I gave up last year!
I had 10 Better Boy Tomato plants, With all the rain we had, they were magnificent plants, but not a single bloom was observed on any of them, so no bright red, juicy Tomatoes to enjoy!

A dozen Cayenne Peppers produced scads of blooms, which fell off. Very few peppers were harvested.

I don't have enough sun to permit a large garden, with a variety of veggies, so I gave up trying and just add Tomatoes & Peppers to my shopping list when I visit the Farmers Market. I'm the only one in the family that consumes those, mostly, so it's probably less expensive to just purchase a few in season.

Thought about growing a few of the grape-sized Tomatoes in pots on the patio, as we frequently use those in salads. Checked 2 or 3 places and their plant prices discouraged that thought!

I replaced the veggies with Hydrangeas and they produced a lot of blooms. The squirrels leave them alone and the Bees and Butterflies have a field day! Even the little Hummers checked them out, to see what all the commotion was about, I suppose.

I have decreased the area, a terraced bank around the back of the house and beside the driveway, I use to try to grow veggies in. I now have 2/3 planted in perennials, herbs, and annuals which are doing great. The other 1/3 has only beans, squash, peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I did the straw bale gardening this year for tomatoes and it has been wonderful! I had the virus in the soil from previous years of rotated tomatoes. I have had tomatoes out the ears this year and will do this next year and maybe do squash and cucumbers in bales. It has been low maintenance--put landscape fabric over whole bed and put bales on top of fabric in groups of 2--no weeds to pull and elevated for easy picking/watering. Don't give up, try a new approach. My husband thought I was crazy, so did his sister. She wants to have some tomatoes in bales in her yard next year.

It's a very frustrating "Something is eating my tomatoes" year! I've had bites out, army worms....no squirrels though...it is very frustrating. Now I'm picking tomatoes just showing blush and bringing them in. Also high heat is stopping the tomatoes from turning red. GRRRR!

GGG - I'm sure you probably know this, but did you know you can put green tomatoes in a paper bag with an apple, and they will ripen? It's not as fabulous as vine ripened, but they are still much, much better than tomatoes from the store!
:)

stop caring so much.

i know that sounds weird, but just stop.

we humans have such a problem with plants and animals, so much that we have a tendency to hurt more than we help. "love them to death", etc.

i suggest you go next year without all the amendments and extra stuff. and those squirrels....ugh. don't get me started.

Well -- again, it costs a lot of money to buy the plants and then get nothing from them. The two tomatoes I got would have set me back 3 dollars at the farmers market, vs the $20.00 I spent on tomato plants.

I enjoy the process of growing the plants, but the intention is to get food from them.

I am either going to build the enclosure around the beds -- or buy my produce from someone who has a harvest.

Too bad I'm not near my Dad in Illinois. My Mom says they have vegetables coming out the wazoo. He keeps bringing more and more into the house, every day. She is leaving bags of vegetables on peoples porches all over town!

Anyway -- I wish I didn't care that much -- but even if I got a few veggies out of it, it wouldn't be so bad. I'm spending a good bit of money and doing a lot of work (weeding, tying up, suckering, staking, smooshing bugs, watering) and getting NOTHING!

I've had 2 growing season exactly as you have had. It is incredibly frustrating. Year after year we try to grown the same things (what we like to eat) and are eaten up by predators.
My solution next season is to plant different crops. I will grow my peppers and tomato in containers in the front of the house, and new crops in the garden beds next year. No more tomatoes, zuccs, or peppers in the garden for a few seasons. I would like to try corn, garlic, asparagus, and potatoes.
I've also recently discovered an organic product that is suppose to help with pests in your landscape. The Garden Girl on You Tube also recommends the product. It is called diatomaceous earth or DE. You can spread it in your landscape to help with fleas, ticks, and mosquitos. Or you can dust it on your plants to help get rid of bugs. It is safe for your plants, animals, and you can use it around children. DE is made out of powdered sedimentary rock and is non-toxic. You can buy it at home depot and lowes. From what the Garden Girl did on You Tube, she sprayed water on every part of the tomatoe plants (or any other garden plant), then used a duster with the DE and dusted the plants. I used it recently for fleas outside my house, and I've noticed the declining numbers in ankle bitters.
Don't give up on gardening, just change what you garden.

