::cottage garden august 2013::

Cottage Garden

What a perfect year for a garden.  The weather has been fairly mild for us.  Warm but not boiling, with good rain.  I have watered less than 10 times so far.  But with perfect weather comes perfect weed growth.
 

 The Cottage Garden has had a great year.  The tomatoes are HUGE and luscious.  The black weed mat in the rows has really limited my weeding and saved me some serious time.  I don't really know what I did right to make them so much more productive this year.  I wish I did, so I  could repeat it.

   

 The onions were very productive too.  I let them grow till they started to look sad and droopy, then I pulled them to dry.  Any of them that start to look mushy will get diced and frozen (that idea given to my by Emma's mother).  I harvested them August 9th and I filled part of their spot with cilantro and spinach for fall. 

My lavender plants went crazy, but they usually seem to step up and shine every year.  I love having them flanking the gate so I can smell and touch them every time I go in and out. 

the new patch

The old strawberry patch had a low production year.  I ripped out about half of it and added more compost to the blank spots.  I did this to provide it with nutrition and to give the baby plants a space to fill.  They sure did fill in.  Next year all those baby plants will make TONS of pretty little berries.

The new strawberry patch filled in like it was possessed.  I planted lettuce and carrots in the blank spots just to have less space to weed.  The straws are quickly moving into those areas and next year I will need no cover crops for the blank spots.  The berry's on these plants are huge and delicious.  Now if I can just remember what type they are so I can plant a field of them. 

 (I found a hidden marker today - they are called Quinault)

My peppers all did really well, but they usually do.  They seem very resistant to my funny farm crew.  What made me happy was that the eggplant went crazy this year.  I planted two Asian Eggplants on a whim and they have gone nuts.  I give a few to everyone that comes over.  I am just trying to get rid of them.  The cucumber got too stepped on by me trying to weed other things.  We didn't get much from it.  Since it is my least favorite I don't really care. 

I put in a ton of Bush Baby Watermelons that have gone insane.  I will end up having to give those away too because we have one million.  Hopefully nothing kills them before they are ripe because I can't wait to eat them up. 

I rotate them periodically so the yellow spots are from fruit I turned that day. 

 

The carrots that I mixed in other spots did wonderful.  I need a root cellar for all those crazy things. 

 

 

 Our pear tree has has limbs snapping off from the weight of the fruit.

We only picked what was on the endangered branches.

 

 I am going to try and can those puppies. 

I would say that the Cottage Garden this year is the first time I have really felt like I actually might have any idea of what I am doing in the garden.  The majority turned out so nice.  

It is a little sanctuary.