This year has been going much better than last year, already we've eaten a ton out of the garden. Snap peas, a bounty of salad greens, cucumbers, yellow squash, strawberries, basil . . . it is so fun to create meals out of the garden. I know lots of people do this every day, but the thrill never gets old for me!
The other thing I am working on is figuring out what will grow in the garden through the fall/winter. When my friends built the beds they put in some hoops for turning the beds in to mini green houses and last year we didn't take advantage of them. According to Sunset we can do a few different root crops and relatively hardy greens. So far I put in three broccoli plants and I need to get other starts/seeds soon.
We have quite a bit of empty space in the beds and I'm not sure how to be more efficient with the planting. I suppose that will get easier over time and trial and error though.
The one thing that IS going strong in the yard are the grape vines! See that cluster above? There are dozens more just like it. YUM. Those grapes are tiny and sweet when they ripen and I could stand there all day gorging myself.
I am glad to announce that our plum trees have very, very few plums on it. Yes, I love plums as much as the next person, and even let people pick gobs and gobs off the trees last year, but they are a giant pain in the butt and are very messy. Both trees are right against our deck, as well. Don't tell anyone, but I desperately want them cut down. Our apple tree also has very few apples on it. I could take or leave the apples. They are nowhere near as messy as the plums, but I don't do much with them. I am not in to canning or anything.
Recently I went on a rampage over how much work our house and yard were and how much I wanted a house with basically no yard. However, the more quiet time I spend in the garden, the more I realize that sometimes, the work is worth it. This time of year at least, the work is worth it.
The yard has a looooong ways to go before it's really awesome and comfortable, but considering we have lived here a bit over two years, I think we've come so far. Now we just need to replace the shed, take down one or both plum trees, trim the apple tree, plant more stuff around the edges, do something with the narrow strip on the south side of our house, get the front yard in order . . . I tend to look at the negative, but really there is a mountain of positive things about the yard, if I would just let myself notice them.
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