Nature's Bounty

These were my carrots. I kept them in the ground as long as possible (harvested 9-2009) and the lush green tops were getting me excited. Much to my dismay this is what I pulled up.

I don't know whether to blame rocky soil or transplanting tender seedlings at the wrong time but these are the saddest gnarliest carrots I have ever seen. I was hoping to have a family taste test to see which color was preferred. Instead I washed them off and chomped a few myself then tossed them into the compost pile. The purple were the best.

Even though I grew tired of the gardening thing by the end of summer, and even though I couldn't bend over to plant anything at the moment if I wanted to, looking at these pictures and getting seed catalogs in the mail makes me excited for what might come forth from the soil per our hard work next year. All I know is that it won't be zucchini. And that I will plant my tomato plants farther away from each other (who knew they got so big?). I will probably be starting seedlings here inside come March. Depending of course on when my own seedling decides to arrive.

(I had always wanted to make a panzanella (bread salad) and having basil, tomatoes and scallions in the garden provided the perfect opportunity. But I was the only one who liked it)

One thing we had copious amounts of besides squash and tomatoes were dahlia's. In October when I finally thought we needed to cut down the cutting garden we had enough flowers to make bouquets for three of our neighbors plus ladies I visit teach. Avery made deliveries on her tricycle in the rain. the tubers have since been pulled up and stored for the winter to prevent rotting.