The Garden Chronicles - Epilogue - November 1, 2009

A green salad with carrots from the garden, and a fruit salad featuring the very last harvest of raspberries (plus summer fruit that was in the deep freezer) were part of our November 1 dinner. We can say that we ate fresh, harvested produce from our garden in November. If the greens, carrots, and a couple of the last cabbages can hang on through the end of the month, we will harvest them for Thanksgiving dinner.

It is time to assess this year’s garden’s produce. The fruit harvest far outweighed the vegetables. Except for the strawberries that suffered in the drought and that we supplemented with more new plants, all of the other fruits surpassed our expectations. The apricots were the stars of the summer, followed by raspberries and pears. Our currants produced well, as usual, the young cherry tree gave us a nice bowl of fruit, and the apple tree had its first showing of fruit (although largely inedible) for the first time in at least 10 years.

The vegetable beds produced more good performers than poor ones. Topping the list were Swiss chard (Luculllus) that we harvested from early summer through mid-October, and cucumbers (Bush Pickle) that resulted in three batches of relish, a batch of pickles, plus cucumbers for salads and giving away. The two varieties of carrots (Prodigy Hybrid and Scarlet Nantes) were numerous yet small. We may do better by thinning the carrots next summer so that they produce fewer, larger roots. We were fully satisfied with our bean production. All three varieties (Top Crop Green Bush Bean, Jung’s Tricolor Blend Bush Bean, and Golden Rod Yellow Bush Bean) kept us well-supplied with beans for eating for weeks and freezing for winter. Specialty Greens Oriental Salad mix and a lettuce variety were spring treats that lasted through mid-July.

Less impressive were kohlrabi (Early White Vienna) that was supposed to take just 55 days to harvest, but we had to leave them in the ground through September until they produced enough for eating and freezing. The cabbage (Savoy Express Hybrid) gave us one head, but may have been more productive had the tomatillo not crowded them. The tomatillo had hundreds of flowers but no fruit until about a week before the frost killed it. A trial packet of tomato seeds (Delicious) did no better than the tomato plants we purchased. The tomatoes were generally sparse but tasty. The basil (Jung’s Balcony Blend) was a trial packet that resulted in one plant that we have now moved into a windowsill pot for winter. Eggplants and peppers did not produce more than a few small ones, enough for a single serving each.

The poorest performers were Jung’s Summer Squash medley and Baby Blue Hubbard. Despite copious flowers, we harvested no more than a half dozen zucchini and no other squash. White Icicle Radish gave us just one radish, and Cajun Delight Hybrid Okra, a handful of okra.
Most of the flowers did well and attracted a hummingbird and butterflies (Salvia Bonfire Elite, Hollyhock Summer Carnival Mix, and Petunia Storm Hybrid Mix) except for the Cosmos. They reached seven feet tall and then the frost got them before they bloomed. The sunflowers (Moonwalker) were 11-feet tall but short-lived because the birds ate them just as they bloomed.

We note also the best harvest of asparagus in years, producing from May through July.
Why do some fare better than others in a garden that experienced the same conditions from spring through fall? We had a drought from early spring through mid-summer as well as a record-cold summer. The conditions that favored fruit production resulted in mixed results among the vegetables.

The season ends with some things still growing in the garden that we will harvest before long. Meanwhile, we look forward to next spring, always optimistic that we will have at least as good a garden as we had this year. We hope the rains of fall continue, that we get a good snow cover this winter to protect the perennials, and that spring warmth and rains come as needed to give us a good start to the growing season of 2010.

The Garden Chronicles - The End - October, 11, 2009

The end of the gardening season 2009 is upon us. An early frost and snow blanketed the yard and vegetable garden on Friday night, and this is what it left by Saturday morning.

The snow melted by Sunday so I was able to harvest the carrots.

To my surprise, the Swiss Chard (the best performing vegetable we planted this season!) and raspberries survived the frost. Better to harvest them today before we get more snow tomorrow.

Next blog entry will be the evaluation of the summer garden and harvests.

The Garden Chronicles - October 4, 2009

The garden is close to its end for the year. The only large-scale remaining items are more raspberries and carrots that have been growing since May and June. The kohlrabi are still producing, too, but are too small to harvest. Perhaps if there is more rain, they may get bigger. There is also another row of beans just beginning to flower now. It is risky now because we may get a frost soon.

This pot basil got a good start outside, growing in the middle of the flower plot, but now it is ready to produce indoors all winter for us in this neat clay pot.

