Garden of 2011

The summer of 2011 started off very, very dry. Our goal last year was to water this year's garden with non-potable water only, i.e., collected rainwater and household greywater. However, after a miserably dry winter, we started in the spring with cisterns nearly empty and never got the chance to fill them as the planting season began. We didn't even come close to making our goal. Hopefully, we will next year!

Although it didn't snow much that winter, it did get unreasonably cold, with temperatures plunging to -19F at our house (according to our thermometers). We didn't have any plumbing disasters in the house, but the pipes from the rainwater cisterns to the hose bibs burst and needed to be repaired in the spring.

Our first fruit of the year: kumquats. The tree lives indoors in the winter and bears fruit beginning in January. Aaron is setting it out for a sunny day in the spring. March 26, 2011.

We also dug up tons of Jerusalem artichokes, aka sunchokes. These were volunteers/weeds and they have taken over some of our best gardening space. March 27.

Last year we roughly enclosed our garden with chicken wire and bird netting to keep the birds out; this year we built a sturdier enclosure.

Aaron makes creative use of some old hardware.

Beets growing in the spring; April 2.

Pea shoots, April 2.

The mint begins to regenerate, April 2.

A goji berry in its protective greenhouse, April 10.

Chinese broccoli, kale, beets in the sunny planters, April 10.

We got a new apricot tree, even though apricots are a bit iffy here.

Our fruit trees bloomed beautifully. April 12.

The sage returns, April 21.

We planted things very early this year. Some of them did not survive. Bell pepper in a protective greenhouse, April 21.

Aaron choosing seeds.

More blossoms, April 23.

We didn't plant THIS. Cholla fruit, April 23.

Aaron planting, April 23. Around here, they say to plant on Mother's Day, so we were clearly jumping the gun.

Huge Jerusalem artichokes (hard to see, they blend in with the dirt) and the telltale shoots of the plants, crowding around our irrigation tubing. April 23.

Eggplanties, April 23. These survived the early planting, but they had to fight for survival; I don't think planting them early gained us much.

Our very happy fruit trees were going to give us lots of fruit this year. Or so we thought. April 23.

I painted little plaques for the trees.

We harvested Chinese broccoli around June 13.

Aaron weeding in the upper garden, with the sage in bloom (like perfume). June 13.

I tried sparkly streamers to scare the birds away, but they are smarter than that. Planters full of tomatoes and Chinese broccoli, June 13.

Bean sprouts, June 13.

The plantings struggled to take hold through the harsh spring. Tomatoes and squash, June 13.

Raspberries, June 20.

Aaron's strawberries, June 20.

Reddening tomatoes, June 29.

Lavender, June 29.

Beans, July 2.

Zucchini, July 2.

First tomatoes, July 4.

Soaking flax and other wildflower seeds before planting.

Garden doing well, July 10.

Onion, July 16.

Dill, onion, and tomatoes and squash and strawberries in the background, July 16.

One of our squashes, July 16.

A weed bouquet.

Tomatoes gone crazy, July 31.

The volunteer kabocha squash, July 31.

Corn tassels, July 31.

Beans and corn, July 31.

The beans grew up to the bird-netting "roof" and out the top.

Lotsa beans. July 31.

Baby bell peppers, July 31.

Bright flowers of the purple beans.

Eggplant flowers, July 31.

A "Giant Marconi" sweet pepper, July 31.

One of the hybrid pumpcchinis, July 31.

Globemallow.

The volunteer kabocha, which took over our asparagus/onion bed, July 31.

A small harvest, July 31.

A bigger harvest, August 13.

Basil, August 13.

Beans, beans, beans; August 13.

Pickled beans.

Eggplant, corn, beans, cucumbers; August 20.

This little guy destroyed untold numbers of tomatoes. August 21.

Like this one.

August 21: sweet pepper, lemon cucumbers, Boston pickle cucumber.

We didn't know when to start harvesting horseradish; this was too early. August 21.

A bunch of produce, August 29.

Shredding large zukes for freezing, August 30. Not sure what to do with the red Anasazi corn.

Our FIRST goji berry, August 31.

Amy's strawberries, August 31.

"Japanese black trifele" variety of tomatoes, August 31.

Eggplant, August 31.

September 2.

Anasazi corn and dried flowers, September 2.

September 4. The tomatoes are coming fast now.

The cat and the dill, September 5.

A small snake near the garden, September 6. Photo by Aaron.

September 11 harvest.

Squash and eggplant on the grill, September 12.

Salsa, September 16.

Goji berry flowers, September 16.

Little cucumbers, September 17. Can't say we've had great luck with the cucumbers since 2008.

September 17 - herbs, mostly: sage, fennel, lavender are visible; so is the horseradish.

September 17.

The flower of the Jerusalem artichoke weed, September 17.

Sugar pumpkin, September 17.

Bell pepps, September 17.

A large tomato, September 24.

Amy's strawberries, September 24.

Eggplant, September 24.

The bean plants looked like they were beginning to wind down, September 24.

But they still put out a lot of beans. September 24.

September 24.

September 28.

Goji berries, October 1.

Fennel, October 1.

Lavender, October 1.

A garden vegetable frittata, October 7.

Apples (foreground) are from a local tree (not ours, sadly); green tomatoes in the background were picked in anticipation of a possible hard frost the next night; loads of greenbeans and more tomatoes as well. October 8.