backyardharvest

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I can't for the life of me remember this strawberrys name. It's lush, hearty, and has produced steadily all summer and shows no signs of stopping even with our cooler nights lately. There are a ton of runners and I'll definitely be spreading them around the garden. I need maximum strawberries.

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Behold an artichoke

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Earlier this year I tried a no dig garden in the backyard as an experiment. I've never successfully raised corn before so I was exceptionally pleased with the corn we got despite the plants themselves being a bit undersized. The potatoes were likewise a mitigated success. They were good sized but not very plentiful. Those were the Vivaldi potatoes the russet potatoes are still growing as I planted them later. I think the results are good enough to prove the feasibility of converting a big chunk of the backyard into our very own Milpa.

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Current currant situation.

The red and black ones are ready for harvest. The pink ones need maybe another week and the white ones are still very much unripe.

I usually harvest them on the same day, so it's interesting to see the difference this year.

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Morning Garden

I spent a pleasant hour in the garden from almost-seven to almost-eight. It wouldn't seem at a glance that I got much done, but that is because weeding and thinning young carrots is such a finicky, tedious task. However, if I wait until the weeds are bigger, they'll strangle the carrots, and if I don't think the ones that are crowded they won't grow well.

I planted Purple Star carrots in that empty bed. Thinned a big handful of crowded carrots from the bed just downhill. And spent a ridiculous amount of time on the bed just sprouting (closest to the camera). Carrots are the very dickens for trying to grow in thick clumps (which they can't do successfully). Pulling up all but one takes patience.

But, was I alone? Perish the thought.

I came back in with a few young beet greens and a batch of small, young carrots.

Hard to believe that it's light just before 5 am, but when I took that photo of the sun coming up it was around 7:30. It takes a while! It'll get hot fast, now, but the early morning is cool and wonderful.

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The nursery at sunset.

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Overwintering, 2022

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Taking cuttings from sweet potato plants is a simple process that allows you to propagate new plants and enjoy the benefits of growing lot of sweet potatoes. In this full guide, we'll guide you through the simple process and delve into the significance of this method. Discover the advantages of growing sweet potatoes from cuttings and get ready to create your own successful sweet potato garden.

Sweet Potato Propagation: A Gardener's Guide

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I just discovered/realized that butter beans are designed to fling their seeds for dispersal.

Normally you harvest them green, so I hadn't seen them like this before, but garden things got away from me and a bunch of them dried on the plants. Which is fine - still edible, more storable! - but see how fat those hanging pods look? Much wider than the beans inside, because they're under tension, and if you touch them, they pop! open, scattering beans about. See how they twist?

This makes sense, evolutionarily, but it does make harvesting them a little harder. Really gotta get your hand around them.

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It took just on an hour to pod them all.

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LOOK AT HER

my beautiful Moon and Stars baby watermelon plant

I love her so much

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I had to pull all the cabbages because the heat wave will make them bolt. So here it is: the final pile of cabbages! Not too bad for my first time growing a brassica. It took them way too long, but to be fair I was growing them in the off-season. They braved the cold and were low-maintenance. And they do taste good! I’ll be adding them to my fall/winter plans for the future. Maybe I’ll inter-plant with cauliflower or broccoli.

These are going to be split between me, the neighbors, and my coworkers. Thinking of trying some vegetarian cabbage rolls. Maybe next year I’ll plan ahead and give homemade kimchi a shot.

One of the cabbages was trying to make two heads.

Baby picture! How far they’ve come

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My garden is not in the bucolic setting I would prefer. No acreage no forest or stream. But I tend it and add to it each year. My thoughts are bent upon it and I walk through it in the coolness of the evening. Where ever else life might take me I will take this garden, my garden, with me.

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Last year I sleep walked through the years garden and it showed. The harvest was raggedy and the plants suffered. Instead of planting garlic and cold hardy vegetables I decided to let the garden rest under a cover crop over the winter. I have since dug it under and planted out the onions garlic and peas that will tolerate out cold wet springs and have started out warmer weather plants in the pop up greenhouse I put where our almond tree used to be after it was knocked over during a pretty bad ice storm that left the town without power for a week over the winter. I also started a no dig bed in the back yard where I hope to grow potatoes and corn. I covered the grass in cardboard then a layer of compost from our bin that's been left alone for about 2 years then a layer of soil and finally a thick layer of hay. It's rough and ugly but its not finished yet and if it grows food I'll consider it a great success.

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London WW2

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A hellebore in the sun.