Last summer when I began this gardening project, I tried and tried to get my apple tree to produce some fruit. I think i got a total of 3 apples, none bigger than a golf ball.

while I may not get any apples again this year, my tree is in bloom and it’s beautiful!

ah, spring. so nice of you to finally join us. 

about a month ago, I received a package in the mail that I had completely forgotten was coming:


and inside of it was a LIVE blackberry plant:


pretty scrawny looking, if you ask me. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. Early March is still winter here in Idyllwild. In fact, it’s snowed at least a foot since the blackberry plant arrived. Blackberry plants love the sun. Why were they sending me the plant in early March?!

I let the plant sit there in the box for a week before I decided that we needed to plant it and give it a chance to grow. We dug a hole in the back yard in an area that gets lots of sun and planted the little sucker:

I watered it only a couple of times, because mostly it’s been sitting under a 5 gallon bucket while the skies dump snow all around it. That 5 gallon bucket is genius! (thanks, Jacob). the plant has still been getting water from the snow and rain, but it hasn’t frozen. 

in fact, today when I went out there to check on it, I realized it’s grown quite a bit in the last month:

so I guess this means we’re off and running! 

I’ve been thinking this for weeks, but I think it’s time to publicly admit that I killed the apricot trees and they aren’t going to magically come back to life. (sigh)

i decided to carve the pumpkin we grew. here are the results!

gardening season is over in this household. not completely - but the outside gardening is going into hibernation. I harvested the last of the radishes over the weekend to make dinner for my mom who was visiting from D.C. Last time she was here - we had just built the walls for the garden, so i thought it might be nice for her to taste some of the vegetables. 

I also decided to harvest the pumpkin:

which is obviously still green - but I’m thinking (as several other people are as well) that it’s not going to turn orange. it’s certainly not going to turn orange before I leave on Sunday for a 16 day business trip to Asia.

so - i cleaned out all of the debris and plant matter and the garden looks like this:
 
now. I know i said gardening is going to hibernate for the winter - but we still have two basil plants in the kitchen window and I still have 5 apricot tree growing (slowly but surely) in the office. I’ll keep you posted on those plants - but I have a feeling nothing is going to happen for a little while. xx

i don’t know what’s going on out there, but yesterday I harvested some basil:


and made some pesto. I froze it in ice cube trays so it will keep and I can just pop out a couple when I need it. You can’t can pesto since the pH balance is weird or something like that:


and just wanted to show how great the pumpkin is doing:


size comparison:

(yea, those are rain drops on my pumpkin)

and the apricot trees have really taken off! 2 of them are growing like crazy, and then a third one sprouted after I left it outside to die, basically - and then came back and sprouted in 3 places from one seed. can’t figure that one out!

 

 

Sorry I haven’t been updating the garden blog lately. I’ve been feeling pretty defeated about the whole experiment. While the cilantro and basil and radishes are to die for, the squash is really tiny and there are several rotten squash. Oh - and the pumpkin plants which are over 20 feet long and have climbed up the fence and about to take over the neighbors yard - still haven’t produced any pumpkins! And the leaves of the pumpkin plant and the squash plants are turning white/yellow and becoming extremely brittle.

I mean - what does a girl have to do around here to get some actual pumpkins!?!

Everyone we’ve talked to agrees that the pH balance in the soil is off. (too much h.p.) funny - since I thought one could never really have too much h.p., but oh well. we’ve gotten weird suggestions on how to fix this - but my solution is to just rip out the pumpkin plants. they aren’t producing anything and they are just taking over the yard.

Jeanine and Carli both said - who cares about the leaves? It’s not like that is what you’re going to be eating. true. i guess. and that the soil would be great next year - just add in a bunch of compost and it could balance things out. well, that’s all fine and dandy for NEXT year, but what about my fall harvest?

After working all day today and then running errands off the hill, I came home to rip out the pumpkin plants when I walked in the door and Jacob told me to come look - there was a pumpkin. (yea right) but really. there was:

!!! (it’s the size of a softball) !!!

but wait - there are 3 more. you heard me. THREE. that makes FOUR total.

that one is pretty small, but it’s a pumpkin…



all of the pumpkins are at least 15 feet away from the base of the plants, but that’s ok. I’m so happy that we have pumpkins, andI don’t have to rip out the plants in defeat. I will wait patiently for the pumpkins to grow.
 

fresh squash from the garden for dinner!

well, still no pumpkins - but this is what the plants are looking like:


and the squash are pretty much taking over the other side of the garden:


but at least they are producing vegetables:
 

 

but i think i may have figured out what is wrong with the garden. someone (Oakley) thinks it’s her litterbox! here she’s trying to sneak out before I realize what she did…
 

the apricot trees are sprouting! well, one is - but it’s actually growing! as long as I can remember to water the seeds, i think we’re in business: