Solstice reminiscing

On this darkest day, it feels fitting to look back on the months of light and give thanks for all the beauty and bounty the garden has bestowed on us this year.

First spring posy

First April greens

Blue and violet late April garden with chicken coop all ready for growing chicks!

Adolescent hens wandering the garden path in June

Little garden gnome helping with transplants June 1. Such a cold, wet spring this year, we waited till then to put out the tomatoes and peppers. The greens in the background liked the weather, though! And the broccoli and kale in the foreground had been out for a couple of weeks I think.

Mid June garden

June posy

Mid June garden--finally enough sunshine to dry those diapers outside!

First blueberries (renamed "num num" by our daughter) June 17

First egg, July 9

First all-home-grown meal--new purple potatoes with chard onion scramble July 17

Broccoli harvest July 17

Heavenly sweet peas

Proud harvester of September greens

Looking back at the garden photos, I realized my photo shoots dwindled significantly toward the end of the season! I guess we were too busy with gardening to remember to take pictures. A few other little garden notables without good pictures to document were the harvest of beets June 21 (I tried planting a second round, but they were completely destroyed by leaf miners (along with chard and spinach) in spite of our best efforts to protect them); harvest of tomatoes and peppers (late September this year--they really didn't want to ripen with the cool weather!) harvest of carrots (October? I can't remember exactly. I usually like to keep some carrots in the ground to harvest through the winter as we need them, but the tops were infested with aphids this year, so I needed to just get them out of the ground. We do still have some giant parsnips in the ground. They make great additions to winter soups.); and the coming of beautiful goldfinches and various other birds to feast on sunflowers in the fall.

Thank you brother sun for your sustaining light--we look forward to your return in the coming months!