Failures and successes this spring season

We had thought that it was a human thief who stole our sweet potatoes...

And then my missus talked to one of our neighbors who said that their sweet potatoes were also stolen...

By racoons, they said...

Just then, my missus had buried some fish bones left over from dinner...

She buried it quite shallow, and there it was... dug up by some animal...

The paw marks were too big to be a cat's...

This morning, I checked the potager and found more paw marks from a freshly dug out patch...

We are almost sure that the culprit is a racoon...

They are apparently very intelligent animals but I shall try to think of a way to trap them...

Anyway, this post is about the failures and successes of the spring season...

Failures, I have many...

The potatoes were miserable... only managed about 3 kilos...

I probably planted too much of 'companion' plants in the same patch...

Strawberries, garlic, onions, celery... too much...

Corn... tried to plant some seeds brought from Malaysia...

Didn't work out... by the time I switched to the Japanese seeds, it was a bit too late...

Still, managed to harvest 14 ears... not too bad...

Zucchini... ooh, big failure... bought three seedlings (green, yellow, and Toscany)...

Pumpkin... ooh, another big failure... like zucchini, no fruits at all...

Green peppers... arrgghh... tiny, and too few fruits... probably didn't water them enough...

Jalapenos... sigh... too sweet, and too small...

Moderate successes included tomatoes...

Grew some big ones, and some mini ones...

Managed to harvest quite a bit...

Okra... better than the previous season...

Bitter gourd... not too bad, but could be better...

Loofah... oh dear, I wonder what happened...
Most successful was the cucumbers...

Was determined to succeed this time, and we harvested 221 cucumbers from May to August...

Very tasty stuff... I brought them to eat at my workplace several times...

I still have yet to harvest the swede and the parsnip...

Wonder how they will turn out although I have a feeling that the swede is probably too old and tough...

Resumed working on the potager today, after an absence of more than one month...

Prepared six beds for onion, carrot, burdock, spinach, beets, radish, lettuce...

I am making sure not to over-plant the beds... otherwise, duh!