Bagsmom, my hubby and I just had this same conversation a couple days ago. I don't know if we'll have a veggie garden next year or not because of the bugs. We've tried to avoid toxic chemicals but it seems the Sevin and the "organic/natural" remedies do not hold back the flood of pests. And I've tried the diatomaceous earth to protect my flowers from slugs, but they just crawled over it and munched away. Next spring I think we'll just stick with flowers and get our fresh veggies from the local farmer's markets...

Y'all can't give up! fergetaboutit. no way. Plant a Fall garden - you'll have more free time to tend it than in the summer with all the other property demands.

I acknowledge how hard it is to keep on in the face of bad things happening, but deep down you love to garden.

I went up to the back end of my gardens the other day to collect some of the fab cherry tomatoes that always volunteer there. What I found was stems only, plus two disgusting tomato hornworms, which I delightedly dispatched to bug heaven. Maybe there's still time for some tomatoes. Hope so.

Rosie

I've never had luck with edibles. This year we have two tomato plants in pots on the deck (we gave up with the veggie plot in the yard during the drought) and one is ok, the other doesn't get any fruit. It will get a flower and it will just die. It is very frustrating. At least with a shrub, if it doesn't bloom this year, there is always next year. These are annuals. It would be as if my pansies or impatients didn't have blooms. What would be the point.

Vent over.

Call me frustrated, too! We have about 100 tomato plants & most of them are now on their second crop. We have had the 95-100 deg. weather, lack of rain on the farm, but yet the tomatoes have bloomed & set fruit.

What is spoiling the party are the stupid stink bugs! No matter what we do, they are all over the tomatoes. We pick them at the first blush, even then they are getting to them first.

How on earth do commercial growers control those horrible bugs? I see the perfect tomatoes at fruit stands, in the grocery store, etc. I am not against pesticides, per se, if they would WORK. But they don't!

Good point, Bitsya. I'm wondering exactly what kind of high-powered insecticides the professional growers must use to get such perfect vegetables too.
On a positive note, for the past week or so my patch of joe-pye weed has been covered with a whole flock (8-12 at a time) of yellow and black swallowtail butterflies. I assume they are migrating and stopped off for a few days of rest.

Bagsmom, I don't have apples - my trees aren't in the ground so no apples (and I've personally not seen local apples at farmers markets however I picked our church tree already, it's so early!!) It's the nowhere near ripe ones that were getting bitten. Now some are finally getting a blush and we bring them in to ripen. Bitsya, I'm jealous of your "first flush". We've not had ANY ripening flush yet. It's just coming but my plants are loaded.
Raccoons are getting a fair amount. They ate one end of my HUGe melon, so I just washed it, and sliced off the bitten part and am eating it. To heck with them. The green tomatoes are now getting thrown into the freezer for Green Tomato Jam when I get enough ...army worms, horn worms, raccoons! What a year!

In the words of Winston Churchill, "Never, never, never, give up." Squirrels...put up a bird feeder and let them rob from our feathered friends. Toss out your stale bread on the other side of the yard. Soil ammendments do not need to cost. Collect leaves in fall and start a compost pile with kitchen veggie scraps, leaves and grass clippings. Big Box stores have EXTRAVEGANT prices for plants. Think about starting your plants from seed and start now to remove old and diseased plants that are harboring next year's family of insects, build your soil with compost, plant flowers amongst the veggies, find your county's Master Gardener Group and attend a meeting. You will find them friendly and down to earth. They will glady share how they overcame these same obstacles. Visit UGA's Extension Service website (link attached) more info than you every dreamt on veggie gardening or call your county's Extension Agent's office. They can offer you a soil test for about $8-$10 and they have info specific to growing/outsmarting in your region. Obviously, I could go on forever. You can do this and the reward is amazing. Gardening is a process each year building on the last. Now go and dig in the dirt.

