2014-15 Garden

Our garden this year has produced spectacularly! As usual, I took pictures early on, with full intentions of taking more when it was at its peak, and as usual, I never got follow-up pictures taken. We, specifically the boys, have put up bushels of produce—we will have all the pickles, of three varieties, that we want, plus 95 pounds of sourkraut and about that much plain cabbage in the freezer; lots of zucchini; all the lettuce we can eat, and so far what looks like a great crop of tomatoes coming on. The onions are nearly ready to harvest, and we’ve canned a great many green beans and carrots. The potatoes have a blight, but we’re eating a lot now. Corn was too dry, and crowded out by too many pumpkins in the patch.

The early garden, in mid-December: Corn and pumpkins, with tomatoes to the left and potatoes beyond them.

Cabbage, cukes, beans.

Carrots, radishes, beets, peas, lettuce

The entire garden, in the process of being weeded for the first time.  Below is a mound across the creek, on which we planted zucchini and pumpkins. Failure! Too dry.

Tomatoes fill up this small garden.

Peppers are up against the house, by the lemon tree.

We filled in this space around the rhubarb plants with tomatoes, tomatillos, Cape Gooseberries (like ground cherries), and zucchini.

I did get two pictures recently! This was the day we pulled up all the rest of the cabbage. This one head of Savoy Cabbage was so pretty I got a picture of it.

I’ve learned that one way to save space in the garden is to plant the cabbages very close. They can be 1 foot from each other, in every direction, and thrive. No weed problems there!

We had several wheelbarrow loads of cabbage that day, and ended up with three bushels when it was all trimmed. I read aloud a very exciting story while the boys trimmed it, and the cow loved eating all the “waste”.

When we thinned the carrots, the boys were happy to find some funny ones:

All in all, we’re feeling quite blessed with this year’s garden.