This lettuce and beet greens look as thought they need more sun, and they do - We had five straight days of no sunshine last week. Perhaps tomorrow they will perk up if the sun is out.

David, here is the touched-up photo of moon over Budapest.

The Garden Chronicles - Sept. 24, 2009

The pears and raspberries combine to make a naturally sweet fruit preserve.



The vegetable garden is beginning to wane. Today's harvest: zucchini, tomatoes, Swiss chard, and more raspberries.

This is one beautiful rose that truly enjoyed yesterday's rain showers.

Now here is a surprise: Some morning glories have been blooming in the strawberry bed.

The Garden Chronicles - Sept. 22, 2009

The Garden Chronicles - Sept. 7, 2009

Two crates of fruit today from the apple and pear trees. The pears are near-perfect; the apples not even close. But we never expected apples at all since this Honeycrisp tree has not produced fruit in years. They are lumpy but juicy, and a pie is in our future.


This Savoy cabbage seems to be the one and only that produced a head in the garden. It is a lone achievement given that it was started from seed in the Biodome in March and survived the drought this summer. It made a tasty cole slaw.

We have been underwhelmed by the squash production until we noticed this 12+ inch long pair hiding under the leaves.

On Labor Day, all is well in the vegetable garden.

The Garden Chronicles - Focus on Flowers - August 24, 2009

Backyard zinnias highlight the south end of the vegetable garden this month.



In the front yard, these newly planted mums are a preview of fall collors due soon.

My carpool buddy gave me a half dozen black-eyed susans from plants that he thinned in his garden this spring. Now they are blooming profusely in my yard, too.

I love tall sunflowers in the summertime. These 11-foot high Moonwalker variety are a treat for goldfinches and bees.

Next up in the garden harvest - Honeycrisp apples are approaching ripeness in another month or so. This will be the first harvest of apples from this tree in many, many years.

A modest harvest of vegetables this weekend. We seem to be a little bit between bumper crops at this time.

Later in the season we will have another round of pears from the other tree. Not as plentiful as the first pear tree, but these will be welcome when they are ready for picking.

The Garden Chronicles - August 21, 2009

The first of two pear trees yielded this much fruit in just one harvest, and we had as many each day for a week. Fruit size was larger than last year's, with fewer imperfections. Our only challenge was to harvest them before a new generation of baby birds pecked at them.

Surprisingly, the grape vines produced enough grapes to make something, either jelly or jam, this weekend. Last year, the birds ate them all before we could harvest them.

The rabbits are still around, but the vegetables are secured behind a fence. I photographed this one eating tall grass in the strawberry bed. They seem to dislike the strawberries, which are now filling in the bed after a few days of good rain.

Late August harvests have been good, helped by five inches of rain in the last week. New bean plants have sprouted, as well as lettuce. Flowers are finally blooming from the seedlings I started in the house last winter. The raspberries are already setting their fall fruit.

The Garden Chronicles - August 9, 2009

This is the last blog entry featuring apricots this season! The phenomenal performance of our trees yielded 20 pints of apricot preserves, a gallon of dried apricots, fresh apricots daily that we ate for three weeks straight off the trees, and this delicious apricot-raspberry pie. Not to mention the shopping bag and a half that we delivered fresh to our local homeless shelter when we ran out of time to preserve more apricots. Alas, apricot production is now curtailed, with just one tree continuing to produce somewhat sour and worm-ridden fruits. Nevertheless, this was one of our most astounding harvests of summer fruit.

I don't how to replicate this pie since I made it without a recipe from leftover apricot preserves and fresh raspberries picked the same morning. It could have been a contender at the fair, but we ate it all ourselves and enjoyed every bite!

We had a nice and reasonable harvest recently, enough to keep us fed this week, of string beans, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, and pears. And one super-hot pepper that we are afraid to eat. It may go into a large batch of salsa.

It was a lovely day today which we enjoyed completely by taking a 10-mile run through our city and taking a dip at Lake Josephine.

What a wonderful summer we have had! The last few days brought us 4 inches of desperately needed rain, so no sprinkling of the garden today. The rain barrel overflowed, and we drained some of it into another barrel in case more rains come before we can use all the rainwater we have saved.

The Garden Chronicles - July 25, 2009

Today's harvest features the ever-productive apricots, raspberries, and beets. These are cylinder beets, the first time we have grown this variety. The raspberries are plentiful for July, and more are coming.