Here is a link that might be useful: University of Georgia Extension Service

Wannabe -- I have terrific compost -- and even a vermiculture bin under the sink. I gave the squirrels a gorgeous buffet with birdseed and corn on the cob -- tried to keep them busy with lots of other good stuff. They still won't stay out of the vegetables. I tried the opposite tactic another year -- NO birdseed, thinking they would go to another yard. Nope. They just like it here. Add the deer and the bugs and the diseases..... It's just been a MORE than full time job this year. I may just let the veggie bins sit next year and take a break.

On a positive note, this rotten year has really made me appreciate organic farmers and has given me a new understanding of why organic foods cost so much. I am incredulous that growing organic food is even possible! I had two cute little baby acorn squash coming, despite the nasty, dying vine leaves. Yesterday, both squash were drilled into, all over, with squash guts oozing out. (Is this the work of the stink bugs? I have lots of those too.)

GGG -- I put my hard, green tomatoes into a paper sack, then added an apple from the store. Just a gala, or braeburn, or whatever I had. I closed it up and checked every several days. Eventually, they were perfect. ALL TWO OF THEM! :)

I just grow blueberries these days. Despite what people say, I have no problems with birds getting into them (and I don't use netting). I don't spray them with anything either (but caterpillars eat most of the leaves later in the season, after the berries are gone).

My two oldest bushes (about 5 years old now) put out huge amounts of berries this year. I have 3 more bushes that I planted last year and they had much fewer. I used to grow tomatoes in the spot where the 3 newer ones are, but I gave up, it just wasn't that important to me. I'm a rather lazy gardener in some ways.

If only I could get other people in my family to harvest them! Alas, it is always up to me.

I keep thinking I've posted here. Maybe I just keep commenting in my head. Haha! It's been a terribly hot and dry summer. Most of us are having a tough time with the veg (and ornamentals, as well). I'm inclined to make this a "This doesn't count" kind of year. And start fresh this fall or next spring. I've had luck with tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and garlic. So, I'll def. grow these again. Not so much luck with peas and beans.

I only had a few problems with critters munching on my brocolli (which died). I put up a low white picket fence edging, and it stopped them...and looked cute! I think I'm lucky with the small mammals because we have a couple of hawks that live in our (or our neighbor's) yard. Do you have a dog that could run the squirrels off? It sounds like you've done everything else that I may have tried.

You could turn it all over when it cools down and sow a crop of soybeans or whatever (clover) to help provide nutrients to the soil. And be sure to rotate your crops to help with some diseases. That's all I've got. Hang in there.

Well I guess by now you can see that you are not alone in thinking on giving it up. I too have the same problems, stink bugs, squash vine borers, whiteflies, squirrels, hot dry or hot humid stinkin weather. At times I can't bring myself to go outside in this stuff and do the gardening chores that are required. Every year I say I'm giving it up and buying from the farmer's market. But every year come February I start seeding. Why? It's not so much as the reaping as the love of gardening and the challenges that come with it. Every year it's a new challenge but every year there are a few successes. I keep asking myself what did I do right on the few successes that I didn't on the failures. After thinking about this in detail I came up with this answer....NOTHING! In our climate we are at the mercy of nature. Like the weather nothing is predictable in the garden...except one thing....I will do it again next year because it's the love of gardening and the hope that this will be the year that it will be a success. If you garden for any other reason (production, making money, bragging rights, etc.) you may want to consider giving it up. Look around Atlanta area, do you see any tomato, pepper, or any other major commercial vegetable farms? Most of the major production is done further south where they start earlier before the bugs begin and also plant later after the bugs are gone not to mention the use of agricultural pesticides and irrigation. Don't be discourage...just keep in mind that nothing is perfect when it comes to gardening and there is no secret, just the right conditions coming together at the right time...Good luck... gardening is as much for the soul as it is for taste!

I agree with girlgroupgirl, this has been a frustrating year for unknown holes in my tomatoes and I've finally starting doing the same thing and picking them at first blush and letting them ripen inside.

And the rest of my yard and garden is just not looking good this summer. It's been so hot I don't even want to go out and work in the yard. I love what Pam wrote, it's a "doesn't count" year. While I'm sorry that so many of you are also having garden problems this year it does lift my spirits knowing it's not just me.