You know its fall when...

The pumpkins have arrived at the grocery store!  I got so excited when I walked into the produce section today, and of course I had to take one home!  Tonight's dinner is featuring roasted pumpkin, eggplant and brussels sprouts.  This stuff is so good I can't begin to describe it here.  The sweetness of the pumpkin goes so beautifully with the eggplant, and roasted brussels sprouts will complement almost anything!  I LOVE fall time!

I'm not quite sure why I find this so funny...

One of my eggplants is actually producing flower buds all of a sudden. I had given them up as a total loss, and now this! Of course there is not enough time for it to produce a mature vegetable, but now I'm curious as to what it will do. The garden is a crazy place, indeed. Now if only my zucchini flowers would do something productive... they are pretty enough, but I really would like to get at least one squash for my effort!

We hit up a farmer's market while we were in Anchorage today. I bought a huge yellow zucchini, a few snow apples (white turnips), and some fresh green beans. I will be making homemade vegetable beef soup this Friday, and they will add so much to the flavor. I LOVE homemade soup, especially in the fall and winter. Nothing like healthy comfort food! YUMMY!

I also just ate 2 of the reddest, most amazing tasting strawberries ever, out of my 3 tiered raised strawberry beds. Absolute heaven!

Already thinking about next years garden...

So, with the exception of a few plants, this years garden has been a real failure for me. I need to start thinking about next years garden and what I will (and won't) plant in it. I'll start out with a list of what grew and what didn't.

Grew Well:

Snap Peas
Cucumber
Onion
Strawberries
Rhubarb

Didn't Work Out:

Beans
Zucchini
Broccoli
Carrots
Radishes
Spinach
Kale
Cabbage
Eggplant
Peppers
Tomato
Beets



I have to start by asking myself how much of the failure could have been prevented? I need much better soil in the raised beds, that would make a difference all the way around. I neglected my garden for 2 weeks during the beginning of the hottest part of the summer. This was due to Lily being born, but it was neglect all the same.


So, what am I definitely NOT growing again next year? Eggplant, Peppers and Beets for sure.

What am I definitely GROWING again next year? Snap Peas, Cucumber, Onion, Strawberries and Rhubarb, for sure, obviously. But what am I not willing to give up on quite yet? Cabbage, for one. I love cabbage, I cook with it all the time, and Alaska is know for its ability to grow prize winning cabbages, which tells me that I am just doing something wrong. I also know that even if I say I am not going to, I will end up with at least 2 tomato plants again next year. I think I will try Zucchini again as well, as this is just something I really want to have an abundance of in the fall. I think that next year I just need to scale it down a bit, and try to focus on a few so-far-unaccessable-to-me vegetables, and a few tried and true favorites. I will not give up, and sooner or later I will have an amazing vegetable garden every year to feed my family!

Time flys...

Hard to believe that Lily is almost a month old already! I've severely neglected my blog! Here is a quick garden update...

The broccoli and spinach bolted, due to the 85F+ temperatures. The cabbage hasn't grown at all in the last month. The peas are blooming and the beans are doing well, as are the carrots. The radishes have met a similar fate as the cabbages. Cucumbers and zucchini are looking good, and I have 1 tomato. The peppers are covered in aphids and the eggplant seems to be a wasted effort. The onions, beets and strawberries are looking good, and the rhubarb is ready to harvest again! This crazy weather has just messed with the garden too much this year, but next year will hopefully be more productive! I'll post some more pictures next time!

I just couldn't help myself

So I broke down today and purchased 2 cucumber plants from the local greenhouse. They are now living happily amongst the peppers, tomatoes and eggplants. I had moved my herb garden out of the greenhouse to its more permanent outdoor location, and there was this empty space on the shelf that was just begging to be filled, as well as 2 pieces of soaker hose that was just watering the floor. I have actually never tried growing cucumbers before, so we'll see how this goes. Really, everything in the greenhouse is an experiment this year.