Wednesday 1 August 2007

Treats from the garden

I must admit that for the last couple of weeks, I have been overwhelmed by the amount of upkeep necessary to keep our yard acceptable looking. Not helping is that we also have quite the list of the yard projects we hope to get done this year. I would go outside, see the amount of weeds overtaking my gardens, note all the projects not being completed, feel overwhelmed and go back inside. Not really the best way to get things done (I have been known to do this with other projects as well... I now understand that staring at the yarn will not get my projects knitted). This week I have been putting a lot of my energy and time into getting my gardens weeded and I must admit that it really is worth it (and remember that if I did it more often, the weeds wouldn't be so big and there wouldn't be so darn many of them!!)

All the hard work does have its rewards. They come in the form of beautiful flowers, sweet little hummingbirds, and yummy fruits!

Our raspberry harvest was huge this year. This is just a small sample of what we picked. I was able to freeze some as well, but I really don't think they will last until winter.

Our first blackberry. They are huge and we have so many for such a small amount of plants. I'm looking forward to having enough to be able to freeze these as well (and make jam too!)

I picked these strawberries last night and there are still lots left at various stages of ripeness. I will miss having fresh strawberries on my morning cereal so I am enjoying them while they are here and plentiful (and sooooo good!!)

My tiny garden can't produce all the fruits and vegetables I would like, so I feel very lucky that we have so many different places to get fresh, local produce. Yesterday, I stocked up on local peaches, plums, nectarines, corn, beans, cabbage, cherries... I couldn't help but feel that we live in a really wonderful place.

3 comments:

Terry said...

Thanks for visiting my site. I'm jealous of all the wonderful looking fruits and vegetables you have growing. I hope to one day soon (correction, make that one year soon! lol!) to get my garden going. Being in Texas, it gets extremely hot during the summer, so I don't normally tread outside for too long. I have always tried to get the hand of knitting, but haven't quite managed it. I use to do cross stitch until my vision caught up with me. :-) I'll keep checking back to what all you and your brood are doing.
Terry

Katherine said...

Wow! Look at all the beautiful berries. I believe you've got the gardening green thumb as well, Samantha.
About the weeding, the upside of letting them get large before pulling means they're easier to distinguish from the plants you want to keep ;o)

Nicola said...

Isn't it great getting so many raspberries at once! We used to only get a few at a time, and whilst it's nice to pick them and eat them in the garden, I do like having a whole bowlful too!