Pictures of my vegetable garden for 2019:
Last time I documented my gardening journey, was 2016.
It's time to start again and I hope you enjoy it.
New stuff for this year:
Safflower Safflower is a herbaceous, thistle-like annual plant.
It is commercially cultivated for vegetable oil extracted from the seeds. My plants were about 3 feet tall with yellow globular flower heads. Each flower contains 10 - 15 white seeds.
I'm using my seeds to feed Cardinals and other winter birds.
Cauliflower
I thought I didn't have any, because the Resident Rabbit ate most of the cabbages, but he left me one Cauliflower, two Cabbages and "no" Brussels Sprouts.
Thank you Mom for the seeds, it was so good.
Surprises this year:
My red grapevine bloomed this year. That was exciting.
Raccoons ate the grapes, but it was fun to watch while it lasted.
Disappointments this year:
It has to be my peppers. Lots of green peppers, but only 2-3 rippen on the plant.
As for the produce:
I had some, however I didn't have enough to share, but the wild life served themselves anyway.
All and All - it was a good year and the gardening company was a bonus.
Usually I garden alone, but this year I had my Mom gardening with me.
Vegetables - 2019
Organic Vegetable Gardening with Pictures.
We started our gardening year by repairing our fence.
Repairing the fence:
We decide to use Galvanized steel posts, to protect from rust and corrosion.Our fence was less than 10 years old and it was already falling apart.
It looks a lot better now.
Picture of the fence almost finished.
The metal post are certainly solid in the ground.
"No more wooden posts for us."
Spring has arrived.
We wait a whole year for our spring bulbs to bless us.However my Resident Rabbits and Squirrels think that I planted flower bulbs for them to eat.
They don't even eat all of the flowers, they just chew through the stem and leave the flower lying there. I have seen squirrels chew through the stem and then go for the bulbs, but I have all of my bulbs covered with chicken wire. The rabbits are eating the flowers and leaving me the stems. Between the two of them I spend an hour in the morning picking up the leftovers. Time to invest on electric fencing.
First Harvest - 2019
Now we're starting to eat well. There's always an abundance amount of fruit and vegetables to eat.Now it's about finding the time to cook and eating it fresh.
This year we had lots of Carrots, including some that I didn't sow like; purple carrots.
Some Parsnips and Peanuts, but they were nothing to write Mom about.
Raddishes - 2019
This is the first year I grew more than a dozen raddishes at one time. They usually just bolt as soon as they start growing.So, I give up trying to grow them.
However when my Mom sent me Raddish seeds, I had to try them. I froze some of the Raddishes to roast during the winter. They were great in salads as well.
Potatoes and Cucumbers
Potatoes did "ok", but I expected better foliage growth and more potatoes. Potatoes are a real struggle for me to grow in my soil.Cucumbers did better this year than last year.
I had cucumbers growing this year, until the end of October. Usually my cucumbers plants are done growing by the end of August.
So, that was good.
Eggplants did really well this year. I don't know if it was my Mom's seeds or they finally decided not to give me a hard time.
Onions grown from Seed
Normally I grow my onions from "onions sets", but most of the time they would "bolt" and leaving me without any onions.However, I did keep the seeds to see what happened when I sowed them.
Well, they grew, of course! I'm pretty proud of these. They are not huge and I have no clue what they are, accept for the red ones.
They are onions! :)
I also received lot of advise "how to grow onions" from my Mom. My trouble is; I live in zone 5-6 and we don't have a long growing season.
Flowers in the Garden
Flowers grow wherever they want in my garden.I only pulled them out if they're in my way.
I love the colour in the garden and they're also my cutting flowers.
Freezing and Pickling
This year I froze most of my of my fruits and vegetables.It helps a lot when your Mom kindly buys you an extra freezer.
I pickled some onions to try it out. I think I will do it again next year.
Over-Winter Plants
You got it! Peppers! Still green!I brought in 3 Peppers plants, Swiss Chard, Spinach and Parsley.
They still look healthy and the peppers have new growth, come january, it might be another story.
Thank you everyone
for supporting homes-n-gardens!
Thank you Mom for gardening with me this year.Thank you "brucethebuilder" for helping me with the fence.
Cheers Everyone!
See you next year!
Organic Vegetable Gardening with Pictures - 2019:
We started out our gardening season by repairing our wooden fence, on the west side of our yard.
Digging and mixing concrete in the rain was at times a little challenging.
Then we had a death in the family and we debated whether or not we wanted to finish the fence. Through our pain we finished it.
I missed most of the spring blooms, however what I did see, it was glorious.
The spring yellow tulips and the bright yellow Forsythia flowers; was like a warm hug from the heavens, even though the rabbits ate most of the tulips.
All in all, 2019 was a good productive year.
I did tidy up a lot of loose ends around the garden and I'm quite happy with the results.
My heavy clay vegetable beds are getting easier to dig and I'm starting to see some life back in the soil. The soil is lighter and I'm finally seeing worms enjoying their new environment.
As for the vegetables, some did well and others; just needed more time to ripen, but there's always next year.
With a happy heart I'm looking forward to 2020 gardening season.
Happy Gardening and enjoy the fruits of your labour.