Fall Harvest

It has been snowing and raining today, so it feels like winter is upon us. Hidden on my camera, however, were some nice photos of the fall's harvest.

This year's garden was thrown together. We were in the middle of working on the house (which we're still doing), and we planted late in mediocre soil. Still, we had a garden, and we did pretty well given our limitations. We got good produce from our 48 tomato plants, and we also had some summer and winter squash. Next year I plan to do considerably better.

By the way, the basil is from our wonderful indoor plant. Also by the way, today I turned a couple of butternut squash (one purchased, one from the garden) into a fabulous soup.

Tomatoes Yum

Jennifer and I planted 48 tomato plants in the spring. I dried several batches of the produce in our handy Excalibur.

These dried tomatoes will be great in a variety of cooked dishes.

And we should do better next year, once we get the back yard in better shape.

Tomato Patch

Jennifer and I -- with some help from Jennifer's sister -- planted 48 tomato plants on Sunday. We had been shooting for 60, but 48 fit our space better. We have poor soil, so we planted each plant in a hole with "planter's mix" soil. We also planted assorted squash.

A word of warning: I called and had my utility lines marked, but in one case we found a line several feet away from the marking. (The guideline is 18 inches on either side.) So apparently the markings are largely guesses. I also suggest that you photograph the markings, so if you hit an unmarked line you have a good defense against related fees. At our old place a landscaping company hit an unmarked Comcast line, and the company's careful documentation prevented Comcast from passing along the repair fees.





It may not look pretty, but all I care about is the survival and growth of my tomato plants. Next year we hope to have a considerably prettier yard (which had completely reverted to weeds when we bought it last summer).