Gardening Gains

homeontherange-1

It’s been a long time coming, but I think this year, maybe just maybe I finally have it. I created a bed just for the strawberries and plopped the strawberry tower of power in the center. I planted strawberries all around it in the hopes that the runners would propagate the tower. So far so good.

 

homeontherange-2 homeontherange-3

I expanded the garden quite a bit this year and everything is doing great, except for one sad thing… the tomatoes. They were flooded. The whole backyard flooded. The basement too. And a lot of Ames, Iowa in general. But there was 4 inches of standing water with the tomatoes for 4 days. Tomatoes do not like that much water. The basil is doing amazingly well though, I’ve already chopped it all down once and made a huge batch of pesto.

homeontherange-4

Lucy loves to swing.

homeontherange-5

The cucumbers have done great this year – I’ve never grown them successfully before even though many tell me they are “so” easy. This year, that finally seems to be the case.

My initial harvest done, this is what I pulled in:

homeontherange-7 homeontherange-8 homeontherange-9

 

And on the plants still, I should note I’ve never been able to grow eggplants, check out these beauties:

homeontherange-6 homeontherange-10

Ahhh, and this morning I just pulled in a ton more cucumbers, another monster ball zucchini, and the basil is already ready for a second harvest and pesto making session.

Until Next Time…

Kristin M Roach