More from the garden

I'm getting the last of the lettuce from the garden. The redleaf variety is pretty snazzy if I do say so myself...

 

My potatoes were attacked by some sort of pest or disease, so I only got several colanders full. And they were really, really ugly. I mean the wartiest, ugliest potatoes you have ever seen.

Carrots! Small, but cute.

 

My dinner harvest - lettuce, beets, potatoes, basil, carrots...

... and green beans! Lots of green beans.

Aren't beets pretty?

Bouncing back

All is well in the Colorado garden, despite the insane hailstorm that hit last month. I'm pleased to report a full recovery.

The butterhead lettuce is looking beautiful. Although, it's a bit bitter from the sweltering heat.

We've been eating a lot of salads.

 The basil is thriving.

Look at that gorgeous swiss chard.

The beets are looking pretty happy.

If you look close, you can see it pushing through the ground. YUM.

The potatoes, however, are not so lucky. I think they were subjected to some sort of disease. They plants died before they even flowered. Which means not a whole lot of potatoes for me (boo!). I'll dig around this weekend and see if I can find anything.

Up to my eyeballs

For some reason, I ended up with tons of peas this year.

I planted Oregon Snow Peas and Sugar Snap peas. And for whatever reason they flourished.

Was it the weather? The compost? The wet spring?

I sure am thankful for the large harvest. I have a freezer full of pounds and pounds of peas.

Some got tough because of the heat, so I shelled and froze them.

To be honest, I'm a bit sick of peas right now. But a full freezer is a happy freezer!

Wreckage.

We got hail. Lots of it. Penny-sized hail pummeled my garden the other night. Along with over an inch of rain in one night (we usually don't get an inch of rain in an entire month!).

I went outside to scope out the damage the next morning and here's what I found:

The spinach and chard seedlings were trampled and tattered. I could barely find the lettuce seedlings.

The baby beets were smashed. 

Carrot tops broken in half.

Broccoli stripped.

My tomato plant looks like a stick with a leaf. (cue tear...)

Somehow, amazingly, the peas were untouched. Still had the flowers and everything. And, of course, the indestructible potatoes look good as new.

I guess this is just part of gardening in Colorado. And you never know, nature is pretty good at bouncing back...

New Beginnings

Well, it's that time again. I'm finding it hard to believe I started this gardening blog a year ago (where did the winter go?).

The grass is green and the trees are coming back into their own and that's my cue to get out the gardening tools from hibernation. This year I'm excited to mix my very own homemade compost into the garden beds. I still find it amazing that kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, leaves, and eggshells can somehow turn into rich soil.

I planted a lot of peas this year since we enjoyed them so much last Spring. This time I have them growing all along of the chicken-wire fencing - Oregon Snow Peas and Sugar Snap.

I've also got the spinach, beets (a wonderful variety with purple leaves), swiss chard (neon lights), carrots (white, orange, and purple!), broccoli and several varieties of lettuce in the ground already. Apparently I'm going for a more colorful garden this time around.

I planted three rows of potatoes this season. Oh how I luuurve potatoes.

Seed potatoes ready for planting

We will have a short gardening season this year since we're moving to a new house August 1 (gasp!). So I'm staying away from veggies that take a long time to mature - peppers, winter squash, etc.

There's still plenty of produce to be had in the garden, and I can't wait to taste my first homegrown veggie!

Apples (lots of them!)

Fall finally seems to be here, my own colorful backyard proving that despite the continual warm sunny days, the gardening season is winding down.

Although I've never seen such a beautiful October here in Colorado, one of the best parts (in my opinion) of the season is the hundreds of apple trees in town that are producing bushels and bushels of wonderful apples!

I've been lucky enough to score quite a few bags of apples from co-workers, neighbors and friends who are eager to share their harvest.

So even though I don't technically have apple trees in my garden, I just had to share these lovely photos from apple-sauce making (apple pie came later on!).

Super-easy no-peel applesauce:

8 lbs apples (about 25 medium), cored and quartered (no need to peel!); I just cut around the worm holes and/or bad spots

2 cups filtered water

cinnamon to taste

nutmeg to taste

sugar (optional, depending on how sweet your apples are)

Place apples and water in a large pot, bring to a boil. Cook for 30-35 minutes until apples are soft.

