Fall Harvest is Over

It took a while for my garden to take off and really start producing.  But when I came back from Illinois  we had a ton of tomatoes and some were starting to turn red.  It was crazy to see the growth when we returned from Illinois.  I am happy with the harvest we were able to get from our little garden but I know it can be better next year. 

I am getting another box and we are planting more.  First tomatoes will have a whole box to themselves and then cucumbers and squash and zucchini will have a box of their own then.  I will also put my herbs in their own pots, I was sad to have to pull up the last bit of them and dry them out.  I loved having fresh herbs thyme and parsley, next year I will add cilantro.  But I will try and do them all year round since they grow well in pots.  Then I will put my carrots in the same spot but make sure I seed them better instead of bunches I will do a line.  Yeah it was a mess trying to thin them out to try and get the big carrots to keep growing.  I will wait and see if I want to add anything else to the bunch, but I have discovered these plants need space the more space the bigger they get and well will give better produce.  Also I won't be using pesticides on my plants, we had bugs eating our tomatoes and so we used that.  Then for my birthday a friend gave me this book for green gardening and it had great fixes for the bugs.  So next year my garden should be legit organic.  Plus I learned a lot from the book that has helped me have more of a green thumb, and I have some tricks up my sleeve.  I am excited for next years growing season.  I got so much gratification from gardening I think everyone should try it.  Plus Paiglee loved our garden and would try things from it.  It was a good learning experience for her.  Plus therapeutic for me.  

 Along with the garden we had some other improvements to our outdoor living space.  We put Restore on our deck, we love it so far it is messy and takes weeks to set but it really is hassle free and protects the wood and we shouldn't ever have to think about it again.  It can get hot in the hot summer sun but I will take it over splinters and ugly wood that needs to be stained. Plus if we put up our umbrella then it isn't hot in the shaded area.

As you can see in some of the pictures it got on our siding, but it scrubs off fairly easy.  

    

Man I love this picture of these two, love them.