Bountiful gardens

Ahhhh...it's little videos like this that make me a bit sad that I haven't had as much time to devote to my urban farm as I did before going back to school. I love this garden! It's practical and makes use of every inch of space!

As little time as I've spent in my veggie patch, I've spent even less time blogging about it. Sheesh! I'm just horrible. I had a lot of plans for the garden this summer, and most of them fell by the wayside. The good news is that, with Jeff's help (and he was a HUGE help before he got busy with projects like his summer class, painting the house, etc.) we did get a lot of seeds planted in the spring. Not everything we planned on, and we didn't do very well at planting succession crops (or seeds for a fall/winter garden, for that matter), but we ate well for much of the summer. Here's what we had lots of:

• Lettuce
• Kale and other dark leafy greens
• String beans
• Peas
• Summer squash (three kinds)
• Cucumbers
• Tomatoes
• Carrots and beets (in lesser amounts)

The big surprise of the season was the cucumbers. I've had trouble growing them some years, but this year the TWO plants that made it (only about 1 in 4 of the seeds I planted actually sprouted, and slugs nipped off a few of those when they were still seedlings) produced like gangbusters. It made up for the end-of-summer lack of lettuce, as I turned to making salads from a whole huge diced cucumber mixed with a large handful of halved cherry tomatoes, dressed with oil & vinegar, salt & pepper and a little crumbled feta cheese.

I also want to say this to anyone in Seattle who whines "you can't grow tomatoes in Seattle": That's a load of bull. We had one of the coldest spring-to-mid-summer periods on record, and I have tomatoes coming out of my ears. Not just cherry tomatoes, either...slicers! And let me tell you, my tomato plants were late to get started from seed, late to get planted out, and then they thrived on benign neglect. They did get regular water (thanks to the drip irrigation system Jeff put in this spring) and I did plant them where they get a full-day's sun (that's just common sense) and I do plant them inside Wall-O-Waters (it's always a good idea in this climate to do something to give the heat-loving babies a little extra of what they want (that can mean planting them near a south- or west-facing wall, putting cages with clear plastic or row cover fabric around them, surrounding them with milk jugs filled with water, etc.).

I've never had a problem getting ripe tomatoes, and I've gardened in the Seattle area for 12 years. Really, cucumbers are more heat-loving than tomatoes, which is why I was shocked that we have so many this year.

In the past, I've had time to grow vegetables more intensively. That's not in the cards now, or for the next few years while I'm in grad school AND working. I could feel all sad and guilty about this quite easily, but I've accepted that I can't do everything and do well at each thing. It's still very important to me to produce at least some of the food that my household of two eats. When I eventually have more time, I'd like to experiment with year-round vegetable gardening and see how much of what we eat can come from our own labor. I also refuse to obsess about not getting into the garden to pick everything. That's the great thing about having chickens...all sorts of things that would have gone to waste now go into the chicken coop. Figs, tomatoes, lettuce, carrot and beet tops...they LOVE them! And it makes for more nutritious eggs.

I will do a chicken update this weekend. I promise!