Garden to Harvest

From this . . .

. . . to this!

And from this . . .

(I especially love pole beans, they look so impressive

when they're teepeed up like this! And they're easier to pick.)

. . . to this!

And while these tomatoes may LOOK impressive . . .



. . . they're really not going to give the yield they should. There are 8 plants in there, and ironically the most yield is going to come from the Sweet 1000 cherry tomatoes. Tasty, but not very helpful in the canning department.

And as for my corn . . .

Those of you who know how to plant corn, you really DO need to plant it in block formation for the best pollination. I knew about it, but was hoping against hope that I could cheat nature and utilize this narrow bed between the neighbor's house and ours. Every so often Ryan or I would go out and brush our hands against the corn pollen, or shake the stalks in the hopes that they would pollinate each other, but . . . we're only going to get enough to sweeten our dinner table one or two times. The beets and beans were much more generous. The pictures above are only representative, I just didn't feel like going downstairs to our storage to count the jars! 

Our growing season was very odd this year, not as much sun as usual, too much rain (my cucumber plants actually drowned!), and not enough bees to spread the pollen. Next year I'm planting lavender not too far from the vegetable garden. The bees love it, and I hope they'll exhibit their pleasure and gratitude by visiting all my vegetable blooms. As far as the sun and rain . . . anyone know a good Native American dance to chase away the rain? (I guess if we did, people would be dancing all over the place in the great Northwest!)

On the other hand:

This has been fun to watch this summer . . . a lupine growing in the middle of our bluestone patio. I usually can't grow much there (like some pretty moss) because the combined lack of water on the patio plus the heat from the warmed stones prohibits anything except weeds. I usually spray them a couple of times during the summer. As I was spraying this year, I noticed the lupine starts, and decided, what the heck, I'll let it alone and see what happens. Charlotte and Chloe often play in the back yard during their visits, and their play table and chairs often ended up being over the lupine, which shielded it from too much sun and protected it from getting trampled. But when they removed it this fall, this plant had a burst of growth. Kinda pretty, huh!

I love my garden!