2010 Garden
A few pictures from this summer's garden, along with dates to chronicle the season this year. We grew tomatoes, zucchini, crookneck squash, pumpkins, corn, eggplant, bell peppers, green beans, beets, peas, cucumbers, jerusalem artichokes (well, those are weeds, but edible); lettuce and arugula; basil, dill, sage, rosemary, mint, oregano, parsley; and strawberries. Our fruit trees include three cherry, four apple, two pear, and three peach, but due to a late cold snap many of our young trees lost their flowers. We got tart cherries, one apple (which was delicious) and one peach (which the birds ate). In the ground but not yet producing are asparagus, raspberries, goji berries, and blackberries. We also have a tangerine and a kumquat tree, but those come indoors every winter.
A goal of ours is to do all this gardening without using potable water. This summer, we probably would have succeeded except Aaron accidentally drained a few thousand gallons of rainwater from a cistern on to a single peach tree (the one that bore one fruit!). I estimate that we used about 2,000 gallons or less of potable water on the garden this year. Next year: 100% rainwater and graywater.
We were away a lot this summer and couldn't give the garden the attention it needed. We added quite a bit of extra garden space but our yield was about the same or less than last year's. A lot of people this year thought their tomatoes took longer to ripen; I thought so too, but I didn't keep records last year so I don't know for certain. (Some people had huge yields and right-on-time tomatoes, so it wasn't a universal complaint.) We had plenty of squash and zuke for two people, which means it was a low yield---normally we're trying very hard to give those away. We got just the right amount of eggplant, too---last year's eleven eggplant plants produced way too much! Our green beans were fantastic, the pea yield was a little disappointing but they were tasty, the corn was great, the pumpkins were a little too stressed this summer, and the bell peppers weren't super happy either.
We froze about 30 cups of shredded zucchini and summer squash and a fair amount of tomatoes. We also canned green beans, a few pickles, zucchini, and green tomato jam, chutney, and salsa.
Seedlings in the windowsill. Date stamp on this picture is March 21.
Lettuce and more seedlings, March 21.
Tomato plant in the ground, but still in its personal protective greenhouse, May 10. We put a few such sheltered tomato plants in the ground on May 8. Also on May 8 we planted seeds for peas, beans, corn, and beets in the ground.
We planted asparagus this year, but we won't get any until next year. Aaron's old house had a neat little asparagus patch that required very little attention and produced tasty shoots in the spring.
A little crop of zucchini, cucumber, green beans, and some volunteer onions. July 21.
Happy dill weed, mostly used in canning. July 21.
Peas, July 21.
Lettuce.
We had problems with birds this year; they plucked our little plants right out of the ground. So, we enclosed a part of the garden in chicken wire and bird netting. This system was fine for this year but next year perhaps we'll build a sturdier garden "cage." July 21.
Looking at tomatoes through the bird netting, July 21.
Aaron handling weeds behind the green beans. Eggplant in the foreground. July 21.
Yellow squash (big plant in the foreground; the rest are cucumbers and pumpkins. July 21.
Corn, July 21.
Green beans galore on our return from Canada, August 9.
Huge yellow squash that grew in our absence. I canned some of this, shredded some for baking, and made squash french fries. August 9.
The tomatoes growing high, but still mostly unripe, August 9.
Green beans, corn, and a few ripe tomatoes, August 9.
I made a little mistake with the pumpkins. Our sugar pumpkins last year were SO GOOD that I saved seeds from them to plant this year. I learned an important biology lesson; the offspring of a sugar pumpkin and whatever pollinated it will be a hybrid of the two. We had three pumpkin plants: one produced normal-looking sugar pumpkins; one produced larger-than-normal ones (and therefore probably not as good); and one produced this cross with a striped zucchini squash we had last year. August 9.
The garden looking happy despite our two week absence, August 9.
Basil and peas, August 9.
This strawberry patch comes from transplants from Aaron's old house. It produces tiny, tasty strawberries early in the summer.
This strawberry comes from a plant I bought at a nursery. It produces big, wonderful strawberries late in the summer. It has grown tremendously since this picture was taken (August 9).
Overgrown cucmbers, squash, and zucchini, August 9.
Squash.
There's a cat in our mint.
Queen of the garden.
Aaron and Petra.
These cat pictures have nothing to do with our garden.
A fall harvest, October 24.
Amy wrangling a tomato plant, picking the green ones before that night's hard frost; October 25.
The last pickin's of our garden, October 25.
Green cherry tomatoes (and one ripe one).
After picking our big crop of green tomatoes (and we probably left a third of them on the plants to die), I was very excited to try out several recipes I'd found online: green tomato jam, chutney, green tomato pie, fried green tomatoes. To my dismay, however, some of those green tomatoes turned ripe on me! I was astonished; I had no idea that the tomatoes could ripen so much off the vine. I now understand the meaning of vine-ripened tomatoes (and non-vine-ripened tomatoes). These were all picked green.
Making green tomato marmalade.
The finished product; I tried two tomato marmalade recipes. One, with ginger and vanilla, came out good but very gooey; I also added too much sugar, unfortunately, making it a bit too sweet. This batch has a strong spice flavor from cinnamon and allspice.
Canned beans, Lenny-style. I made two quarts and 15 pints of canned beans this summer.
Closeup of the goodness in Lenny-style beans.
©2010 Amy Jordan; Email Me.