‘Thar She Grows

I’ve been extremely slackeriffic about posting garden photos this year.  I’ve posted exactly zero.  Whoops.  Go me.

Let’s get down to the brass tacks of it.

This summer has been AWESOME.  I’m seeing production and growth in things that typically I don’t see until mid to end of August. And keep in mind that I even planted everything stupid late!  After three craptastic summers, this year has been fabulous for the plants.

My lasagna beds are still plugging away, and I said the test of this method would be if things grew in them.  Um, yeah, they did.  They flourished!  We’ve had many warm days, and I’ve barely watered at all this summer.  Even without watering, the plants are strong, healthy, and growing.  And the weeds?  Almost non-existent!

This is my main bed (9 tomatoes, parsley, rosemary, chives, cucumbers, a TON of lavender, and basil).

Bottom, center you’ll see my really late started seedlings for the fall garden

Lavender (bee porn) and a flamme tomato that is about to be ready for picking!

Every year I look at this main bed, and think I’m totally wasting the space.  Which I am, but frankly, I’m already overloaded and don’t need to kill myself.  It is lovely to look at from the kitchen window, and provides months of tomato delight.  A win!

Blueberries (planted last year) under the kitchen window, some recently added strawberries, and a pie pumpkin.

Some of the new blueberries

The raspberry bed now.

The same raspberry bed (from the opposite angle) in March of last year.

A bee all up on the raspberry bushes’ business.  See him?

The zucchini that I planted too late and have probably killed.  Sigh.  The brown strip you see in the left part of the photo is actually a scrap from the bag of coffee grounds that I stole from Starbucks.

Garlic that needs to be pulled and then cured (dried for a few weeks for long-term storage).  I’m just about to run out of last year’s, so it couldn’t come soon enough!

Green beans.  Planted late.  Oh well.

My mini-drawf apple tree.  This is year two and we have three apples!

Those weird brown blobs?  I saw a table at the Mother Earth News fair where people use little nylon footies tied around apples to prevent pests.  Apparently it’s the easiest way to grow organic apples.  I didn’t need the 1,000 footies they were selling, so I totally ganked these from Macy’s.

The three beds that Troy built last year.  They covered up two parking spaces, but oh well, we didn’t really need them but once a year.

Potatoes almost ready for digging!

Potatoes and tomatoes

More tomatoes!

Impenetrable tomato fort.  You shall not pass!

My asparagus that I planted last year.  Asparagus takes a few years before it produces.

Another tomato about to ripen

When we moved in to this house, I ripped out any perennial that I couldn’t eat, or didn’t attract a whole grip of bees.  These roses are gorgeous and the bees love them.

The bees love these lilies, but that isn’t why I kept them.

After my nanna died, my family had my grandpa over for Easter dinner (which eventually evolved to every single Sunday – a tradition we still carry on today).  My grandpa, always depending on my nanna to tell him what to bring to such events, would bring my sister and I a potted Easter lily.

Turns out, we’re both pretty allergic to them.

The second he would leave for dinner, the lilies went outside, and we could breathe again.  Eventually they would get planted somewhere random in the garden.  And it turns out they come back every year.

I can’t walk by these gorgeous and fragrant flowers without thinking of my gramps.

My garden produces food, security, and memories that feed my family and my soul.