Throw everything into the food processor and pulse until creamy.

Put mixture back into pot, add spices and sugar if necessary, cook through until heated. Easy!

Preparing for frost

Finally, we had our first cloudy, chilly, fallish day here in northern Colorado yesterday after a long stretch of hot and very dry weather. The trees here are turning orange and red and my hot-weather plants are beginning to fade.

Last night we were supposed to get our first frost so I went and picked everything that's prone to frost damage. I picked an entire bowlful of green tomatoes - I'm hoping they'll ripen indoors.

There were a few sad looking zucchini left so I picked them as well (not that I need more zucchini)...

I also got one green onion that popped out of the ground in late august - way after all of the others came and went. Random.

I got a total of two jalapeno peppers, which will be used in chili making this week!

Swiss chard can stand light frosts, but I went ahead and picked some of the bigger leaves (and chopped and froze them), just in case.

To my surprise, I found several short, fat, pudgy carrots. The squirrels made a habit of pulling them up and stealing them right as they were ready for picking. One day I will get my revenge...

This is the largest quantity of green beans I've gotten at once (which isn't saying much).

It ended up not freezing last night and it's supposed to jump back up to near 80 this weekend. I am, however, thankful for the rain we got. This summer has been one of the driest in a long time - we had less than an inch and a half of rain from August through the beginning of October and wildfires were breaking out left and right. 

So I'm thankful for the cool, wet days, even if that means my garden is coming to an end.

Squash update!

Remember those little oval-shaped mystery squashes? Well, they turned into big fat mystery squashes pretty quickly. My best guess is an acorn squash-pumpkin hybrid.
 

 The one on the right looks more like a pumpkin

Judging from the squirrel nibbles, it's the same color inside as an acorn squash. I'm making soup with it tonight, so we'll see what it actually tastes like.

 Before...

After.
 

I ended up with two small Butternut squashes (actually, just one after the squirrels ate one).

The Cocozelle Zucchini squash is producing like crazy, here's a nice U-shaped one.

Or maybe bone-shaped 
 
We'll be eating lots of squash over the next few weeks! 

The lone pepper

For some reason I only got one pepper from my yellow bell pepper plant (it turned out more orange). I picked it, moved the plant to a sunnier spot, and ta-da! I have lots of baby bell peppers growing now. Only problem is we're going to get our first frost in a week or two...

After months and months of doing absolutely nothing, the jalapeno plant is finally producing. I've got... wait for it... one pepper

I've heard jalapenos like dry conditions, which is a bummer because I've been so faithfully watering it all summer. Oh well. Such is gardening... such is life...

Time for tomatoes!

I have two heirloom tomato plants growing in the garden - an Early Girl and a Cherokee Purple (yes, purple).

Now, I know what you're thinking - purple tomatoes?! But hey, that's part of the fun of growing your own food, you get to experience varieties you wouldn't normally find at the grocery store. 

These little beauties are the sweetest tomatoes I've ever tasted.

They're more purple in real life...

I also have a Cherry 100 growing in the Topsy Turvy. I practically killed this one early in the season (it went through several snowstorms and freezes) but it's amazing how well it's doing. There's nothing better than a hot, ripe, juicy tomato right off the vine....

One big problem I've encountered is tomato blight.. aka slow, painful death. They're still pumping out lots of tomatoes though (if not a little on the small side)...

I did also spot blossom end rot on one of my early girls. Just one, thankfully.

After more than three months of waiting, I now get to savor these amazing fruits. I'm also finding creative ways to use them every day - like tomato and goat cheese appetizers on crusty italian bread. 

 This one looks more purple than in the previous picture

Digging for buried treasure

Or potatoes rather.

It's strangely satisfying, plowing into the dirt with a large shovel, uncovering these little jewels. I've dug up the area a couple of times and I keep finding more of them!

 I just have to point out the peanut-shaped one on the end

Although I wish many of them had grown bigger, the quarter-sized ones will work perfectly in soups and stews (no slicing required). A couple of factors I think contributed to the overall smaller size:

*not enough consistent sunlight

*soil wasn't deep/loose enough

*probably would have been good to add some phosphorous since my soil is very nitrogen-heavy

Considering all my folly, the harvest wasn't too bad. Potato soup anyone?