Harvest Festival

tomato pie

cukes lead to pickles

hexagonal tomatoes

humongus watermelon

sunflowers and daisies

homemade Veggie juice

pumpkins came early

lavendar - foraged from neighbor

edamame

baba ganoush (eggplant dip)

raspberries are coming!

raspberries!!!!

peppermint divided

It's very hard to grow mints from seeds but easy from cuttings from the mother plant. I divided it and soaked the roots and then popped them into our potting mix. Voila! 6 plants from 1 main plant.

Gardening is not a rational act - things that did not go well in 2012

Wild weather

• Drought: there was not much rain and certainly high temperatures. The water bill was high even with a drip system.
• Drip system installed. Had pressure issues and plugged hoses. Drip system saved the containers, though, while we were away for 3 weeks in June.
• Broccoli did not head. Cauliflower headed in late October. 
• Strawberries flowered and fruited three times! They were confused.
• Raspberries also confused.

Rodents of unusual cuteness

• Chipmunks ate young brassicas and undercut one of the tomato beds leading to premature demise. Too bad, our resident Cooper's hawk (picture) wasn't hunting them.  In further insult, our friends who were gifted with extra tomato plants had bumper harvests. Rats!

Japanese beetles: I won the war this time by going out morning and night and capturing and killing all that I could find on my cherry trees. Last year, they defoliated them. This year, I claim victory!

Beauty acquired: I scored white tulips at a clearance bin!

Peppers galore! Freezer full of hot and not-so-hot peppers.

Potatoes: Two years of unsuccessful harvest. The container method is not working. Where are the 100's of pounds of potatoes from a bin? We barely get seeds back out.

Sunflowers rocked!

beautiful iris

Beautiful iris from the Amish lady at the Farmer's Market. It has three blooms that alternate with opening and closing: left, right, middle, repeat. Weirdest thing I have seen in the garden.

Iris, most beautiful flower,
Symbol of life, love, and light;
Found by the brook, and the meadow,
Or lofty, on arable height.
You come in such glorious colors...

Edith Buckner Edwards, 1961

vacation hiatus and meditation

Headed off to vacation and a disconnect from the digital world. I leave you with leafy carrot tops!


also:

gate
gate
paragate
parasamgate
bodhii svaha

the color, yellow, pops out from the shade

The first of  the daylilies have popped. I put them in about 2 years ago. They were a gift from a co-worker. These are located under the Tulip Tree. I really like yellow because it "pops" out of the shade. My garden and landscape design is designed to give the eye something to look at. You reye wanders and you say, Hey! What's that? That's interesting!" beforeroaming again. Contemplation. Meditation.

tomatoes are prolific!

Tomatoes: 18 yellow pear, 13 sweet 100's, 3 john baur, 10 green zebra, 11 romas, 5 orange, and 6 black krim. There are a dozen or so other tomato seedlings but the marker is gone...so mystery tomatoes!!


Update: We believe the tomatoes are the SeedSavers Evergreen tomatoes.

ask yourself....

will this take you to where you want to go in life?