Late Summer Garden Update: 2013

We spent most of the early spring focused on the patio project  and put in the vegetable garden late. Still, the strawberries, zucchini, lettuce, & carrots are all plugging along. But nothing is doing phenomenally well, or even as well as last year.

Landscaping
A couple of plants are filling out, like this Smoke Plant that took the place of a miscellaneous grassy area. I really like these, even if they are bare most of the year.

Apple Tree
This little guy has 4 wimpy apples on it. Last year, it had 10+ apples, and the year before it had 5. Maybe we didn't water enough? Or didn't talk nicely enough to it, since we were too busy cursing at the patio heavy equipment. I'm pretty sure pollination wasn't an issue, since the backyard has been full of happy bees this year, and the leaves look pretty healthy. Maybe some years are just apple-ier than others?

Blueberries
These guys have surprised us this year. We planted them 2 years ago in this area and this year they have been producing enough berries to go out almost every day and have a few. We've been careful not to let Mattie see us picking them, because we know for a fact that she is part deer and can nibble them off by herself.

Cherry Tree
Ok, it's not actually our tree, but it overhangs the fence, so we help ourselves to whatever's on our side :) They were really good this year! Not quite as sweet as a couple years ago, but good enough to make cherry clafoutis quite a few times.

Raised Beds
Strawberries were good, but a little late and kind of small. Lettuce has been successful - we got 2 batches in so far. The peas did alright, we planted the second generation now and it's starting to come up. Carrots: a little thin starting out (snails? cats??) but plugging along now.