Veggies

Though I still have more photos to share from the Steens Mountains trip, I've been catching up on my gardening since I returned, and wanted to share some photos of the garden and my efforts at food storage.

Last year Rita and I installed a trellis, but it was not a very moist spring, and we did not get anything established to climb on it. This year I started some Morning Glory seeds inside, and moved them outside during our rainy spring. They've sure colonized that area. I expect there will be blooms soon.

This is the corner of the garden where I planted a hill of pumpkin seeds. I was trying "square foot" gardening. A pumpkin patch does not confine itself to a square foot, but fortunately I had already harvested the lettuce, broccoli and beets that it overran. It is beginning to climb the corn in the back of the garden now, and there's even a pumpkin forming about two feet off the ground. There are about a half dozen pumpkins the size of basketballs. They seem very happy there ... and on my lawn.


There's one of the pumpkins now, and a few more pumpkin flowers. We're supposed to get some rain as the week goes on, so I imagine that there will be pumpkins everywhere soon.

Today I steamed a mixture of zucchini and yellow squash, and put it in the freezer in Ziploc bags. It will be good in soup this winter.

Last fall Rita taught me how to can things ... like pickled beets. I love pickled beets. This year I tried it all by myself. They sure look pretty. And, I imagine they will be tasty, as well.


For a while, when I was first learning to garden, I was very goal-oriented and pragmatic. A flower was not something I would plant. Even a shade tree was an effort beyond my comprehension. I'm pleased with the fruit trees I planted, but now I can take pride in the evergreens, too. These lotus finally bloomed after repeated attacks by some predator that ate every last goldfish in my pond ... breaking the roots and stems of the pond lilies in the process. And, Black-eyed Susan are one of my favorite flowers. There are also a couple of types of thyme in the photo; creeping thyme making a mat, and some other kind standing up taller.

Flowers are worth some effort after all.