Gardening 101

I know very little about gardening so this summer has been a big learning experience for me. My Grandpa Berg always had a garden and when I was a little girl and we would go up to Superior, WI to visit I would walk through his garden with him but that was pretty much the extent of it.  My Grandma Colley had a small garden in her backyard in Chicago but all I remember from that is picking her rhubarb with her.  My mom always had flowers and a couple of years we had a small garden where we grew leaf lettuce and cucumbers.  So, as you can, I have a vast knowledge of nothing when it comes to gardening. 
George and Lisa have planted a fantastic garden and planted all sorts of different crops to see how they grew.  From my previous posts you know that zucchini did very well along with cucumbers and tomatoes.  Grapes did and are still doing well and the okra is mass producing now. The green beans are doing great and I believe there will be one or two more batches to be picked. 
Yesterday we had some ups and downs in the orchard.  Some kind of mite got the vines of the pumpkins, watermelon and cantaloupe so we are hoping that there will be some more but it does not look good.  That same mite got the cucumbers so we are done with those but thank goodness we had such a good crop that we were able to can so many dill and bread and butter pickles for the future.  The corn was taken out by raccoons and deer but at least we got a taste of it.  The peas never really did much and jury is still out on the potatoes.  The successes yesterday were we harvested beets, carrots, onions, green peppers and sweet potatoes.  The carrots still have some growing time but the ones we did pick were delicious.  The beets look great and hopefully we will be eating some tonight. Lisa cut up the onion and added it to the grilled asparagus last night.  The sweet potato I will have to let you know since I do not care for them. 
All in all, the garden has been a success and a huge learning experience for me knowing when to pick, how to pick, etc.  I look forward to being more hands on next year and help with the preparation of the beds, plantings, etc.  Thank you George and Lisa for creating the garden and sharing all that has been harvested from it.  It has been yummy!