It is October and the garden just keeps on going. Finally ripped out the beans and the summer squash but the tomatoes, eggplant and peppers aren’t ready to give up yet.
Oct. 4 harvest. Time to make eggplant parmigiana.
These mums in the corner bed are a bright spot of happy while the rest of the yard is starting to fade.
The last 6 weeks have been crazy at work — way too many vacations has translated into me working way too many hours. When I’m not at work, I feel like all am doing is harvesting and processing the extreme bounty out of the garden!
Aug. 17’s harvest.
Aug 19 harvest
Processing tomatoes. And making sauce to freeze. Some of it will become my favorite veggie lasagna, with zucchini instead of noodles.
The freezer is already full of bags of processed tomatoes and beans. And there are still weeks left in the growing season. Thanks again super awesome irrigation system!
Remember how I said that I may have planted too many tomatoes?
Yup! Full-blown jungle. Rest of the garden is doing great too. Super thankful for the new irrigation during our ridicules heat wave!
Annual Fourth of July tomato check-in.
Last year I went to this plant sale — Master Gardeners’ Mother’s Day Sale — that everyone told me was suppose to be the end-all be-all of plant sales. But I went on Sunday afternoon and it was completely picked over. I ended up with a lemon cucumber and few tomatoes but no squash, eggplant, etc. I was really disappointed. That said the stuff I did get did great, so I resolved to go on Saturday this year.
On Thursday, I met up with some friends and mentioned I was planning this and one of my besties asked to come too. So Saturday morning I hauled my butt out of bed at reasonable time, fetched Angela and headed into the bowels of Vancouver for the sale. We both hit the motherload and I am came home with everything I wanted except for a few varieties of pepper — but they are easy to find at Fred Meyer or Lowes. Super bonus is that veggies are only $1 each — so the whole garden for less than $25!
The Plan — Many a cold winter night went into dreaming about this!
Spent all day Sunday getting things planted:
4 kinds of Eggplant, 2 winter squash (hubbard and delicata), beans and peas. And some very sad onions. Also argula and lettuce (they were planted a few weeks ago and had sprouted nicely.)
Peppers and radishes (a few weeks old too).
Tomatoes — 8 different kinds (Stupice, green zebra, lemon boy, orange, San Marzena roma, Pink, Brandywine). May be too many but I love tomatoes and they freeze well. Carrots and beets planted on the edges.
Summer squash (zucchini, yellow, patty pan) and Butternut winter squash
Cucumbers — Lemon and regular
Overall — Looking great and really excited for harvest time. And with the new irrigation system, hopefully everything won’t die!
Bonus Buy:
A happy little maple tree
Angela wasn’t really into veggies so I spent some time looking at trees and perennials with her. I couldn’t resist this awesome little Japanese maple — especially for only $9! Not sure where it is going to live yet but it makes me happy to look at!
The end of summer is always crazy and I have been busier than I have every been — mostly covering for people on vacation but I also have a few big projects going on at work. It has also been crazy hot, so on my days off I am usually pretty worn out and if I wasn’t, it has generally been too hot to work in the yard.
Upside of that is that, assuming I can keep them watered, the tomatoes have been great this year. I was pretty bummed out that the plant that was suppose to be a stupice (my favorite slicing tomato) turned out to be a grape tomato. Oh well. Also, once again, the stripy roma keeps getting blossom rot — problem with under watering. But the green zebra, black krum, and yellow boy are awesome and super flavorful, although not very big — think golf ball.
Black krums and green zebras
Lemon boys. These made awesome sauce!
The full mix, from a different harvest than the other two pix. The yellow boys became the sauce to go with the zucchini, which was transformed into a kick-ass veggie lasagna.
Summer is always the worst time at work because everyone wants to be on vacation, meaning those of us left in the office are swamped. Thankfully the yard is taking care of itself and looking very lovely.
The beans are going nuts. And the new bed along the back of the house is filling in and looking cheerful.
The cucumber and winter squash bed is doing great and producing. Letting the argula bolt was a very good idea.
Some cute color in the front porch corner
Rose bush is looking really nice this year. Hoping I am finally getting a handle on the black spot.
New hostas are being a favorite under the front window.
First big squash harvest! Also lemon and regular cucumbers, beans and the first of the grape tomatoes! Oh, and an eggplant.
The red monarda has been a showstopper this year! And the hummingbirds are loving it — and that means I’m loving it!
Every time I go outside there is at least one, and usually more, hummingbird enjoying the monarda!
More highlights of yard cute right now …
Siberian iris and mom daisies in the front yard
The shasta daisies Mr. Kern gave me are blooming and being super cute in the front yard
The front bern looks lovely right now
Lovely yellow coreopsis at the berm end.
The pink monarda is also blooming but the hummingbirds don’t love it as much. looks cute with the lavender and feverfew.
Latest big harvest.
Harvest — radishes, strawberries, beets, basil (trimmed off to encourage bushiness)
Feverfew is one of my favorite flowers. It is a comfort flower for me — reminding me of my childhood. My mom always planted it on the northside of the Loveland house outside my bedroom window. It has a very distinct smell — some people think it is gross but I like it. Plus it is cute and cheerful. When I started planning my first real yard in Portland at the rex Hamilton I searched everywhere for starts or seeds and couldn’t find it anywhere. Finally Mom brought me some she had saved from the Loveland house. It didn’t take long for things to get out of control.
Then when I moved to this house I somehow managed not to bring any feverfew plants with me and I felt like I was in the same mess. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) because of its tendency to spread seed like crazy, some plants came up in one of my pots. And next thing I knew it was everywhere — which in my first year garden I didn’t mind. This year, things are starting to look a little more established and the feverfew started to go bananas! Coupled with the chamomile that came up from seed from a plant Kaitlyn had put in one of my pots I have little white flowers with yellow centers everywhere!
The herb bed is overflowing in huge feverfew and chamomile.
The purple and red looks cute with all of the white little daisy flowers
The rest of the yard is looking lovely too. The Garden has been in for a month and so far, so good. Should be getting radishes soon.
The peppers are looking a little washed out but the beets, 2 tomatoes, carrots and eggplant are doing well.
Radishes and 3 tomatoes
Potatoes are still going crazy
squash, beans, arugula and onions. Pole bed with winter squash and cucs is looking a little washed out too. Needs nitrogen.
Bonus shoots of steps and Lily.
This little project is ending up really cute
Lily loving the sun
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So far this summer has been hot and hectic, but the garden is doing great. Following tradition, I made sure to snap some pictures of the tomatoes (and the rest of the garden).
This spring has been fantastic! Here are some more lovely yard pix.
The first strawberry harvest of the year. Came from the 5 plants that a co-worker pawned off on me. And then they multiplied and are baring sweet bounty!
I don’t like roses but these still make me smile. And I almost have the black spot under control! Such high maintenance!
All of the herb bed plants are doing great but it seems like everything is purple. So I threw in some red verbena to mix things up a little.
More purple in the basket but there is a red verbena that came up from seed so the whole thing will be very striking soon.
I was so disappointed about my lewisia last year — I got them from a magazine cause they looked so cute and it said they were a hardy fast-growing border. They did squat. Was thrill today to see one finally bloomed!
I am sucker for gerber daisies and I got a killer deal on this one. The yellow and the purple are so cute!
Mom gave me this last year and it didn’t bloom, so I was really happy to see it do its thing. And it smells really nice. The rest of this bed is a mess but claradendren cheers everything up.
The Overall[s] Adventure 
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