish it was October already!