December Evenings

1. Debating whether or not to plant borage again this spring. It was great with the strawberries and tomatoes, but really prickly and hard to work with. Maybe now I know what to expect I'll do more with the flowers and young leaves this time. Apparently they're both edible, so maybe in salads?

2. Am joining the Utah Master Gardner class starting in January. Although I wish they had sections on companion planting and winter gardening. But they don't. Maybe I could change that?

3. Pulled up the last of the onions and some carrots today. I have some leftover roast chicken, so into the pot with them all! At least they won't go to waste like a lot of the garden veggies this summer. I'm still getting used to using the produce I have.

4. Plants I'm trying to over-winter: strawberries (covered in straw); carrots (covered in dirt, (except for the foliage), and straw); two tiny onions, self-sown chamomile, parsley, oregano, thyme and peppermint (all covered in dirt). Eventually they will all be covered with straw. Also, my lavender is still out in its pot. It's drying, so I think I'll pull it in soon.

5. It's snowed a few times this year - lots of snow. But my boxes are still easy to work with and the dirt is not frozen after a couple days of sun, even though it's still cold.

6. Just re-read the post about the greenhouse. It's still a possibility, although I'm waiting on plans from my sister's landlord. We'll see.

Right, so I found this on my door jamb this morning.

It's been there all day.

I threatened it with death if I found it in my garden.

Will it eat my whole garden? Will it bring its friends or lay eggs?

Bottom line: Should I take it away now (and will it find its way back)?

(And is it a cricket or a locust? I know what locusts do! lol, or not!)

If someone could tell me what kind of pepper this is I will be greatful.

Joseph thought he was buying a bell pepper.

I think it's either a banana pepper

or a ghost pepper.

Can you spot the bell pepper?

Aren't my tomatoes pretty?

(There are 5)

And these, too. There are 5 one one plant

and 4 on the other.

But Some of these things are not like the others.

Some of these things do not belong.

Yep. That there is blossom end rot.

If any of you know how to fix it

I am open for suggestions.

It's on two of my three tomato plants.

And here are the onions. I pulled up the ones who's tops had fallen over, but...

They, too, were miniature,

just like all the other fruit coming from my garden.

Seriously, does anyone have any suggestions?

Here's the mint, chamomile w/tons of flowers,

and the thyme is resurrecting. :)

Here are my peas:

And my carrots:

I think I'm having gardening issues. Or maybe it's that my garden isn't issuing as expected. Why the deformed carrots and the stunted peppers?

And then there's the pesky chipmunk who steals the strawberries

while they're still green:

Yep, all of those little broken off stems

yesterday had little green strawberries attached.

I should get on the ball

and go get some netting and sticks to make a protecting cage.

Maybe I'll be more informed and better prepared next year.

Until then, it's all an adventure!

Vision vs. Reality

This is was my garden plan.

It's a square foot garden, each 2x2 square its own box.

This is what my actual garden looks like:

As you can see, there's a lot of unused space (all the white). They're all laid out in a row, like this:

The numbers on the actual chart refer to the boxes, the closest one being the first, and then

ascending from there. The taller plants (mainly the borage in the front box) look battered because of the heavy rainfall this afternoon. They'll stand up straight soon.

Here's a cameo of the current garden and its offerings:

borage and strawberries:

borage flowers:

strawberries - notice the wee white spider.

She lived in my strawberries for most of the season and kept the bad bugs at bay.

red onions and carrots:

celery (with one rogue stalk), parsley and red onions:

rogue celery stalk flowers:

mint and chamomile:

chamomile cameo:

And our 2nd carrot, with some mint leaves:

Hopefully our garden will produce more produce, (ha ha), but it's good for a first time garden. I know more about when to plant things and when to start them inside, so next year I should be more organized. Also, I'll know how much room to give the uncommon things, like borage. I think they'll get their own plot. :) Also, because of the volcano it was unseasonally cold much later in the year. We had weekly snow until June. And we may have an early, colder winter. But I still am going to try to have a winter garden, even if it's just a small greenhouse. :)