Tomato Finale

I know you're all wondering how my tomatoes fared through the season, so I thought I'd share.

This was the result of one day of picking in August.

I picked maybe 2-3 times a week and I had about three picking days of this sort of abundance. In fact, I still have about a blue bucket full of tomatoes in my garden right now that need picking, but it will probably be my last harvest.

What did I do with all those tomatoes? I gave a lot away, I ate a lot, and I canned well over 40 jars of stuff.

One cool benefit of living in a really old house is that there are built in storage racks in the basement specifically for mason jars. Of course, this is only considered 'cool' when I actually can stuff...

It's a Jungle Out There!

So, my one goal for a garden this year was to be successful growing tomatoes. Um. It worked. I have never seen such rampant tomato plants as the ones in my back yard right now.

They are literally as tall as me, and I am not a short person. The impromptu fence above is 4 feet tall, if that gives you something to measure by. These pictures were taken about a month ago, so they are even BIGGER now! So big that some of them have tipped over, cages and all, but are still growing. I potentially will have hundreds of tomatoes this year. Here's an overview of some of the plants in my garden

Tomato, cucumber, pepper, peas

My tomatoes are rocking. My cucumbers are doing so-so. I've already reaped about a half dozen of them, but several of them grow partially and then rot on the vine.  I don't get it. My peppers are much bigger now than the above picture. I'm really excited for them! My peas, which I have since uprooted since they were being overtaken by tomatoes and were out of season, were a delightful spring treat. The kids and I ate them all raw. It was a spring backyard daily task--go outside, pick peas and eat them right there. I also have lots of basil, which I don't have a picture of.

sunflower, raspberries, morning glory, carrots

Sunflowers have been fun. They are huge! Our biggest one is probably 10 feet tall. I'm hopping to harvest the seeds. Raspberries have been a surprise! I didn't expect to get as many berries as we've been getting this first year! Although, it's still not enough to last past the kids daily backyard visit, much like the peas. I love morning glories. They are beautiful. I was hesitant to plant them because they can be invasive, but I'd rather have morning glory vine than poison ivy, which is what used to be in the back yard. My root garden, the carrots and the onions, are not doing terribly well. I guess we'll have to wait until the end of the season to really see how they are doing...

This is the garden in the other corner of my yard, also with a jungle of tomatoes. Yup. I'm going to have a lot of tomatoes. In this bed, the tomatoes are taking over all the flowers around them. I have Marigolds, Forget-me-nots, Zinnias, Gladiolas (which haven't quite bloomed yet), and Dwarf Sunflowers (which I did not know were dwarf when I planted them in the back row).

Garden: Version 2013

I am attempting a garden once again. This time I've planted more seeds than ever before, but I don't yet have a place in my rented yard to put them. Hopefully that will be remedied within a couple weeks with a garden box.

I'm excited for my tomatoes. If all else fails, I want my tomatoes to work. I also have peppers, peas, basil, cucumbers, sunflowers, zinnias, marigolds and I plan on planting onions and other flowers as soon as the weather is right outside.

My 3 year-old is really excited about the plants. I let her pick out one of the planting kits for her to take responsibility of. She picked more sunflowers and planted a handful of the seeds in one pot. I think it's time to repot them.

Now if only we could get the weather to cooperate. Winter, go away! We want the sun!

My NEW garden

I've always wanted an herb garden in my kitchen window. I finally have a south-facing kitchen window so my dream can become a reality!!! This makes me so happy! You know what else makes me happy? This red pot.

I love it.

Garden update (and finale)

In the weeks before we moved, I kind of left my garden to it's own devices. Apparently the neighborhood cat had plans of his own. I once had 9 cute sprouting strawberry plants. The day we moved I had one partial plant. The rest had been eaten or dug up.

The cosmos had a more successful start, but also looked a little nibbled on. We left before I got to see any flowers.

The Zinnias didn't even come up. I think I noticed 2-3 zinnia plants sprout, but then? rabbits? cat? disease? I never saw them again.

Luckily, the villians of my garden were afraid of the almighty pea plant! I would've had a really big harvest, if only we stayed a few more weeks. Our very first pod made its appearance the night before we left and all the plants were large and lush.

I also said goodbye to my beautiful hydrangea bush. It was exploding with blue blossoms! In general, we felt better about our house and yard than ever during the last few days there. It was sad to say goodbye, but I know there are future garden successes (and probably failures) ahead of me!

Hydrangea pretty

I Planted this in my front yard, I'm so sad I won't see it grow big. I even fertilized it with Aluminum Sulfate to keep the blossoms blue. I hope it thrives.
I think hydrangeas are so pretty. Two years ago I saw a photo of a garden in a home decor magazine with a huge hedge of white hydrangeas. It was stunning. I think hydrangeas are one of my favorite landscape elements, and they grow well in mostly shady spots!

Garden!

I planted a garden! The husband built me two garden boxes last year, but I never got around to filling them with plants. I was a little distracted with a new baby. My first box has peas and strawberries.

Here are my peas. I'm so excited they're coming up!
Only 3 of my 10 strawberry plants have shown signs of life as of yet.
And that's it for now. I chose peas and strawberries because I'm moving in June. Hopefully I'll be able to reap the benefits of these crops. My second garden box will be flowers (Zinnias, Cosmos and maybe Lavender). I was planning on planting those seeds today, but I planted a baby in the dirt instead.

Plant a tree, save the world

Today was a busy day! Among the projects, I planted a tree...

made a card for work...
and baked and frosted cookies. I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe and a new frosting recipe here. It's ok, but a little too runny and blah. It needs extra flavor. I'll have to modify it next time.