Garden Views

This year I tried a few things in my garden I've never tried before. Chris and I love artichokes, so we decided to plant some and see how they did. Has anyone seen baby artichokes when they are the size of an egg? Very cute.

We've pulled a few from the garden, but I decided it would be cool to see them bloom...





I also planted a lot of eggplant this year. I've planted it before, but it's never done well for me. This year has been great, though. We went on vacation to San Diego last week and when we got back, I had monster eggplant - pulled four from the backyard and had eggplant parmesana for dinner last night. I also planted cauliflower and cabbage later in the season... I hope I can harvest it before the snow and frost get here.



I've done peppers each year, too, but I've never had them grow as tall as they have this year. Chris and I built a new box along the south side of our house and put some peppers, zucchini, eggplant and a tomato plant in there. Some of the pepper plants are nearly four feet tall - they may pass me up any day now! :) The only problem is they haven't given many peppers. Now that it's cooler, I might see more...



It's been a lot of fun getting new things from the garden. Next year I might skip out entirely on the squash (except I looove spaghetti squash and will always plant that) and grow pumpkins. I just finished my first batch of salsa this year and am excited, because it turned out great and it's something that will actually get used and won't just sit on the shelf like the tomatoes I bottled last year!

The one challenge I have had with canning is that I have a glass top stove. Everyone says you can't can on it, so I've always had to borrow someone else's camp stove or go to their house... it's been pretty inconvenient. So the other night while Chris and I were out shopping for a crib, we stopped by and bought a propane stove so I can process all my canning without bugging anyone else for theirs! This is what we settled on: A fold up double burner - propane powered - we thought it would be good for canning, camping, and emergencies. (haha... ignore the toilet paper box in the photo)



Other things I planted this year that was new: onion, beets, sunflowers, grapes, garlic, and corn. And wildflowers! But most of them died, so I'm not sure I should count those... :(