A Good Year for the Garden

We have two large vegetable gardens. 

South garden mid-summer. 

The south garden is about 2,000 sf with 5 large raised beds. It's planted with summer vegetables; corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, summer squash, artichokes, garlic and onions. I plant cutting flowers around the garden and tuck a few between vegetables. Sometimes it's hard to find the vegetables from the flowers toward the end of garden season.

Sunflower soldiers surround the south garden.

Spring planting in the north garden

North garden mid-summer

The north garden is fenced, about 5,000 sf, and planted with winter "keepers;" potatoes, winter squash and pumpkins.

August, September and October are
super busy with preserving the harvest.

Tomato and Onion
Everything seems to grow twice the normal size around here!

All of our vegetables are organic heirlooms. With exception of the corn, I collect the seeds each year around this time, then start propagating them around the first of February in my small greenhouse.

Vegetable starts

I never tire of watching a tiny seed perform its miracle from February to harvest. Some, such as the San Marzano tomato seeds from Italy that we bought on my husband's 60th birthday, have fun memories that make me smile with each seed that I plant and each tomato I pick. 

Our little farmstead is an inspiration for some of my paintings, and each year the vegetable gardens spur new ideas; whether the cute rabbit gnawing on some of the plants before I shoo him away (and spray rabbit deterrent,) the flocks of chickadees enjoying the sunflower seeds or the pretty bean blossoms on the plants climbing the fence.