my final crop

My sunflowers are the last to be ready for harvest. This plant got too tall and tipped in the wind so I salvaged it for harvest. The other 20 flowers should be ready in the next couple weeks or so.

My final tomato crop. Talk about a love/hate relationship. :) I thought the cooking would be neverending. Now it's done for the year.

I ended up with about 40 pounds of potatoes for the year. I dug them up in 2 sessions about 3 weeks apart. I got a very small harvest because I didn't realize that potatoes grew as you covered them with dirt. I only covered them up once with more dirt so I only received a small harvest from each plant.

These are the beans I left on the bush after the last harvest. I haven't done the research yet but I plan on using these for seeds for next years harvest. After all the complaining I did through this process I am already planning next years garden :D

corn status

This is my largest ear of corn. Yeah. That's it. I consider this a failure. What do you think? :D I won't be planting corn next year. I can fill that space with things that WANT to grow.

seed hunting

It's the end of planting for the most part. Why aren't the seeds marked down yet? I plan on making seed tape this winter for the tiny seeds but would like to pay less. Winter is a great time for seed tape and then put them rolled up in a shoe box in the closet and I'm ready for spring planting. Yes, I'm already mentally planting next years crop. How quickly we gardeners forget the pain ;D

end of times

Well, the beets are done. Dug up and canned to be eaten at a later date when I need a little color on my table. Next year we will be planting at least 4 rows.
The carrots will be next. Probably this week-end. Next year we will be planting at least 3 rows.
I just buried the potatoes with some more dirt, but did dig up one. How is it that I plant a red potato seed but still get white potatoes back? I have to see how they can before I decide how many rows for next year.
We just did our 2nd picking of beans and should get at least one more. I am planning on leaving the fourth picking on the plants to dry, just for curiositys sake :)
The cucs are done for the year.
The cauliflower was a hit so I would like to plant a full row (26 feet) next year.
Next year I will have a better idea of what should be grown where and (hopefully) better soil. Next year will come fast and I'll have forgotten how much I hated planting and watering and will probably increase the size of the garden. Fall is coming fast :)

new garden up-date

I consider the beets a HUGE success. A package for 1.29 and I'll be canning enough for the whole year. I have to find the package though. We love the taste of these but I can't remember what kind they are :)

This was supposed to be a cauliflower seedling. Out of 7 cauliflower seedling 4 were this. I have no idea what it is and what it supposed to look like but this is the only one that has a grey fuzz on it. I just call it the 'mystery ick'. This would be a failure.

I am still in awe that I can grow a green pepper. Next year I hope to plant the other colors too. So, success.

My tiny tiny cucs are a failure. I got one or two per plant and the plants are not thriving at all. The cucs are about 2 inches at the most.

Can you see my corn amongst the grass? The stalks are about 1 to 1 1/2 feet tall and the tiny corn it did produce sits almost at ground level. Failure.

Bumper crop for all the pepper plants grown. Grumpy and I will start to pickle these in another 2 weeks and that will go on every other day for another 2 weeks.

Not a record year but a very good year for grapes. I'll be canning most of these for grape juice but mom wants to do a batch of grape jelly.

My blueberries didn't survive the heat wave we had. They may be too fragile for our area and my berry garden. I prefer a plant that doesn't need a lot of daily care. I lost most of the newly planted and half of my existing plants.

This hole in the ground used to have 1 of my 2 marrionberry plants. I believe Grumpy was 'helping' me out in the berry garden and thought they were blackberry vines.

I'm going to take out all my strawberry plants. When I chose ever-bearing I gave up size and flavor. I'll be replanting next year.

I love my sunflowers and hope to harvest them before the birds do :)

I have 8 quarts of tomato sauce put up so far and the full crop hasn't even kicked in yet. Lots of canning coming up.

Sdad and I are trying an experiment in the garden with the tomatoes. We put 1 row in wooden boxes, 1 row in fencing cages, 1 row tied up to a stake and 1 row to grow along the ground. The fencing cages grew the best 'trees' but not the best tomatoes. The best for growing the healthiest tomatoes was freestyle along the ground. You would think the bugs would bother them but that didn't happen. The plants themselves took care of the tomato and none of the freestyle tomatoes got sun burnt when we had the heatwave, all the rest did. Sdad talked to a farmer recently who said that not only were his 10,000 plants freestyle but that he never watered after they got established. That's next years plan. 1/2 will be watered and 1/2 won't but all will be freestyle.

:D

These are the items I incorporated into our dinner today. The beets and carrots were 'thinnings' and the rest was harvested. I am so absolutely excited about feeding my family something that I grew without chemicals.

more harvest

Grumpy decided to surprise me by helping with dinner. He (of course) cooked them man-style ie on the bbq. So, without photos, here are my first beets and first zucchinis from the garden. They were cooked on the grill and tasted fantastic! I was a little upset about the zucchini because I only have a few and was wanting to grow them big enough to get several batches of zucchini jar cake. With one call he got me a dozen large ones by someone who had more than he could freeze. All it's going to cost me is a loaf of zucchini bread. Hope he doesn't mind it jarred :D

105

That's how hot it was today. Thank god for Sdad. My garden is having heat stroke and so was he.

