So, I haven't really blogged about my garden in a long time. I'd like to say that I've been too busy gardening, but that's just not the case. In fact, I've all but abandoned the garden. Fortunately, it hasn't abandoned me.
Here's a picture of the first ripe tomato we got back in late June:
This was one of the new Chadwick Cherries I grew this year. I was very impressed. They were tasty and very large for cherries. Unfortunately, we didn't get more than a few after that one. We've been having some trouble with squirrels taking our tomatoes and I've had to pick them before they were ripe. This year, they started taking them while they were still green. I'm going to have to figure something out next year. Maybe I'll offer an alternative food source or maybe I'll just shoot them. After the figs started to ripen earlier this month, the squirrels lost their interest in the green tomatoes and I was able to pick some and fry them:
We also made a super tasty frittata with garden greens:
Besides the greens and the figs, we've gotten little else out of the garden this year: only one zucchini before the heat wave, one acorn squash volunteer, two little eggplants that went into some ratatouille and some chili peppers:
These are all cayenne, which have produced fairly well in spite of staying tiny. The mboga peppers are also starting to ripen and the plants themselves are very nice-looking. I did a taste test to compare the cayenne and the mboga (which look very similar) to see if I want to grow both next year. They were about the same level of spicy and had a very similar taste. The mboga seemed to hit my stomach a lot harder, but it may have been because it was the second one I ate. I really do like the plant, though, but the cayenne has produced better. I think I will keep them both.
I didn't get a single jalapeno out of the garden this year. They were too small when the heat hit. I never even got the Piri Piri in the ground. They have such a long season and I was too late starting. We've been blessed by generous gardeners this year, though. That ratatouille I mentioned had tomatoes from a friend's garden. Another friend has given us lots of okra and bunch of jalapenos:
This is probably my most disappointing season in the ten years I've been gardening. The garden has slipped to be maybe my seventh priority after caring for my toddler, keeping up with housework, buying and preparing food, my job, training for my first marathon and keeping the yard looking almost presentable.
My wife has taken this week off from work to spend time with some visiting family and that has given me a chance to get some stuff done. On Monday, we spent the morning with my parents and I spent the afternoon catching up on some social networking sites I'd been avoiding because of potential Olympics spoilers. Yesterday, I ran 8 miles in the morning and then had to drive to the next town over to mow the yard at our rental property, since we're between tenants. Today, my wife took our son and her visiting relatives to see her aunt that lives nearby and that gave me a chance to spend some time cleaning up the yard. Tomorrow, I'm planning to run 13 miles in the morning and then see what I can do in the garden. Friday, I'll have to rest and (hopefully) sleep since I'm working that night.
I didn't get everything done that I wanted, but I did get to work on a part of the yard that has been bugging me for a while. It actually got so bad that one of my neighbors came over and did a little cutting on it the other day. She didn't cut much, but she did make me realize that I had to get it done:
Full disclosure: the red car wasn't there in the before picture.
In addition to mowing, I also got to cut the ivy off of the front porch:
I'll be satisfied if I can only get the weeds a little under control in the garden tomorrow, but if the work goes fast, I might even get some cool-weather crops planted. I'm thinking spinach and maybe bok choy or winter squash!
