As I begin my fourth season of gardening, I couldn't be more excited! Each year I try to do something a little different, try something new and maybe improve on something from a previous year. This year I'm working on improving the aesthetics of the garden and so far I'm very proud of the work that Chad and I have done. Chad has been a tremendous help to me this year and I didn't want to start this blogging/gardening season without giving him HUGE kudos! Thank you, Sweetheart, for the countless hours of weeding, raking, manure dumping and trellis-putting-up....it looks beautiful and I'm so excited to see how it all turns out!
I got this great idea to use the old tiles from our bathroom as stepping stones in the garden. This has been great fun for the kids, as they can play in the garden (the rule is they have to stay on the "stones") without me worrying too much about my plants getting trampled. Alayna usually turns it into a game of hopscotch! The trellises are also new this year. The one on the left will have green beans growing while the one on the right will be home to cucumbers.
The kids just *love* playing outside in the garden! I took this picture during a sunbreak between rain storms. The kids were so excited to get some fresh air.....even if for only a short time!
Having the stepping stones has made defining the planting areas much easier. At the very top of this picture (almost too small to see) is the cilantro I planted today. Then below the stepping stones are (from the top down) italian parsley, basil, rosemary, tomatoes (celebrity) and at the bottom are two walla walla sweet onion plants! Oh and my existing thyme plant is the one on the right side that you can only partially see.
This summer was the coldest summer we've had in my seven years of living in Oregon. Partly sunny days left my garden in the shade too much of the time and I did not get a very good harvest this year. However, I wanted to take some end of summer pics and show how it turned out. I did have a few exciting harvests!
Green Peppers! On a whim, I decided to try peppers again (scroll down to see my past summers' attempts) and they did quite well this year! I picked one yesterday and have these two growing on the plant!
The small plants are in anticipation of my fall harvest. I have a salad mix on the left and Kohl Rabi plants in the center and right size (the small ones). That big huge bushy plant is my yellow squash, which I haven't gotten any, at least not yet. Lots of blossoms, though. I just think its too cold now.
I normally have tomatoes growing out of my ears by this point. Not this year! These green tomatoes have been growing for quite some time, but are just now starting to turn red.