Summer garden

Well, I've thoroughly enjoyed this summer. Now we are beginning to think about fall and school and blogs...

When we first moved into this house, I had a very large garden for a couple of years. But as the boys got older, more involved in activities, I preferred to be at those activities, rather than tend a garden. The biggest time culprit in a large garden is the harvest. Trying to preserve the bounty is a job that cannot wait for games or concerts or camp outs and at the time, I made a different choice. Within a year, my husband poured concrete on the unused garden space. Harsh, not really, we have boys, active, fun loving boys and this new concrete surface was suitable for basketball, four square, lacrosse, tennis, badminton, you name it. It's been a perfect spot for the boys and their friends to grow.

This year both hubby and I had the itch to go bigger than our raised beds will allow. Since the old space wasn't possible, we began anew. As anyone who's tried to turn grass into garden, this was quite a challenge. But we did, fairly successfully. We made trellis tee pees out of curly willow. I saw similar tee pees on a PBS Victory Garden tour, made with a straight branches. But, I had curly willows that needed a good trimming and I love being able to repurpose. We made 3 and they are architectural, functional and beautiful. The most amazing thing is that some of the branches, which we cut with regular tree trimmer thingies, actually started to grow. They must have rooted in the ground and now are covered with new growth.

We started seeds indoors this year, but somehow in the transfer to outside, the pots were mixed up and I ended up with cucumbers on every trellis and no zucchini anywhere. We bought some unique seeds this year, including a Lemon Cucumber, which is named so for the color and shape of it rather than the taste. I don't think I'll plant 'english' cucumbers again as they were disappointing. We've had such an abundance of cucumber that all our neighbors are in supply too.

I am currently fermenting pickles in a crock. Fingers crossed for delicious sour pickles!