Memories of the 2008 gardening year

2008 was a strange year for growing. May and June were VERY wet months...anyone heard of the Cedar River's Flooding? Ya that rain water had to come from somewhere. My backyard garden however fared unusually well!


(Photos: top - my youngest and his favorite veggie, strait from the garden! Middle my garden mid June, hey its growing!!! Bottom Green Beans and Peas from my garden!)



On the east side I planted green beans and peas, and they grew...and had nice crops. In the middle I put a "walking" strip of newspaper and grass...Using Square Food Gardening as an inspiration. (Ya my garden is about that big...its 12'x4' or so...and not big enough for our growing family, that's why we also purchase a CSA share.) On the west side were 3 or 4 tomatoes, and there was a tomato in a 1/2 barrel but the house...it was a Fourth of July var. tomato but did not have fruit ripen until early August.


I tried the jalapeno under/beside the peas and beans, that did not work. It had LOW production, compared to other years, and was just not happy.

One more surprise from the 2008 growing season was the length....we did not have a killing freeze until late in October so we got lots of extra peppers and tomatoes to freeze (yum).




Most of the peppers came from our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Share...I froze them on sheet pans and put into zip top freezer bags. They lasted through most of the winter. I also made some yummy tomato sauce using steps from an Alton Brown Recipe on Food Network. It made the best
mid-winiter tomato sauce EVER!