Edible Gardens

The greenhouse has some life in it, despite low overnight temperatures.

Nature is so vibrant.

When you start seeds indoors (and a little early), you get to eat what you prune off as the plant grows. Lettuce Leaf Basil to go in tonight’s pizza.

I *may* have managed to overwinter my rosemary...

Onions and celery have moved to the greenhouse and I planted some seeds too!

I remember a few years ago I planted about 90 flower bulbs in the fall. I was so proud of myself and I loved the surprise they brought in the spring. Well this year, while bored and processing the changes that the pandemic brought to the world, I ordered more flower bulbs to augment what I felt was not enough flowers. Today I finally finished planting them. That’s about 300 extra flower bulbs. I hate planting bulbs, but I love the rewards they bring in the spring.... So here’s to no more flower planting for 2020! And I get to have fun closing my veggie garden tomorrow (way more enjoyable). #IsItSpringYet

First salad from the Aerogarden-started lettuce!

Less than three weeks in the Aerogarden and now I can start harvesting a little. Made room for more stuff.

Time to put the garden to bed for the winter!

I’ve been procrastinating, but if I want to have lettuce over the winter, it needed to get done. Decided to add all sorts of goodies and transfer them to my grow lights later. #WaitingImpatiently

Times are busy, so I harvested all my tenders yesterday before the potential frost. Now I can rest easy knowing I have time with what is left of the garden. And I can start doing my fall clean-up.

More decorating.

Anyone else decorate their house with their garden vegetables? Why bother with HomeSense when you can get it for free in your own backyard...

Trying out a new hot sauce recipe!!

The most beautiful purple: Asian eggplant and Sage flowers.

Home grown vegetables to go with tonights dinner. Been experimenting with eggplant. It was pretty good!

When nature reaches perfection.

Experimenting with hot peppers from the garden. Loads more on the way.

Hot peppers!!! They are so beautiful.

My last potatoes of the season. I could have waited longer but I was anxious to get some fall crops started.

My full onion harvest (minus a few I gave away and have already eaten). Probably my biggest gardening success of 2020.

Me this morning: Woe is me, my plants are not doing well. My tomatoes stopped producing. My zucchini stopped producing. The borer took all my squash. My cucumber and sweet peppers are weak. Me later in the afternoon: Hmmm, not bad for one meal. Quality not quantity. And its not as bad as it seems.

After years of trial and error, it seems I have figured out onions. This is less than half of my crop. The rest have not flopped over yet. My heart is full.

The first time our garlic harvest actually yields healthy garlic. We also already gave away about 20 bulbs to family. Sure, the bulbs are not all big, but this is a very big step in the right direction.

My tomatoes are late, but my early varieties have started producing. Tomato sandwich season!!!

More photos!! So much life in the garden!

Vegetables are just as beautiful as flowers.

Not as bountiful as previous years, but slowly the plants are catching up. Luckily, some of my crops (onions, basil, hot peppers, eggplants, celery, oregano) are already thriving. Ill take the wins where I can!

A friend told me that she did not bother to battle the leek moth, and despite minor damage, her garlic always survives. So I ignored them all summer, and somehow all my garlic survived. All that to say, maybe ignore my tutorial and save yourself the effort.

For the pasta that accompanied our salmon.

Second day in a row with a harvest like this!

My enemy, nemesis, evil monster. The squash vine borer. The moth lays eggs at the base of squash plants (zucchini and pumpkin included), which in the larvae stage burrows its way to the core of the plant and kills it from the inside out. The bane of my existence. Look out for her. And her tiny eggs.

Morning coffee and mid-day repose in the garden. I get enough shade along the side, so I can sit and enjoy the various views comfortably.

In the past years, there has been sufficient rain that I never really needed to water my garden. Rain every 4 days with hot weather in between was enough. But this year is DRY. And I somehow felt that my regular routine was enough. It was not. I spent almost all day today soaking my thirsty veggies and wishing I had watered them more. If there wasnt some difficult challenge every year, it wouldnt be a normal year.

I just killed two squash vine borers and two squash bugs. And I picked off at least a dozen borer eggs off my zucchini. Its the first year I managed to get some of them before it got out of control.

Not everything is doing well, but theres certainly a lot of good things happening in the garden right now.

You wont find peas like these in the grocery store. Fresh and crunchy.

I went to check on my garden this evening (I call it going on Walkabout) and I noticed a tomato plant completely on its side. I ran over to it, panicking, and tripped on a log and fell on my face (breaking a marigold on my way down). It all happened in slow-motion. I scraped my knee and got dirt all over my pajamas. All that over a tomato plant. #GardenerForLife

Ive been delinquent in taking photos and posting updates. Who would have thought being at home 24/7 would reduce my free time.

I missed my lemon and lime basil with Egyptian walking onion in my salads. So refreshing!!

So much potential, while other plants are stunted by the strange weather.

Fresh ingredients for pizza, salad and dessert.

Ive been a little too lazy to post pics, but the lettuce, kale, choys and egyptian walking onion are doing well! Plus I got some basil leaves that were looking tired.

Poor little mouse. He was not well. He kept falling over. We fed him and then he disappeared. I hope hell be ok, or pass quickly and painlessly.