#backyard garden

This is what resiliency looks like and what hope feels like. Head up, heart strong. 

Such a gift to be able to harvest tomatoes and pick sunflowers from our property still this summer. 

A ripening pumpkin from another volunteer plant. 

Volunteer sunflowers that are twice as tall as I am in Opa’s garden beds.

Backyard summer treats!

First ripe raspberries at my parents’ house.

We have a few small raised beds at my parents’ house in another area of Santa Rosa (which was thankfully not affected by the October wildfires) where we will be growing raspberries, rhubarb, and 6 tomato plants this summer. A smaller garden than we’ve had in past years at Opa’s, but I’m still grateful to have a summer harvest to look forward to. 

January in the garden. Not sure what’s next yet, but doing our best to stay hopeful.

Summer subtly turning toward fall these days. (Only two pumpkins survived the crazy heatwave we had at the beginning of September. The second round of figs are happening. And the Juliet tomato is still out of control - all of the tomatoes in that top right box are from a single plant!) 

lettuce growing in my potted plant garden!

Love this bee on the blueberry.

Artichokes- we ate some and left some to flower. So beautiful.

Something about a full counter.

Fall greens beans and cantaloupe

Fresh Peas from the garden! Yum!

Spring planting time. This year, we had ivy growing into the planting boxes, up through the landscape fabric on the ground. We emptied the boxes, pulled the roots, and stapled layers of fabric directly onto the bottom of the boxes, and up the sides. It was hard work, but, so far, the tomatoes are very happy. We will find out in the fall if our plan worked.

Making Sauerkraut - We picked 3 cabbages (about 10 lbs. total) and are turning them into 4 half gallons of sauerkraut.

Just picked! Entering our second season of tomatoes. More on the plant. It’s just crazy!!

My tomato plant keeps giving! It’s mid-November and most of my summer crop has long since shriveled up and been pulled. One Celebrity tomato plant is thriving and still growing big, juicy tomatoes!

We are fighting lots of insects and mildew this fall, but we managed to pick our first cucumbers from this fall’s planting and are making them into Bread & Butter pickles.

Fried Green Tomatoes - It’s not just for the people living in the South! Yum!

Mid-October and this Celebrity tomato plant is growing strong and tall.

Growing cucumbers Take 2 -

Well, the summer cukes were a bust, they shriveled up (like most of my garden) after our first pickle making session. So, I am giving it another try.

Potato failure

Growing potatoes in bags makes all kinds of sense, but this is two years in a row of a pitiful yield. At least we had the good sense to open the bags in a wheel barrow so we can reuse the soil into our raised beds without shoveling. I will probably try it again next year.

I think I left a zucchini on the vine a bit too long.

A busy canning day! We canned 10 pints of marinara sauce, 14 pints of peach jam, and 8 ½ pints of salsa. We grew everything except the onions.

Time to make salsa!

“Who you calling chicken???”

Today was the time to trim back and dehydrate my stevia leaves. It’s only July and I think I will have enough stevia to sweeten my tea all year long.

A nice start to my day.