I haven’t done a garden update in a while, even though my garden has been quietly growing throughout winter.

Unfortunately, the bed I planted in was underlaid with chicken wire over three years ago, so the gopher was able to make his way into the bed and was starting to eat my vegetables. I had to move everything from the invaded bed, into a bed that was underlaid only last year.  … click here to continue reading February Gardening 2010

Earlier this year I learned how to extend the life of my seeds.  Here is my gallon jar of seeds that I keep in the bottom shelf of my refrigerator.  If you look closely, you can see the rubber bands around some packets. I have bundled the seed packets together by season. The ones piled on top are all the seeds that I can use at this time of the … click here to continue reading October 2009 Garden Update

My garden is still producing.  The watermelon plants have done wonderfully, and I was able to harvest a watermelon a couple of days ago. It is a Malali watermelon. So far this is the largest one, although I believe this variety is supposed to be 10-15 pounds. It came in just under 5 pounds, at 4 pounds 14 ounces. This grew on the netting I made, and I’d given it … click here to continue reading September 2009 Gardening

Amazingly I managed to harvest some eggplant from the garden yesterday morning. I was surprised to see how many eggplant had grown over the last week or so. I guess since the temperatures are not so horribly high, although we were scheduled for a heatwave high of 114°F yesterday.  In the photo you’ll see mostly Lavender Touch eggplant, a few Raveena eggplant, and some basil!

These are eggplant that are old … click here to continue reading Garden Gleanings in August

Most of my garden is dead due to the heat this month. The average for August was 94°F. The highest temperature was 115.6°F and the low was 65.3°F. This desolate barren bed used to be the squash bed.

I couldn’t use this bed throughout the summer.  I had a brainstorm last spring about using pallets with chicken wire stapled to the bottom as a way to keep out the gophers that … click here to continue reading August 2009 Garden Update

All my squash plants died last week. The watermelon plants are still struggling. Actually that’s not completely true.  One is thriving very nicely, I don’t know what its problem is. It is sending out runners all over the place. No flowers or baby watermelons, just prolific green vines.

However, my tomato plants are struggling. I had hoped to muster up some energy over the weekend to give them a trim and … click here to continue reading My Poor Garden – It’s Too Hot!

I’m sorry to say the chard died due to my neglect of my garden. I’d asked Mr. A to water last week, and he got out there every morning faithfully for me, but I assumed he knew what to water.  He didn’t realize the shelter over the Swiss Chard was there for a reason, so he didn’t water that bed. By the time I thought to ask him about it, … click here to continue reading Swiss Chard Trials – FAILED

I just found out about a fairly new non-profit organization which allows backyard gardeners to donate their extra produce!! I have had such a bounty of eggplant and I can only eat, share and freeze so much of it, I am thrilled to find a place that will help me find food pantries that would accept my organic vegetables. Ample Harvest program was created so that food pantries … click here to continue reading Share Your Garden Harvest

11 Lavender Touch Eggplant 2#12oz
3 Scalloped Squash plus four unpollinated baby squash 1#11oz
7 Pickling cukes 1#8oz
2 regular cukes 12 oz
3 Tomatoes 9 oz
4 zucchini squash 3#1.4oz
1 Yellow Crookneck squash 4.4oz
14 Raveena Eggplant 1#9oz

For breakfast I cut up two eggplants I had from last weekend’s harvest, a small crookneck squash, 3 tomatoes (1 leftover from slicing last night for hamburgers, two with ugly scars that were perfectly delicious, even though ugly) … click here to continue reading June 19 Garden Harvest