orchard progress

This is a shot of my heirloom yellow plum. It went in the ground last year so it's not struggling as much this year. I try not to water anything but the garden. I want them to survive regardless of the weather. I got a single plum last year. I swear it tastes like liquid sunshine and exactly like I remember from my childhood. Ggrandma's orchard was my favorite for playing outside. You could hide out AND eat :)

This poor sickly thing has problems. It just went into the ground this spring. I have watered it a bit but not every week. I need it to develop deep roots. All these issues and it still spit out 3 pears. I hope it survives.

harvesting starts :)

Here is our haul of the day. 4 cucs off plants smaller than they were. We ate them raw. VERY good. I continue to be amazed at what my barren soil will produce. I know though, it's only because of my sdad. I have a brown thumb and he has a green thumb. How else do you explain growing vegies where the weeds won't grow? :)

My potatoes are blooming. That means potatoes are coming :)

I may be losing a couple tomato plants. They are kind of withering. But out of 55 plants, we'll still have a ton to can.

Can you believe that even my carrots are growing? This is one I was thinning and it tasted great. Waste not, want not :)

I don't know if you can see this or not. It's some kind of bees nest made of mud and paper. The bees are tiny little brown bees that don't lose their stinger when they attack you. We know this because they built their home under our pool deck. With this heat you know where the kids spend most of their time. yup. Getting stung. This next pic is of Grumpy.

You really have to look close, but he was laying on his side to spray the bee nest, ran out of spray and at this point was trying to fend off an attack while yelling at us to RUN! RUN! RUN! We did :D and he was close behind us. I wish I had it on video instead of still shot. He hasn't lost his dance rhythm :)
Today I clean house. Today I will rearrange my home life to better suit us all. I am too frustrated and am not getting things done because I have a bad mix in my home. It's pretty bad when you have a kid you won't let in the car while you drive because he has shared with the kids that he plans to stab you until you are dead, and can't stay at home without you because he requires 24/7 supervision. I still don't have a Roo (you still have one Lisa?), my house is messy, and I am in dire need of groceries. Today is my take charge day. Will let you know how it came out.

and life goes on

So, an up-date on on what I thought would be an impossible dream. My very own garden. I want to add that there are some great perks to having crappy soil...no weeding, at least not very much. Most of the things planted this year was just to gauge what might grow around here. I'm surprised and thrilled ANYTHING grew.

All my tomatoes are doing well. I have 55 plants going strong at this time. A couple cherry, but most are beef steak type canning tomatoes. I want to put up salsa, sauce, juice, and dehydrate as much as I can.

My potatoes are amazing! 2 full rows and every one healthy. I hope to roast some baby ones, can a dozen or 2 quarts, but to dehydrate the bulk in slices. Scalloped potatoes are a favorite of ours.

This is actually my third bean planting. It's finally taking off a bit. The first (and I think the second one too) was tilled under by accident. (they weren't growing fast enough to get noticed :D)

My red beets. It's probably time to thin. Not quite sure what I will do with them, but I'm happy they're here.

Can you believe that cantaloupe is growing where weeds won't?!


Another plant that I thought would never grow...celery. I hope this does really well. It's another thing I would like to dehydrate for cubes and powder.

Lots of hot peppers already. We pickle these in pint jars and Grumpy eats them at dinner every night, plus the salsa...of course!

I have always wanted to make green peppers stuffed with spanish rice, stewed tomatoes and hamburger mixed up and parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. Looks like that might happen this year :) It's not that I would eat it, I don't like bell peppers, but I like to cook things that sound good. If not, I'll have enough to dehydrate at least.

This was marked as zucchini, obviously it's not. Grumpy HATES acorn squash :) Bummer. If it grows I'll be cooking it.

Another squash that was marked as zucchini. What on earth am I going to do with 8 plants of this? And they are LOADED!

This will be my best year for walnuts, especially since the lone squirrel that lived around here was ran over last month. The chocolate jar cake I make cries out for walnuts :)

garden up-dates

I have tomatoes :) I plan to can and dehydrate them in various ways so I want a bumper crop, if not I'll be hitting the farmers auction. Sdad used some left-over field fencing from another project to make the cages. Cost?...free. A very good price.


I have cabbage GROWING in the garden. I am amazed.

My corn isn't doing well, but it is growing. I really need to add stuff to the dirt over winter.

My cucumbers are flowering.

My sunflowers are doing amazing. I can't wait to see them!

My blueberry crop today. Admittedly, yesterday I picked a dozen.

My cherries that have survived the birds so far. They're not bings, but not bad either.

A bumper crops of grapes if all goes well. Lots of grape juice to put up.

I stalled weeding long enough for Grumpy to till up the flower bed. Now I don't have to weed it!

Grumpy found a great deal on jars in the paper. A daughter decided that her 82 year old mother wouldn't be canning any more. 12 cases for 4 and 5 dollars each of nice OLD canning jars. I finally feel that I have enough jars, not that I'll pass up a great deal if it comes along.

My unwanted tenant has been relocated to the cemetery. Grumpy finally gave up so I called the mole ladies. 14 hours later and my garden is safe once again. He was a big sucker too!

an update on the vole/field mice experiment. I've been checking around the yard and I don't have any new holes. I don't see any new run paths or plants that have been eaten on. I think it really worked. I'll have to try it around the garden where there is a few spots that look like rodent paths to make sure, but I think it works. hmm.