April 15, 2026
By Michele Miller
What’s What New Port Richey
In past years, things would be in full swing with the home vegetable garden. But as the season begins to wane, I’ll have to declare it a failed year.
Mother Nature gave us a somewhat harsh and erratic winter with freezing temps followed by unseasonable highs, which had the lettuce and other winter crops growing ever so slowly, then bolting before we had a chance to harvest much of anything.
And while we enjoyed some homegrown beans, peas, cilantro, and tomatoes, and there’s some hope swelling for the fennel that’s been nibbled on by wild rabbits, and the tomatoes that are offering up an unlikely second harvest, it’s been discouraging.
Particularly in a time when growing your own food could be an essential part of getting by.
I’m not alone, I’ve found out, while chatting it up with other local gardeners – some more well-versed at it than we amateurs.
Many of us are in the same boat, save for perhaps the local Theo’s Harvest Farm, which is going gangbusters as far as I can see, according to their social media posts and the harvests they are showing up with weekly at the NPR Library’s Tasty Tuesday Community Market.
Yep, there’s definitely a little plant envy going on here.
Even so, this is no time for giving in, I figure, after noticing the errant sunflower growing in the plant coaster holding the barren, shriveled-up eggplant that bit the dust a couple of months ago.
In gardening speak, this sunny flower is called a “volunteer,” growing with the kind of “against the odds” motivation that gets you thinking about moving on to the next tasks.
“I will survive.”
While the spring harvest season nears its dismal end, there’s work to be done that will hopefully render a better year next time around. Planting summer cover crops, heat sterilizing the raised beds to get rid of harmful nematodes that have also done a number on the garden, acquiring seeds that will better weather the weather here, and feeding and turning the backyard compost pile that is currently filled with hungry worms.
“To everything there is a season,” sang the late, great folksinger, Pete Seeger. “And a time to every purpose under heaven.“
Now onward.
M.
Michele Miller is the owner and editor of the community website, What’s What New Port Richey. Before founding the website in June 2020, she worked as a journalist for 25 years for the Tampa Bay Times/St. Petersburg Times.
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