next year, a new garden

so much has happened, i can't put it all down here, but i decided to stop trying to do it all, basically. i let things go, i let the weeds grow. i took a good look around and stopped trying to force things that weren't there. i let the herb wheel come back, to become wild again. i focused ONLY on the beds out front, and even in those i only planted a few things.

i was busy living life, changing my life. i was busy starting a business, having my child home with me simultaneously. i was busy recreating my own life's path, busy making new friends and enjoying their company. and i dropped the ball on trying to catch up with martha stewart and my good friend, S. this year, i have sat back and decidedly NOT beaten myself up over not planting anything, not worried about whether i have anything in the ground, not worried about how tall the weeds have gotten or how badly things look. and i've created some priorities going forward, which feels much much better.

this year we DID plant stuff. we planted sunflowers and lots and lots of strawberries. we picked lots of strawberries and mulberries and made pie. the grapes from my clipping are coming in strong and the blueberries are doing well. we got chickens this spring and they now roam the yard, and our neighbor's yard, pooping and doing their thing. the tulips came up, and lots of wildflowers.

next year will be a new year. i plan on doing some intense soil amending and getting ready this fall. i plan to build a lean-to before it rains, and repaint the porch. but that's it.

a new year, a new garden

it's already evident from my first transplanting day, that i am far less concerned (and therefore stressed out) about exactly how many plants i will plant, and how much i can cram into our little urban plot.

last year and the year before, gardening, although thoroughly enjoyable, was also a point of stress. taking on the project of "feeding the family from the backyard" was daunting. trying to map out a garden that grows in the midst of grassy areas proved insanely frustrating - picking weeds from my tiny mounds of dirt on a daily basis. having very few right angles made it very hard to plan rows. with all the joy, there was a lot of nail biting and frustration, back pain and "wishing things were different".

not to go on and on about it, but this winter my family and i went through some harrowing health experiences. and it gave me new perspective. i emerged with a bright light that now sits behind my eyes, thanks to some healers, some vitamins, a light box, and forced exercises!

so as i planted bok choi and other asian greens for the fourth year in a row, i took greater care in those 10 plants, and really tried to win this time against the slugs, but with a bit of humor and a feeling of calm. if they eat them, they eat them. but this time i am not trying to plant 70 other things WITH these plants, so maybe my care and attention to them will cause them to flourish this year.

a garden with purpose is how i am seeing this year. the previous two years were a garden with quantity in mind. i really wanted to be on a large tract of land, with rows and rows of soil. and i still do. but that is not what we have here, and it will not be perfect. it will not be ideal. but it will be beautiful and it will be calm and it will be bountiful enough!

i am loosely following the calendar until may. sadly, i am working alot until mid april and then we will be away for two weeks. all during prime planting time. but i have to remind myself that what i get in the ground before may will be alright, whatever it is. in may i can really focus. it's hard to want to travel and also have a garden year-round. i've found that without balance, comes imbalance, and i've had a lot of imbalance lately. balance is the focus this year in my life and that includes the garden.

hibernation!

nothing, absolutely NOTHING is going on right now in the garden. there is pruning to do, and the garden calendar to attend to, but in general there is nothing going on. and good thing too, since we've had some family health issues and other preoccupations. i'm looking forward to getting out there and pruning. i'm looking forward to ordering seeds and planning the calendar and garden for next year, but i'm happy right now not to have to do anything. a much needed break.

Peppers!

The chili peppers, eggplants, and green peppers did fantastic this year. A pepper called "Big Bomb" was late to mature, but very very tasty.

Here are some of the chili peppers that we ended up drying! We borrowed a friend's dehydrator and I think one may need to be a future purchase. Last year, drying them inside, many molded. This year, they were all preserved by fast, hot drying. I debated drying them in the oven but was afraid our eyes would start burning downstairs.

Yay! Hot peppers! One of my favorite things.

Some photos

It has been a crazy summer all around. Not just the weather, but that as well. Eggplants did fantastic - did I mention that before? I think I may have reported on that now several times. We are still harvesting them. I count about 25 eggplants all together, both Oriental and Dusky varieties. Apparently they love water, and that is what they had. They would have gotten bigger but it's been chilly.

The peppers are turning red on their vines.

Green peppers are very small but tasty,and we are harvesting many of them.

BEANS! I do not have a photo, but the six or so bean plants out back went NUTS in the sunny, cloudy, rainy months we've had. I know you are supposed to harvest beans as they develop so that the plant will produce more, but I don't like them enough to do that. I gather that we've harvested all together one of those big painter's buckets worth of beans. Dora likes to eat them raw.

PUMPKINS are also nuts. The ones, like this one below, ballooned up early and I'm afraid will rot before pumpkin carving time. And they are apparently no good for pies. I have to investigate to see if we can eat them. But smaller ones are coming as well! Perhaps ten pumpkins altogether. I have a very late winter squash growing, which will probably fail to ripen. There are also a myriad of zucchini and other squash plants that are doing well but it will get too cold for them very very soon. I was so concerned about the pumpkins that I forgot to get our other squash out in a timely manner this year.

We have more beets, kale, mizuna, and lettuce growing. And spinach.

Larvae Galore

I wish I had a picture for this, because it's very very disturbing. I've noticed a great quantity of black fly larvae in our compost tumbler. We got this new tumbler as a gift and it's EASY but I'm not used to the amount of insects it attracts. I suppose because they are truly contained in the bin, they are just easier to see.

Anyway, lately I have been going out to dump food scraps and in the handle depressions, there is maybe an inch of water. In this inch of water, there are about 30 inch long black larvae, all squirming around. I am not sure how they appear so quickly in the depressions after a day of rainfall, but they do! It looks like something from a sci-fi movie, all those larvae squirming about in the clear water.

Yuck! But it's all part of nature.

Late Summer

The pumpkins are HUGE. I did some research, back into my seed ordering archives, and discovered that they are Magic Lanterns, a hybrid. Based on that, as well as their size, they are probably not too tasty for eating. D discovered today that they were beginning to turn orange, and she is very excited. It's hard to say if they will ripen just in time, or perhaps too early. I have a feeling I have timed it just right. By accident, of course. I had such a fiasco getting pumpkin seeds to start this year! And after all of that, we now have GIANT pumpkins out side. The ones in front have really been allowed to roam and soak up the sun. Very exciting.

I have been thinking a lot about pumpkins. And reading this.
We also have more and more onions. Some onions did so poorly, others so well. Most, very well. But they were all from the same seed packets... so it's odd. Again, I have soil discrepancies everywhere. My goals for this winter are:
Evaluate my soil all over the garden in its various little pockets
Re-do my garden calendar
Make plant cards for every plant out there that is NOT a vegetable. There are so many plants to care for - ornamental plants, berries, trees, nut trees, vines... only some of which I know the names for and know how to care for.

Anyway, I digress. I have been thinking about how busy I am and how much there is to do, and I've been cataloging things for wintertime activities. Excitedly.

We have been picking mulberries every week for a future mulberry pie!

Here are some images from the garden. Oh and we are having a massive porch built!