End of Season Summary =)

Here is the post-season wrap-up of the assorted tomatoes that graced our garden this year. I have separated out the mid-to-large-sized tomatoes from the cherry and pear varieties. We enjoyed twenty-four varieties in total.  

Not quite ripe Pork Chop Tomato

My personal favorites were the Pork Chop tomatoes with their sweet-but-tangy flavor and dazzling yellow-on-yellow striped skin. Those beauties made my heart flip every time I got to inspect them. <3 They are part of the 'wild barred boar' family and are not to be missed!

Over-ripe Pork Chop Tomato

When we stripped out the garden over a two-week period, we brought in a lot of green tomatoes. We've been able to identify and enjoy them as they ripen. Indeed, tearing out the garden was also an education on what was hiding in big clusters of overgrown plants. My own lack of actively tending the garden this year worked against me all summer. In the end, tearing out plants and harvesting what was left was rather like a gardener's Christmas. ;) 

Overall I am pretty pleased with the range of sizes we had. Even so, I am almost desperate for my ground cherries and spoon tomato plants to cooperate with me next year and broaden our experience even further. :)  

Red/orange/yellow slices ready for BLT's

TOMATOES

Kellogg's Breakfast 
Striped German
Pink Brandywine
Yellow Brandywine 
Dr. Wyche's Yellow
Climbing Trip-L Crop
Hillbilly Potato Leaf
Porkchop
Stump of the World
Chef's Choice Pink
Solar Flare
Nebraska Wedding
Golden Fang
Banana Legs
Dino Eggs

Cherry/Pear Varieties
Midnight Snack
Garnet
Gardner's Sweetheart
Flamingo Burst
Sunrise Bumblebee 
Little Birdy Rosey Finch
Little Birdy Yellow Canary
Siam
Indigo Pear

Seven of the nine types of these are pictured on a plate here. I did not have a LB Yellow Canary to show off, nor a Siam at the moment. We managed to save both Little Birdy plants, which are now growing indoors in one-gallon pots.

No Demons

When I die and my mental health issues inevitably come up, please never allow someone to say, "She struggled with her demons." 

Anxiety, depression, and PTSD are *not* demons. 

These are medical issues. I am not struggling with demons. 

I am struggling with my health and with my mental health. 

Even as a religious person, I refuse to acknowledge any such nonsense in my life. I would hate for people to further apply ugly phrases to me after I die. I have had enough of that while I yet live. Ugh. 

Try, if you loved me, not to reduce my life to those aspects with which I struggled. Better to remember other things that made me who I am.

Straw Bale Garden Update - June 2022

    Straw Bale Garden (SBG) update time has *finally* arrived. I know that I've run quite behind this year. I haven't posted anything before this besides a list of seeds. Ha! That said, I have had an increasingly busy springtime. My kiddos are rapidly growing up before my eyes. With that comes balancing jobs (three out of four of us and just the one car) and more outings than ever. My Giraffe and Koala are growing faster than any plant on the property. :) Fortunately, I've gotten some really cute pictures of them through the spring, too! ;) ;) ;) 

    I have added some photos to this blog. Please know that they range from a month ago to the present. This past week has been HOT and the garden is suffering for it. 

    Most of the new plants are still seedlings we literally just planted this morning into vacancies left by other plants that did not survive. Even so, we have worked very hard and are praying to eventually have a good bounty to share. Today and tomorrow are in the eighty-degree range and then it is back to the nineties for the foreseeable future. Yikes!

    I twenty-five bales and some pots. Items marked with * are all seedlings that were set out just this morning. Growing all around the yard are: 

TOMATOES

Kellogg's Breakfast 
Purple Bumblebee  *
Sunrise Bumblebee *
Pink Bumblebee  *
Ground Cherries *
Indigo Pear *
Striped German
Large Barred Boar *
Black Strawberry *
Pink Brandywine
Yellow Brandywine 
Blueberries Tomato *
Climbing Trip-L Crop
Spoon Tomatoes *
Nebraska Wedding
Chef's Choice Pink
Garnet
Gardner's Sweetheart
Flamingo Burst
Solar Flare
Dino Eggs
Hillbilly Potato Leaf
Porkchop
Banana Legs
Stump of the World
Dr. Wyche's Yellow
Little Birdy Rosey Finch
Little Birdy Yellow Canary
Siam

We *may* have a Pink Syberian tiger out there, or another of the plants we set out but thought died. Somehow or another, the tags that were with them were blown away or carried off in the night, so there are several of what we like to call "My's Mystery" tomatoes. Once they bear fruit, I will have a better idea of just who they are. I am really hoping against hope that my Orange Accordion tomatoes will show up in there somewhere. I was quite excited to try them this year. I am almost positive that my Spoon tomatoes and my Ground Cherries aren't going to make it. I've never in my life seen such wee little/fragile tomato seedlings. It makes sense that they are tiny. Next year, I will start earlier and pamper the life into them.

