It is hard to believe we are already in September and about a month away from the end of the Spring/Summer gardening season. It has been a wonderful gardening season so far. Having an indoor greenhouse set up let me kick off the season in February so I broke out the seeds, set up the greenhouses and started planting the seeds. Hagrid the cat got into the action and decided to plant himself on the shelf of the indoor greenhouse. 

Come March, everything was doing nicely and the greenhouses were full of seedlings including kale, swiss chard, bok choy, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and a variety of herbs. I decided this year to plant catnip, chamomile and anise to use for tea. Hagrid the cat has been loopy a number of times after he got into the catnip while i was drying the leaves for tea. Lovage was also planted although I have not yet decided what to do with it. I gave a seedling a few months ago to my kind neighbor who invited us over for dinner this past weekend for an amazing lovage soup that she had made from the leaves.

Then the two outdoor unheated greenhouses helped the hardening off process proceed smoothly and protected the tender seedlings when the periodic dips of temperature threatened a frost. A few times this year though we had to bring in the seedlings and, like last year, my son’s room was taken over by tomato and peppers plants.

We spent April and May getting everything planted in our community garden plot as well as in large containers we situated around our back yard patio.The herbs and small pots took their place on the shelves against the house.

June, July and August kept me busy with harvesting, canning and pickling. Now the freezer is full of pasta sauce, salsa and pesto while we have pickled peppers in the cabinets.  Pickled beets are lined up in the refrigerator.  I estimate that more peppers will joint the others that are pickled as the pepper plants continue to produce prolifically.

My son got in the creative mode and made vegetable people out of the bounty from our gardens. The white squash pictured here went crazy. I only planted two seeds yet the plants to date have produced over 30 large squashes! After coming up with various ways of cooking them (stuffed with meat, stuffed with cheese, sliced for vegetable lasagne, eaten with just butter), I started to give them to friends and neighbors. Then a box of them went to the community food kitchen yesterday. We still have about ten  more growing in the garden and more blooms after that!  So all in all, it has been a great season so far.