How does your garden grow?

I started another garden this year. Last year was a learning experience for me and I was determined to improve and (pardon the pun) grow.

Since cauliflower and broccoli were a disappointment, I decided to try two new vegetables: tomatoes and cucumbers. To my surprise, my strawberry plants came back and I just let them take over half of my garden.

It was an explosion of strawberries this year.

I also grew more yellow zucchini, as we all enjoyed eating it last year. To avoid pests, I planted marigold in the garden. A consultant at the nursery said that her grandparents always did this to avoid having pests.

Finally, I had kale and rhubarb. I chose to grow kale as it is part of the Dirty Dozen due to the high level of pesticides found in kale. Commercial strawberries are also found to contain high levels of pesticides which is why I wanted to grow my own. My raspberry plant was looking sickly after having been attacked by a beetle last year. My friend Sandra told me to keep watering it. I am glad I took her advice as it did bounce back and I even got babies from it. Alas, no fruit since the beetles were back eating the leaves. On the other hand, my tomato yield has been really good this year.

While I don’t think I will have enough tomatoes for all of my canned tomato sauce needs, we have been enjoying them in salads and tomato sauce every week.

After showing so many blossoms this spring (see my mother’s day post), our ornamental tree was showing the results: lots of apples! They were not good enough to eat,however, I thought I could use them to make apple cider vinegar part 2.

I found a website on line outlining all the mistakes observed when producing your own apple cider vinegar. I made at least two of them: not stirring the solution every few days and not putting a weight on the apples to prevent them from floating up.

I chopped up about 10 apples per jar and added about 6 tablespoons of sugar to 1 cup of filtered water which I then poured over the chopped apples. You are supposed to add one tablespoon of sugar per apple but since my apples were small, I added less sugar. I hope that was the right decision! I added a bit more water to completely cover them, mixed a bit and put a glass on top to keep the apples pushed down.

Then I covered the jars with coffee filters using an elastic and put it in my dark storage cupboard where it is going to sit for 2 weeks with the apples.

I hope that it’s going to work out this time. But with a cost of basically zero (free apples, water and a bit of sugar), if it doesn’t work, it is not a big loss. Crossing my fingers though….

Challenge for the Week: Did you grow a garden this year? How did it work out for you? What did you grow? My admiration is high for anyone that invests the time and energy needed to maintain a garden.