This year’s garden featured several returning plant selections and some new experiments. The jalapeno poppers were particularly successful growing against a hot west-facing wall. I established my food website with this year’s produce to showcase the products with their source.
February snow blankets a garden gnome.
Lilac leaves emerge in mid-March.
Apple blossoms begin to emerge.
A persimmon flower gives way to a small fruit that grows throughout the summer.
Eight tomato plants right after planting.
The freshly-planted pumpkin bed.
A field of orange lilies fronts the garden beds as the summer plants are established.
Artichokes prepare to flower in my dad’s garden.
A two-foot-tall sunflower grows rapidly in a sunny corner.
Two zucchini plants begin to spread in late June.
Jalapeno plants begin to flower.
Tomatoes begin to grow into their large wooden frame.
Pumpkin vines spread, preparing to produce flowers.
Lilies surround the garden offering its first color of the season.
Pumpkin flower
Snap peas grow down the face of a garden bed.
Two persimmons slowly grow larger.
A persimmon grows among its tree’s large, waxy leaves.
Pumpkins start to grow under a canopy of leaves.
Flowers emerge in a sea of large pumpkin leaves.
Pumpkin and zucchini leaves.
Tomato plants explode with growth into their large wood cages.
New zucchinis emerge several times every week.
Tomato plants grow quickly into their large wooden cages.
Crocosmias and irises grow along the garden pathway.
Legend tomatoes emerge on their vines.
A sunset sunflower grows in front of a thicket of blackberries.
Crocosmias grow over a concrete and gravel path.
A ripe zucchini on the vine.
Grapes grow on a trellis in my dad’s garden.
A medium Connecticut Field and a Small Sugar pumpkin reach their mature size.
A small spaghetti squash begins to turn color.
Legend tomatoes begin to turn color.
Stupice tomatoes are the first of the season to ripen.
A Connecticut Field pumpkin begins to turn color.
A large orange sunset sunflower.
A large sunflower bud begins to open.
Jalapeno plants produce dozens of flowers that lead to small peppers.
Legend tomatoes ripening on the vine.
A Butternut Squash vine grows over the finished snap pea vines.
Ripening Legend tomatoes.
A small butternut squash begins to form.
Tomato plants grow large within the wooden cages.
Large Purple Cherokee tomatoes approach ripeness at the base of their plant.
A first harvest of tomatoes is joined by apples and Asian pears.
Freshly-picked Jalapeno peppers, white onions, and Purple Cherokee tomatoes make an excellent salsa.
Onion flowers emerge in front of the tomato patch.
Dozens of green tomatoes grow on a Legend plant.
Onion flowers over the butternut squash vine.
A small harvest including a variety of tomatoes, jalapenos, and zucchinis.
Large Purple Cherokee tomatoes ripen on the vine.
A rainbow harvest of heirloom tomatoes from Dr. Wychee’s Yellow to Purple Cherokee.
Raspberries ripen in abundant bunches.
Willamette, Legend, and Mortgage Lifter tomatoes with two massive zucchinis.
A bunch of purple sunset sunflowers.
Freshly-harvested white onions dry on a burlap sack.
Onion flowers in front of the tomato cages.
A Connecticut Field and two Small Sugar pumpkins.
A medley of late-September tomatoes with numerous jalapeno peppers.
The large Butternut Squash ripens.
The jalapeno pepper plans produced fruits late into October.
Large, crisp Jonagold apples ripen in October.
A squirrel scours the garden for edible scraps.
A vine maple’s autumn leaves are bright red.
Complete list of garden produce
8′ row of Snap Peas (highly productive, early)
8′ row of White Onions (from seed with variable resulting size)
Six Jalapeno Pepper plants (yielded over 200 peppers of varying heat)
Bell Peppers: two plants in the shade produced only a single pepper
Ten Heirloom Tomato Plants: Purple Cherokee (2), Legend, Willamette, Mortgage Lifter, Sunset Orange, Dr. Whychee’s Yellow (2), Stupice, Martian Giant (highly variable yield by variety with the cooler summer)
Four Pumpkin Plants (yielded 5 total pumpkins): Connecticut Field is successful; Small Sugar is not
One butternut squash and one (volunteer) spaghetti squash plant, each producing a single vegetable
Two Zucchini Plants (yielded 15-20 zucchinis each)
Sunflowers: giant and sunset
Raspberries: productively established as biennials with half pruned out each year
Apples, Asian Pears, Persimmons: several fruits per tree in their first productive year
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