Thursday, September 9, 2010

Garden Variety

Spring reaped strawberries. Shortcake, tossed in salads, topped on ice cream, even plain. I remembered to freeze some future use in baked goods or beverages – smoothies or ones featuring umbrellas. Take your pick. The strawberry patch was a nice bonus that came with the house. Since well houses usually feature "surprises" not to be confused with "prizes."

We decided to try our hand at vegetables. We started small since we spent the spring replacing the roof. It is bad enough the garden contends with us forgetting to water it, adding tossed shingles to the mix was just too cruel. The menu now features tomatoes, oregano basil and peppers. I think we lost the zucchini to the frost. We don’t discuss it since I told him it was too early to plant the little plants we started inside. He opted to listen to the weather forecast. The beets survived. Boyfriend wanted beets. He will get to eat them. I’m applying my lobster theory: he doesn’t like lobster = more for me. I don’t like beets = more for him.

So far we’ve made sauce. I don’t think we’ll harvest enough bounty to freeze for the winter. Next year, I want to try lettuce, cucumbers, sting beans, maybe a watermelon or pumpkin. Does anyone else garden and am I missing anything from the list?

7 comments:

  1. Just posted a longish post about the hanging post of cherry tomatoes on my terrace. Then I got bumped off before it posted.
    Let's just say...after the summer, my long hours, negligence and nonchalance turned them into kindling, I just dumped the planter.
    My fingers, they are not exactly green.

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  2. It's the thought that counts? We started off that I was supposed to water the back and boyfriend would water the front ... somehwere along the way, opps. I have some flowers that would compliment your kindling. Since we're talking fires, does this mean we can roast marshmellows?

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  3. I don't garden but Denny did. Radishes were always tops on his list.

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  4. My thumb is blacker than Liz. I think I would kill tomatoes, and no one does that. I am a garden enviest though (I LOVE the idea of gardening and want to be by people who do it.) Just can't be me.

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  5. When I was a child I wanted a garden. I planted green beans and carrots. We harvested a bunch of green beans (and they were delicious), but no carrots. (Because I kept pulling out the plants to see if the carrots were growing). I learned then I needed to plant vegetables that I could see growing so I could monitor their progress. As an adult I've tried to plant blueberry bushes a few times. No luck. I've tried strawberries. The birds ate them. My son just planted orange seeds. Yeah. I know. I tried to tell him!!!

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  6. Orange seeds? You never know. A for effort! I am trying to grow a potato right now. Meanwhile my grandmother once had avacados and oranges until the hurricane took away the oranage tree. The avacado tree quit producing and after 2 years, a sit down which involved me telling it - to produce or it would go, it opted for removal. It was a fab tree but it was too close to the house and well, if it wasn't going to pull it's weight in produce, it had to go.

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