Friday, August 30, 2013

Four Gardens

Last year I planted one garden.  This year I planted four.
This is our backyard garden. 52 feet by 20 feet, it is 1040 square feet, which does not include the asparagus patch, the herb garden, and the 2 fig trees.  This is Garden #1.  Since the entire blog is basically about this garden, I'm not going to spend time writing it in this post.

Garden #2 is the garden out at Adventure Camp.  The camp rangers tilled it, and during two different days this spring, I planted seed and transplants.  The picture above was taken in late summer.  It got really weedy, but it actually produced, as evidenced by...
I also planted some things in the camp garden that were experimental.  One of the best producers was okra.  I'm not a fan of okra, but it grew very well with zero maintenance.
Also, okra flowers are surprisingly attractive.

Garden #3 was in front of my office.  We installed a garden box last year, and this year I filled it with dirt, compost, and 9 yellow beefsteak tomato plants.
It has been very productive...we have harvested dozens of large, meaty yellow tomatoes.  I grew yellow 'maters at the home garden, too...but the office garden tomatoes were far superior.  I saved seed for next year from one perfect specimen from this garden.

Garden #4 was at my wife's workplace.  With the property owner, she and I built a garden box in front of the shop.  Later, we put in sunflower seed, tomato plants, and marigold seed.
With all the rain we've had, this garden box needed zero assistance once planted.  It produced cherry tomatoes.
The sunflowers that we planted were the moulin rouge variety.  They are a deep dark burgundy.
My wife has way more claim to this garden than I do.  She initiated it and made decisions about what would be planted.  I just helped.

So, those are the four gardens.  I'm very happy about how the two workplace gardens turned out.  With the camp garden, I would have done some things differently.  Nonetheless, I will replant all three satellite gardens next year.

Monday, August 26, 2013

16 Harvests

Gardening in August is all about harvests.  I've tried really hard to take pictures each time that I pick.  It's been hard.  Sometimes I find myself rushing to pick after supper before the light is gone.  Other days I sneak one in before heading off to work.

So, the following images are 16 harvests in the month of August.  Be advised: these are unduplicated vegetables.  Each veggie is photographed once and only once!














The garden produces more than enough food to feed the whole family during August...if only that were the case.  We love meat, bread, cheese, and chips far too much.  I think my sons could live on frosted flakes and pizza exclusively.  We do work lots of garden veg into the family meal plans, often having meals that might have just one ingredient from the grocery store.  

Garden staples that we are NEVER without in July and August include tomatoes, snap beans, squash, banana peppers, carrots, basil, mint, chives, and cucumbers.

Finding ways to cook these items and have my sons eat those creations winds up being the biggest challenge. Thankfully, butter makes everything taste good.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Just giving it away

Yes, I am just giving it away.  We have so much.  Below are some recent pickings...each picture is of completely different veg.  Just a habit now: I pick and then take a pic.  Harvest are almost daily.  Getting lots of tomatoes, squash, and asparagus (aka yard-long) beans every day.

July 27

July 28 - Banana peppers there in the middle

July 29 - that's broccoli on the bottom left
July 30 - that's a little cabbage on the top right
August 1 - huge harvest of long beans.  Eggplant in the upper right.
See something you like?  Need veg?  Let me know.