A backyard veggie garden grow season is nearing the end. Lots of blooms, transplants, and harvests of veggies and herbs.
Backyard Garden
I just took down the greenhouse for the winter, the remaining plants moved to the garden boxes, these photos are from this past month.
Perennial Herbs transplanted
The perennial herbs that relax for the winter and grow back in the spring were transplanted to one of the garden boxes. They'll be covered with burlap to give them a little extra protection over their first winter.
 Lemon Balm |  White Sage |
|---|
In the above pictures you can see the Lemon Balm and White Sage perennial herbs, Lemon Balm makes a calming and relaxing tea. Different from the Lemonmint, Lemonmint is more for flavoring but does act as a digestive aid.
 Lemonmint |  Thyme |
|---|
 Sweet Marjoram |  Rosemary |
|---|
Thyme, Rosemary, and Sweet Marjoram perennial herbs are most often used for flavoring, but they do have therapeutic uses. This herbal garden box will be useful for tea and cooking recipes.
Sunflower blooms
A lot of photos of the sunflower's past month in the garden, they were grown in upcycled plastic pickle jars.
These are small sunflowers, the seed stock was actually for growing microgreens, selected to produce a quick and hardy stalk for quick grow consumption.
 |  |
|---|
 |  |
|---|
The little flowers are pretty though, ultimately producing the same size seeds that were planted. Some were harvested early for a vase on the kitchen table, sunflowers of any size seem to brighten the day.
Tomatoes
The tomato grow was decent, but I'll have to start them early indoor next year for them to finish earlier in the grow season, the tomatoes won't be vine ripened this year.
 |  |
|---|
Strawberry transplanted
First year for the strawberry plant, it made a few strawberries, yum, and some runners to spread out next year.
This perennial was transplanted to another one of the garden boxes for it's return next year.
 |  |
|---|
Strawberry plants usually have a smaller harvest on the first year, I'm looking forward to an early and bountiful strawberry harvest next year.
Surprise Red Pepper
I found a surprise red pepper when I was closing down the greenhouse. This hydroponic grown bell pepper plant I had grown indoors over the winter with many peppers harvested. It was stalled, but I moved it out to the greenhouse in spring to see what it would do.
I didn't see a flower on it all summer, I even unplugged the hydroponic air bubbler, but when I went to shut down the greenhouse this red bell pepper popped into my vision.
There were a few flowering basil plants that were grown with the pepper plant too.
Pumpkin and Gourd
There were a lot of gourd and pumpkin blooms, and a few starts, but many of them were lost to temperature dips.
 2 Months Ago |  Current Day |
|---|
Despite the cold snaps, one pumpkin and one gourd did manage to grow.
 Gourd |  Gourd |
|---|
The pumpkin below is slowly turning orange, this one will be carved up for the porch for Halloween 🎃.
Beans and Peas
The little greenhouse has been mostly emptied, the contents harvested or moved to the outside garden boxes, the bean and pea plants were the last hold outs and still giving.
Many string bean harvests, eaten before the beans get too large.
 |  |
|---|
The peas are still giving too, lots of harvests. These were also grow with micro green pea shoot seed stock, but I knew the peas would grow to the same size as the seeds. Fresh and sweet peas are my favorite garden bounty.
Beets, Carrots, Potatoes
The beets, onions, and carrots root veggies were little, I'll have to start these ones early indoors too, to give them a head start.
 Beets |  Carrots |
|---|
The potato plants were impressive but never made it to full size potatoes, but there were many little potatoes harvested. I'll have to find a place with full sun, I suspect, to get a more impressive potato harvest.
 |  |
|---|
Below is a cooked beet, sweet tangy flavor, lots of vitamin C, sugars, and carbos.
 Cooked Beets |  Potatoes |
|---|
Rosehips Ripening
Behind the garden boxes and along the fence line is a row of wild roses. You can see their spring bloom in the picture below.
A month and a half later, the rose hips had grown, a month later they had bright red ripened. They're best picked after the first frost, the below zero temps give them some sweetness to go along with their vitamin C, they make a tasty breakfast jam.
 1 Month Ago |  Recent |
|---|
My first season growing a garden in this back yard, it was fun to return home from work to see it's growth. There was a bounty of little harvests, and the kitchen herb garden box is off to a great start. I'll be starting a few veggies early for next garden season.
