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September 10, 2010

lessons in gardening…

orange and greens

The other morning Cooper & I were hanging out in the backyard and he kept running up to me saying “Green ones, green ones!” I assumed he was referring to his trucks so I brought them out for him to play with. My assumption was wrong. A few minutes later he turns the corner, runs back to me with a proud look on his face and yells, “GREEN ONES GREEN ONES!”  It was then that I realized he was talking about my GREEN TOMATOES waiting patiently to ripen on the vine. Little bubbs then says “Grapes! grapes! grapes!”  He proceeds to smoosh them in his hands and then runs away. Whoa. I was stunned. Goodbye green tomatoes. I worked hard all summer for you….I now see why my grandparents were super pissed when my brothers and I would pick off buds from their plants. GAHH!!!

So let’s talk about the current status of my garden….

A few SUPER hot days and the leaves on my tomatoes are wilty. There’s lots of tomatoes waiting to ripen.

But fall is coming and I am kinda over the whole taking care of plants phase….

WATER US

The basil was doing until I went to Seattle. They sprouted flowers and now they look very less than.

I’ve been on top of the flowering situation all summer, which is why they got so big! I realized that I was sort of hoarding the plants. I wanted to see how big I could grow them instead of actually using them in my cooking.

Pesto is going to be happening soon! I swear.

make basil

I came to the conclusion that it’s futile to grow parsley and cilantro. Lesson learned.

parsley

However, I did learn that parsley blooms. It’s pretty. That was worth the energy. But next year? Nah.

parsley blooms

I inadvertently covered my strawberry plant to block Cooper from getting at the tomatoes. The shade from the barrier encouraged the strawberries to grow! The lesson here is that strawberries can’t handle full sun in the area I put them in.

strawberries

My thyme thrived. I’ve got TONS of thyme. They are soo going into stews this winter!

Maybe I’ll make a thyme simple syrup for Christmas gifts?

thyme

The nasturtiums bloomed their asses off. I used them as an aphid trap to prevent the bugs from attacking my tomatoes.

It worked!

crusty

So this was the garden at it’s prime:

The basil was SOOO lush. I was really proud of what happened.

This is what it looked like at the beginning of the summer:

Now that autumn is coming all the leaves are turning yellow. There’s leaves from the trees scattered all over out backyard. There’s a chill in the air…

Lettuce growing season is coming up soon! That means I can mark down something off my 31 list!

For those of you who are just joining us this was my garden at the START here’s the MIDDLEMORE MIDDLE and perhaps this post is the end?

How did your garden fare this summer?! Send me pics!!

  • michelle @ The Domestic Mama

    I am inspired- being in south Florida my gardening season is just about to start…I can almost hear my little one saying “green ones” too..although I may think she would be talking about our giant tortoise’s poo. 🙂

  • Michelle

    I’m so over my herb garden too. Summer’s pretty much gone, school’s started, and I just let them all dry up. I admit I’m regretting it though. I was longing for some chives for our nachos the other day and some mint for my tea. LOL

  • Jessica Craig

    I was proud of my basil, too! (though mine weren’t nearly as big as yours.) I will never plant spearmint again: looks like weeds and so totally not as awesome as I wanted it to be. Claire’s tomato plants produced pretty well (San Marzanos) though one of them flowered bur never made any fruit at all. I still have two squash plants that look like they might hook us up for autumn! Next year I am doubling up on the basil, lavender and sunflowers.

    BTW, I have been using my extra basil fronds in bouquets. Pretty in a jar on the windowsill!

    xoxo

    PS–totally love the look of the tub garden. it will be cool to see pics of coop next to it next year 😉

  • Steve

    I would rather not send any pics of my own garden this year. Lots of lessons and hard luck on mine. And I too am so ready to just let it all go.

    Still, with all the friends I have that had a great year in their garden, I may have more than if I grew it myself.

    Thanks for the thought provoking post and pictures.

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