Sunday, August 09, 2009

Growing Strong.


The garden is in full swing, and we feel her pull every day. We are growing a lot of things in our tiny yard, but with such good soil, organic fertilizers, and loving care, it is a dense jungle filled with beans, peas, lettuce, squash, peppers, tomatoes, berries, herbs, flowers, seeds and more.


While the general day to day gardening is my domain - and I do love strolling through, watering, picking, tyeing, snipping, placing - the whole family works together happily most days to keep it all going. Today my guys picked quarts of wonderberries, which we made into a delicious jelly - 3 pints worth!


Even with our small space we are bringing in buckets full of food every day! And what cannot be eaten within a week is immediately placed in the dehydrator to dry, is blanched and frozen, or is canned.


Even our deck is a place for preserving food, as we hang herbs, cure garlic, or hang up large heads of sunflower seeds to dry. We have pots of fresh herbs on our deck, which we use for dinner each day, or dry in the dehydrator for winter!


The garden has become a jungle - so lush and green. I must look carefully to find all of its bounty...and it is often like a treasure hunt, finding something where we least expect it.


We have cucumbers growing up a tree. Well, one up a tree, one up a sunflower - all good!


Our rain barrel (yes, that is it above!) is completely covered in plants - including a wandering pumpkin that decided hanging from a rain barrel is the perfect spot!


We have beans and morning glories growing up twine, reaching from the ground, up the deck, and up the sides of the gazebo. There are dozens of tendrils inside the gazebo too, dangling flowers and vegetables wherever there is a space. We have lemon balm, nasturtiums, borage and calendula - for salads, teas, or a vase. While we harvest some sunflowers for ourselves, we also plant many just for the bees and the birds. There are loud excited goldfinches in the garden most of every day, picking the heads clean!


August is when we get busy with the garden and the kitchen. But it is so much fun, and well worth the effort when in February we are eating garden vegetables while watching the snow fall. Although it is very hot this week with thunderstorms and heat warnings, I can feel that autumn is coming. The garden is peaking, and we are ready!

17 comments:

Stephanie said...

woohoo!
:)
Looking fabulous. I never expected anything less!!

It's a very busy and exciting time, to be sure.
xx

TCallihan said...

Absolutely fabulous! What an amazing garden. You are truly an inspiration to use the area that you have to its fullest potential.
Those vegetables look so yummy and the best part is that they are full of love too.

tiff said...

you are a fabulous gardner...wowzers!
your photos are absolutely beautiful.
and your story tells it all.

january will be a fantastic time to look back at this post and remember where your great food came from!

fun times!

Sam said...

Unbelievable gardens! You are so self sufficient! I love all your dehydrating and canning. All you need is a couple chickens and a cow or goat and you'd be set. You'd never have to leave your home. :) You are very inspiring, thanks for sharing all your loveliness.

christie said...

Looks amazing!! I love summer!

Lynch Family said...

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! Aren't those purple pole beans prolific? We are drowning in them, 7 more pints of dilly beans today and 5 quarts frozen. We are on day 5 straight of potatoes from the garden. Mother Nature rocks! And you are quite an inspiration.

Candace said...

Wow, that's beautiful! What abundance!

Michelle said...

Denise, your garden is wonderful. What a bounty! Good work. I love your flowers too.

Dawn said...

Niiiiice!
Checked out your CSA on your food blog too...you are so good to can and dehydrate!

TheOrganicSister said...

it's all so gorgeous!!

~Tara

Lisa said...

Amazing and beautiful!!!
lisa :)

Sam said...

I love your garden - it's just amazing!
You wouldn't like to pop over to give me a quick gardening lesson, would you? :-)

Theresa said...

Wow!

Micha said...

I like your wonderful pictures!

Shana said...

Wonderful! It is such an exciting time! And you have ripe tomatoes now in WI? All our neighbors, including us, still have fat green ones... And that pumpkin growing up the rain barrel, fantastic!

Alis said...

I always love you garden updates. I really like the watering pumpkin. We accidentally got some kabocha growing up our gourd trellis. They are really cute hanging in there, chubby and nubbly amoungst the elegant bird houses.

The Magic Onions said...

This is such a wonderful garden post. Your bounty is utterly beautiful! I bet those heirloom tomatoes were delicious. I'd love you to share this on Friday's Nature Table on my blog today. Pop on over and use Mr Linky to link to it.
Blessings and magic.