Gardening

The garden I planted in spring was somewhat of a success.  The zucchini and yellow squash grew huge, and while producing flowers and fruit never pollinated without my help, just not enough bees or helpers.  The cucumber plants developed a disease but I did get several nice sized cucumbers before they needed to go.  The tomato plants grew well and flowered but little fruit was produced.  The herbs did extremely well so there's tons of basil, oregano, parsley, chives, lemon balm, and spearmint.  The tomato and green pepper plants that overwintered in the greenhouse, on the other hand, produced plenty of tomatoes and peppers to last through spring and most of summer..  It was my first year at growing potatoes, and the production for those were also small, but the potatoes we did get were super tasty. 


In the patio garden, the Swiss chard has just kept going since spring.  None of the onions I planted survived.  The potted Meyer lemon is okay.  I've found that to be somewhat of a picky plant.  I purchased it in spring loaded with flowers of which I have three lemons still on the plant.  I understand it takes anywhere from nine to ten months for the fruit to mature.  The dwarf Cavendish banana plant that I purchased as a 4" plant is now about 3 feet tall, but I'll still have to wait a couple years or so before expecting any fruit.   

Along with our weekly CSA I canned up several jars of tomato sauce, and pickles, and batches of pesto with the basil.