My summer garden

I am so proud of myself for my gardening efforts this summer. I actually saw it all the way through! (something I have never done before) I weeded and watered and harvested and canned. These pictures show just a little and I must admit the pictures don't really look that impressive, but I know how much I worked at this little plot and so the pictures just don't do it justice! These are my purple beans which are really cool. We call them magic beans because when you boil them they turn green like a regular green bean and they taste delicious! Like with most things, a little color makes it more fun :) I canned about 2 dozen pints of these guys. They were the most fun to pick too. At this point the sunflowers were getting too heavy and falling over, but they were so fun and cheerful. I got them all as little starts from my friend Tina's garden. I'm hoping I will have a bunch of naturally occurring starts of my own next year. The corn didn't turn out that great. We only got a few ears and they weren't very good. I think that it got planted too late. That is mostly the fault of the MOLE I had who kept going under my rows and either eating the seeds or making them disappear into his tunnels so I kept having to replant. And then if I had a little plant growing when he tunnelled again, the plants would fall over! It was quite a battle. We did trap and kill one mole, but I think there was more than one! The two rows of beans are in front of the corn.

This is a view of my 'rocky plot' where I planted an apple tree, potatoes (in the foreground), cucumbers, and pumpkins (in the back). Looking forward to red potatoes through the winter :) The pumpkins were recently harvested and put on the front porch. We got about 12 in various sizes and colors (orange and green). We had LOTS of cucumbers so I made LOTS of bread and butter pickles. I'm sure I have more than my family will ever eat so I will be sharing (hmmm, Christmas gifts?.... ha ha!) The dill pickles I did were REALLY sour and too mushy so I only did one batch. I'll try again next year. Zoe was the best cucumber eater in our family. She enjoyed slicing one up and eating it with ranch dip. It was a good after school treat for her!

One of the pumpkins growing out into the grass and weeds... All in all I am so glad I planted a garden this year. I learned a lot and am really looking forward to next year! I feel so lucky to have to room we do in our yard and it was really fun getting the kids involved too. It was a great summer activity. Also, I have to say thanks to my mom, Gwen, for helping too. She was here most of the summer so we worked together a lot after our morning walks. She bordered both plots with rocks and it looked really neat until the grass and weeds on the outside started growing so fast we couldn't keep up. She also did a bunch of canning of the tomatoes and blackberries!