Garden Update - July 2009

It is hard to believe that this garden used to be lawn. Now it is providing produce for our family and some for our neighbors. The garden offers us a little oasis in our own yard that is not only beautiful to look at but oh so tasty and nutritious.

Dustin and I both love to come out and water, eat, or photograph our garden. It changes every day and there is always a surprise for us or the kids to discover.

Right now we are harvesting lots of blueberries, and red raspberries, nasturtiums, carrots, lettuce, peas, broccoli, beets, a few onions, and chard. Our tomatoes are starting to mature and are very abundant. We have one Early Girl, one Roma, one Pear, and dozens of volunteers from last year's Sun Gold Tomatoes.

I've noticed that without a tomato cage the branches of the Roma want to grow out and down to prop itself up under its own weight. The branches act like a dozen different braces, and then shoot back up to bear 5-6 flowers ripening sweet fruit. The plant does an ok job of supporting its own weight.

In addition to our food crops we are also growing chamomile for tea and cilantro for coriander for seed. We are also looking forward to pickling our beets and cucumbers so that we can enjoy the fruits of our labor well into Winter.

Happy Gardening!