VEGGIES

Marketmore Cucumber
Tendergreen Burpless Cucumber
Northeastern Pole Beans
Snap Peas
Poblano Peppers
Green Bell Peppers
California Bell Peppers
Ancho Peppers
Broccoli 
Purple Peacock Broccoli 
Celery (just a baby!)
Buttercrunch Lettuce
Arugula
Strawberry Spinach

We still have to sow carrots, radishes, turnips, and a few other things. Depending on how the weather goes, that may happen this week or not. 

HERBS

Cilantro                   
Sage

Curly Leaf Parsley                   

Italian Parsley                          

Greek Oregano

Chives

Thyme

There are some herbs that I haven't been successful with. These include Chamomile, Lemon Mint, Anise, and Summer Savory. I believe I went wrong by trying to start those in regular seed starting pods, rather than sowing them directly into dirt or a bale under some dirt.

FRUIT

Strawberries

Grapes

Tigger Melon

Yamato Cream Watermelon (these will be yellow inside!)

Crimson Sweet Watermelon

Our Hale's Best Jumbo cantaloupe have all died or been eaten. Like I said, my garden has struggled this year. Today is the third time we've gone out with a fresh batch of seedlings to plug in holes. It has been really frustrating for me, but we keep pushing on. 

FLOWERS

Black Cotton
Chinese Hibiscus
Capt Marguerite
Bolivian Begonia
Garden Petunias - in several colors
Wild Pansy - several colors
Roses - several colors
Morning Glory
Sunflower 

Note: Koala's sunflowers keep getting chopped down by the lawn guy. This may take forever to actually get one all the way up. I also have my lilacs, which are done flowering for the year, and the ever-present Honeysuckle that sneaks in randomly wherever it wishes. 

SQUASH

Waltham Butternut
Black Beauty Zucchini
"Surprise" squash whose tag we lost and I planted nearby the house *facepalm*

My squash was killed and/or died *so* fast. I had Yellow Crookneck, Butternut, Butterscotch, Spaghetti Squash, and Delicata loaded up in my arches. They simply didn't make it. I will try again, but no promises. 

My garden still *looks* rather empty, as many spaces are filled with the tiniest of seedlings. It is also visibly burned from a long week in the sun. Sarting Monday, there is no end of scorching temperatures in the extended forecast. 

I am often praying that every plant will have a good year, regardless. I hate to end on scorched garden pics, but it does bring us right up to the present, so there you have it. <3

Seeds 2022

I am at it again, pouring through my seeds for the year. I am going to start a list here on the blog so I can come back and look at it when I lose the paper copy. =)

Not all of my seeds have arrived yet. The minute after the second order of seeds shipped in MA, the East Coast was hit upside the head with winter storms. I know it is going to be a minute before those seeds find their way here to the Middle. Even so, I am going to include them in the list anyway. :) 

TOMATOES

Dr. Wyche's Yellow
Litchi Tomatoes
Watermelon Beefsteak
Spoon Tomato
Black Strawberry
Orange Accordian
Cherry
Pink Siberian Tiger
My's Mystery
Pink Brandywine
Yellow Brandywine
Wapsipinicon Peach
Sunrise Bumblebee
Pink Bumblebee
Purple Bumblebee
Hillbilly Potato Leaf
Beefsteak
Indigo Pear
Golden Fang
Nebraska Wedding
Yellow-Orange Mystery
Rio Grande
Roma
Chef's Choice Pink
Kellogg's Breakfast
Pink Princess
Little Birdy Rosey Finch
Little Birdy Yellow Canary
German Stripe
Large Barred Boar
Pork Chop 
Blueberries Tomato
Solar Flare

BEANS

Northeaster Pole Beans
Cascadia Snap Peas

HERBS

Parsley (curly)
Dill*
Catnip
Strawberry Spinach
Astro Arugula

SQUASH

Spaghetti
Golden Crookneck 
Delicata
Black Beauty Zucchini
Butternut
Butterscotch

VEGGIES

Watermelon Raddish
Allure Corn
Green Bell Pepper
California Wonder Bell Pepper
Tendersweet Carrots
Tendergreen Cucumbers
Marketmore Cucumbers
Golden Acre Cabbage (Heirloom)
Buttercrunch Lettuce
Wild Garden Lettuce Mix
Sparkling White-Tipped Raddish
Purple Dragon Carrots*
Detroit Dark Red Beets
Culinary Blend Carrots
Tango Celery
Touchstone Gold Beet
Purple Peacock Broccoli
Aunt Molly's Ground Cherries

FRUIT/MELONS

Tigger Melon
Yamato Cream Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Ice Box Watermelon*
Crimson Sweet Watermelon

FLOWERS

Lilacs
Roses (3 kinds)
Butterfly Bush (hybrid mix)
Poppy Rainbow Mix (CA)
Butterfly Mix
American Giant Hybrid Sunflower

I also really hope to grow some potatoes again this year. I grew five small buckets of them last year, and hubs smacked them all right up in soups every time they came up. It is an absolute delight to feed my husband and children. I also really enjoy sharing the fruits of my labor with friends and family. :) I can't wait! :)