The aerial shot of the garden shows everything doing remarkably well. Some small rainfalls in July helped, but we have been watering heavily for most of this season. We are still several inches below average in rain, and this after drought conditions during the last seven years. The harvest so far is a surprise, since our expectations are always low during drought years. We are very satisfied with all our produce this month.

The Garden Chronicles - July 23, 2009 - The Year of Apricots

We proclaim 2009 the year of apricots. The harvest continues without pause. Everyday we fill the counter with apricots that we eat, freeze, can, dehydrate, bake into breads, muffins, cobblers, cakes, add to salads... If there is a way to prepare apricots, we will try it. We have given away almost as many as we have eaten.

Curiously, when we offer apricots to people we know, about a third accepts them with eagerness, a third rejects them with a sour face, and a third have never tried them before. Apricots are my favorite fruit, so I never would have guessed that such strong feelings against apricots exist. Either you love them or hate them, it seems. As much as I love them, I fear that even I will discover my limit of apricots. For now, I look forward to apricots for breakfast everyday for this entire year, as they continue to fill my freezer and pantry.

I read an article today in the Dining section of the New York Times about currants and how unknown they are in the United States. A small market has started for them in just a few states where they are now permitted to grow. They were banned for many years because they harbored a parasite that killed pine trees. We have grown red and black currants in our backyard for years adjacent to an evergreen without any issues. The currants have been consistent performers in our garden, producing abundantly each summer regardless of drought or flood, or of bitterly cold or mild winters. We make jellies and sorbets from them. Red currants used to be used in bakery's fingerprint cookies: red currant jam made the red center of the cookie. The bushes are easy to grow, maintenance-free, and very easy to harvest. So no reason to avoid growing currants anywhere they are permitted to grow.

The Garden Chronicles - July 19, 2009 - The Harvest Begins

This week marks the beginning of the season's summer harvest, and the star this week is apricots! Our four apricot trees are producing like crazy, and we are dehydrating, canning, and preserving them as quickly as they are falling from the trees. Below is just one day's harvest of apricots, and the trees are still loaded with more. Our local food shelf may benefit from this bumper crop. And to think that just eight months ago, I asked our tree specialist to take down the apricot trees because they were too large and produced low-volume, poor quality, worm-infested fruit. He suggested pruning the trees instead, so I gave them another chance. What a difference the tree pruning made.

Just one tree would have been enough fruit for us, and we have three others that are as heavy with apricots as this one.


Other harvests this week included Swiss chard, beans, raspberries, black currants, and red currants. The red currants made a fine sorbet; the black currants yielded seven jars of jelly, and the raspberries are producing as heavily as the apricots. Perhaps an apricot-raspberry sorbet or smoothie is in our future.

The Garden Chronicles - July 11, 2009

Catching up on photos of the garden. We have been busy with weeding, watering, and general yard work during the last few weeks. This flower garden looks better this summer than it has in years.

The vegetable garden is thriving. We have kept up with weeding and watering, and our hard work has paid off.

Although the radishes produced lots of leaves and flowers, we harvested just one radish. But the lettuce, Swiss chard, and mixed greens are plentiful. The kohlrabi and beets are also growing nicely.

Tomatoes, peppers, squash, cabbage, and tomatillo are all flowering and forming fruit. A few weeks more, and this section of the garden will be ready to harvest. The yellow wax beans will be ready to harvest tomorrow!

The strawberry bed was surprisingly weak this spring. We planted them last fall during a drought, so they got a poor start. The continued drought this spring made it tough for them to thrive, despite our sprinkling. They are just starting to spread throughout the bed. We have ordered more strawberries to fill in the empty spots this fall.

The herb garden has done fairly well so far. Parsley, basil, thyme, tarragon, chives, sorrel, and oregano have been bonuses to our salads and soups.

This bed has a tall row of Moonwalker sunflowers that are expected to grow ten feet tall. The beans next to them did not fill in well and must be replanted. A few plants are producing flowers. The cucumbers now have flowers.

The raspberries are just a week away from a large summer harvest. They look better than they did the last few years.

The grape vine also has made a strong comeback this year. We have harvested the leaves and stuffed them with rice, beans, and herbs for two meals now.

We have high hopes this summer and fall for big harvests of pears. The fruit is thick on this tree, and the other is equally full.

Our one surviving apple tree has produced fruit for the first time in several years. We owe its plenitude this summer to a winter pruning of its branches, as well as of the apricot trees that were shading it.

And here are some of the apricots that are ripening.