Garden Plants, Close-Up
I should have taken these pictures yesterday, before the frost. So today I captured less than perfect pictures of these long-suffering plants.
Pumpkins
I planted 20 or so seedlings:
I thought they had all died in the wind and rain, but a couple hung on to produce this (really, it was happier looking yesterday):
Artichokes
I tried growing these Jurassic looking artichokes this year:
Supposedly this variety is supposed to produce in its first year. I had my doubts (due to our weather and not their ability). However, when I was taking pictures I found this:
Awww! A baby artichoke!
Ground Cherries
Another experiment. They were very slow to start in my cold basement. After starting them in early April, this is what they looked like by June (and most of their growth happened after things started to warm up):
They grew slowly but happily in the garden. Until the frost:
Plant size, they are about half the height of my sprawling tomatoes (1.5 feet?). I’m hoping to get some viable seeds and try again next year.
Tomatoes
I wasn’t as stressed about my leggy tomatoes this year. Last year their leaves started to get quite yellow, so this year I gave them (and the other seedlings) some fertilizer. They were much happier:
…until the snow last week. And frost this week. Have I mentioned that Alberta seems to have a VERY short growing season?! Seriously, I’m trying. And thankfully I got most of the (green) tomatoes off before this happened:
Strawberries
My strawberries did great this year. So great, in fact, that I cleared out my carrots early so that I could plant a whole new bed of strawberries (I just cut some rooty looking runners and transplanted them to the next patch. Some died. I planted more. Life went on):
Lettuce
Although there is nothing really noteworthy about lettuce, I just wanted to write a reminder to myself that NOBODY, not even the cabin crazy mommy who just wants to plant some seeds and see some green, NOBODY needs a 4ft x 20ft bed of lettuce. Because 4ft x 18ft of the bed ends up looking like this:
And, please note, that lettuce planted in this quantity does not make a good shady ground covering for your brassicas. In fact, the lettuce ends up shading the poor things so that only the brassicas by the lettuce you actually use (and thus cut back) end up doing anything:
Like the broccoli:
And brussel sprouts:
Flowers
I tried growing a little food for the soul this year.
Baby Calendula (Foreground. A little slow, but very pretty) and Baby marigolds (Background. Which grow like crazy. You do NOT have to baby these guys):
Made for a pretty bed (after I raked out my tough spinach and un-noteworthy peas):
I also grew lots of herbs (which I smelled every time I went through the garden, but have yet to really put them to any use), potatoes (beside the artichokes…not a good showing in the wet weather), watermelon (I actually got watermelons that flowered this year! Usually they die when I transplant them, so I am making progress!), carrots, beets, peas, spinach, sunflowers, raspberries (one stalk actually made it, and I ate 3 raspberries from my garden this year).
I’m already dreaming of next year 🙂