Productive.

From the beginning of the growing season in April through August, this 20′ x 20′ plot (plus a much smaller one in the back yard) has yielded (list below photo):

5.4 kilos of Chocolate Cherry Tomatoes

4.2 kilos of Piennolo del Vesuvio tomatoes

0.6 kilos of Purple Heart tomatoes

0.1 kilo of Beefsteak tomatoes

3.9 kilos of cucumbers

5.2 kilos of green zucchini

2.3 kilos of Cocozelle zukes

2.8 kilos of Kusa zukes

0.5 kilos of tomatillos

0.3 kilos of jalapeno peppers

0.4 kilos of Sugar Rush Peach peppers

0.4 kilos of Cayenne peppers

0.3 kilos of Scarlet Runner Bean pods (after a short harvest time we’re letting the beans go to 

4.7 kilos of asparagus

2.2 kilos of haskap berries

48 bulbs of garlic (huge aromatic cloves, enough for replanting and for cooking well into winter)

An unrecorded amount of rhubarb

Lots of lettuce

More tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, and *maybe* some figs are on the way.

And from elsewhere in the yard:

1.5 kilos of blackcurrants

An unrecorded amount of redcurrants

More rhubarb

Some pole beans

Some chives and green onions

We’re very unlikely to have bought this volume of most if not all of this produce. The green zukes alone would have cost around $40 at the grocery store. We will never be self-sufficient yet we know our produce is pesticide- and herbicide-free.

A much more productive, healthy, green, critter-friendly, use of 400 square feet than growing, and mowing, turfgrass.

Bounty

From the garden, clockwise from top: a cucumber and three zucchini, Chocolate Cherry tomatoes, and Piennolo del Vesuvio tomatoes. We love the Chocolate Cherry tomatoes – they have good flavour, are a little crack-resistant in variable watering conditions, will ‘volunteer’ next year.

A photograph of vegetables from a home garden. Pictured are a cucumber with three zucchini, a basket of Chocolate Cherry tomatoes, and a basket of Piennolo del Vesuvio tomatoes.

Pollen-dusted.

Pollen-dusted from earlier harvesting, a bee works one of the Purple Coneflowers in our flower patch.

A bee, dusted with pollen, harvests more pollen from a Purple Coneflower.

Favourite.

The Forget-me-not is one of my favourite flowers. Our yard has several clumps which reseed every year and have for years.

Down on its level.

It is spring and the garden is abloom, including the trilliums. I got down on its level to photograph the Red Trillium.

Stood out.

This coneflower really stood out against the green background.

First cutting.

First cutting of asparagus, which actually occurred over a week ago. Second cutting happened today.

Cheerful.

A sunflower is such a cheerful thing. This one is in the front yard.

sunflower

Await.

Our started vegetable plants await planting. Low temperatures during several upcoming nights come uncomfortably close to freezing so we are holding off. For now, we bring them out during the day to harden them off.

The rosemary (upper centre) will stay in its pot as will the lemongrass (upper right).

Cheery.

The sunflower adds a very cheery note to our vegetable garden.