We've been slightly changing the garden the past few years to be more efficient and meet the needs of the space. Last year we re-did the fencing, took out a tree, and placed the rhubarb in a straight row rather than a semi-circle. Over Spring Break this year, we moved the strawberry box from the area next to the rhubarb and peach tree to the southwest corner of the plot at the end of the raspberry rows. It really opened up the space!
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| May 28 |
We planted the garden at the end of May, and I stayed pretty well on top of weeding it all until the beginning of August, when I quit. I went out almost every morning for a certain time period, and worked on it in a rotating pattern. I enjoyed the quiet serene in the morning, and enjoyed making the space look better and watching the plants grow!
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| June 18 |
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| June 18 |
This year, we rotated the potato, corn, and pumpkins on the east end of the garden. The corn was in two rows on the east end, parallel to the fence. We grew two varieties of potatoes: red and Yukon gold. They were planted in three rows on the north east end, perpendicular to the corn. There were two types of pumpkins: Connecticut Field and mini's, and they were planted in 6 hills south of the potatoes. There were several starter potato and pumpkin plants that came up from when the ground was rototilled, too. I pulled a lot of the potato out, but left several russet that were growing in a sort-of-row pattern. I left all the pumpkin plants that were already growing (there were just 5 that were growing in random spots), and it's a good thing, too, because they produced the medium pumpkins that I made into pumpkin puree! On the west end of the garden, we grew two large rows of red and golden raspberries, a June-bearing strawberry variety in the strawberry box (that I'm going to replace next year because I just realized WHY after several years they've only grow once a year!!!), two rows of yellow onions, a row of rhubarb, two peach trees (that started growing again after being frozen and half-dying in the winter of 2016-17) and this year I tried planting cucumbers again, which I haven't done for several years.
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| The east end of the garden - August 1 |
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| The west end of the garden - August 1 |
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| The southwest corner - August 1 |
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| The only harvest of strawberries we got in June |
The raspberries had the most successful year yet!!! I was picking and canning them constantly from July to September. It seemed like the crops came on in waves, and sometimes there would be enough to make jam with, and sometimes there wouldn't be. I made 3 types of freezer jams totaling 48 pints: red raspberry, golden raspberry, and mixed (when I didn't have enough of just one kind and would combine them). After I picked them, I would wash and sort them to determine if there was enough. At the beginning of the season, there were far more golden raspberries, but by the end of the season, the golden raspberries had waned and there were far more red raspberries. I didn't take a photo of every time I picked raspberries, but these pictures just give you an idea of how often I was picking, and how much was being produced.
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| July 14 |
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| July 18 |
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| July 23 |
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| August 25 |
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| September 3 |
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| September 8 |
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| September 16 |
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| September 27 |
The cucumbers also had their most successful year! I've NEVER grown so many, and had such large cucumbers, either! It was exciting! Josh and I picked the first round over Labor Day weekend, and had near 20! I picked again at the end of September when I was on Harvest Break, and had about the exact same result! We couldn't believe how much had come out of 4 hills (I had planted 6 hills, but 2 never came into fruition).
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| September 3 |
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| September 26 |
The large pumpkins didn't all grow, even though I had 3 hills of them--only one hill grew, and out that, I got 2 large pumpkins and one small one. I was so grateful all the donor pumpkin plants grew, because we got ten medium-sized pumpkins from them! The mini's did great: I planted 3 hills, and they all grew, producing enough tiny pumpkins that I could share with my class, use them as decorations, and give some away.
The corn didn't do as well as it had in previous years. It only grew enough for us to have corn on the cob for dinner 3-4 times. There wasn't any left over to make freezer corn with (luckily my friend Tanis gave us a TON from her farm). It didn't get as good of water and had less sunlight where it was planted, so that rotation spot won't be repeated.
The onions grew better than last year in the new spot we put them between the rhubarb and strawberries, but the ground hadn't been rototilled there and they didn't grow very deep as a result. The onions were all small because of the non-aerated soil. Next year we will make sure to rototill that area as well.
The potatoes did alright. We picked several for dinners throughout September, and I finally picked the rest at the end of September over Harvest Break. We've made soups and mashed potatoes and roast potatoes with them already, and they're nearly gone.
The transparent apple tree didn't grow fruit abundantly this year, although it grows fruit every other year, and this should've been the fruit-bearing year. I found about a dozen apples growing on it total--which was rather unusual. The other apple tree bears fruit every year, and I picked from it several times.
The peach trees had growth on it this year, which was good, because they were so stunted last year from the hard freezer burn from the winter, that I was afraid they would completely die. The bigger tree even produced about 10 peaches, which was a fun surprise!
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| September 26 |
I haven't made freezer pumpkin puree for 4 years, but I'd used up most of what I made last time, so since I had extra pumpkins this year, I decided to make the most of them! I finally got around to processing the pumpkins into puree in December over Christmas break. I made 8 quarts out of the 6 medium pumpkins that I had left.
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| December 22 |
like having the garden close to my home, and all our crops in it (we used to plant the corn and potatoes in the pumpkin patch down by the road). I feel like it's just the right size to meet our needs, and also just the right size to stay on top of the weeding and watering! It's very fulfilling to grow our own food!
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