Last year, I planted a thornless boysenberry in my back yard. My past attempts at any kind of berry failed, either they died of water deprivation, or because our soil is just to clay heavy. This little boysenberry that could actually almost got axed, as the thornless branches had thorns :(. I decided to let it live, and am I happy I did!
This little bush has given us bowls and bowls of succulent berries! Not to mention the pleasure of picking berries and popping them in our mouth while we worked outside. This bush has graced us without the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and honestly, not alot of water that was not supplied by rain fall. Yes, we had to blow off a spider web or two....
Last night I picked what looked like the last batch of berries, saying "goodbye" to this wonderful gift. This morning, like magic, there were more :). Thankfully, I left the majority of the "shoots" to grow along the fence, next year we will be swimming in delicious boysenberries!
I love the satisfaction of growing my food, especially since I am not a great gardener. My herbs grow wild for me with not much care (but lots of love) from me, and now I have food growing in the same manner. I love going to the market and being able to pass up the little $7(!!!!) baskets of berries, knowing mine are ready at home (and organic!).
I did not have much luck with tomatoes last year, so we built a "lasagne garden" box for the tomatoes. Look at the before & now pics! If the heat does not get the blooms, we will soon be graced with all kinds of tomatoes and cucs. The first tomatoes are setting, and I can't wait for sun ripened, weirdly shaped, warm, delicious tomatoes! My favorite memory is from Greece, where the kids ran in the garden, fetched me a giant, ugly heirloom tomato and some cucumbers. We sliced them, sprinkled salt, pepper & olive oil, and ate them by the tons. Mmmmmmmm. Coming from Germany (where much of our tomatoes & cucs came from Holland and were uniform), this was a treat I now reintroduce every summer.
Send me your favorite summer tomato & cucumber recipes, as that is what we will be eating most of the summer :). Preserving recipes too :).
Hope you are enjoying the summer.
Much love,
Heike
Mmmmmmmmmm.......yummy! I LOVE BERRIES!!! We just ate a bunch of raspberries and strawberries. Your garden looks great. My mom has horrible soil...the most compact clay of any yard I've ever seen in the Sacramento area. She generally only does tomatoes as a result. That's all she has patience for.
ReplyDeleteMalea, our soil is terrible too. And we have hardpan only about 2 ft down. That is why I put in the boxes and the "lasagne". It seems to be working quite well :). Glad you like the pics :).
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to get my mom to do raised beds or boxes of some kind for a long time. She is very resistant. My cousin, however, is trying them this year and is much happier with the results!
ReplyDeleteMy tomatoes and cucumbers are so much happier this year! The difference is amazing, and I did a lot of prepping to my soil in the last years. This was so much easier, and I just fill them up in layers as they settle. Keeps the roots better too, a big plus when we hit days of 100+.
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