Celebrating the Harvest 2013

 

As a gardener, the most important outcome of the garden season is the harvest.  That is what all the digging, weeding, planting, sowing and weeding is about; the harvest.  I'm always amazed when I begin to fill bowl after bowl of vegetables from a picking - it's really gardening "nirvana."

So I decided to put together a post featuring some Instagram snapshots that captured this years harvest.  It's a quick look at why we do what we do in the garden.

This past 2013 season was certainly no disappointment either.  Besides the fact that we had so much rain and cool temps, we still managed to bring in haul after haul of garden produce.

 

Sure our peppers languished for the early part of the season, but September proved to be a great month with nice mild temperatures; more sun and less rain.  All of a sudden our peppers really began putting on lots of fruit. 

 

We have scores of them and mostly hot peppers at that.  I'm not sure when I'm going to learn how to not plant SO many hot varieties.  Yes, we love them hot, but we do have our limits.  

By the way...if you ever want to learn how to eat hot peppers - start growing them and you'll soon find ways to use them.  I never ate a hot pepper 20 years ago, now we have a slight addiction to them.

 

Sadly, our tomatoes didn't fare as well.  They always suffer from Septoria Leaf Spot (a fungal disease which affects the plant) in our garden at home, but I usually still get a decent crop.

We did manage to get enough tomatoes to can this year, but many were under-ripe and very small.  All the rain and cool temperatures wreaked havoc on those temperamental Mediterranean plants.  It may not make the best sauce this year but at least it's our tomatoes with no added pesticides; thank you very much!  

Despite a bleak outlook in the beginning, most everything did well and we had more than enough to eat, preserve and share.  Which, I think, is really what it's all about.  I really love the harvest, it makes me feel so wealthy and successful.  I guess that's what it's supposed to do. :)

How was your harvest this year?  Blessings! 

Shared on these blog parties...Waste Not, Want Not Wednesdays
Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways  Natural Living Link Up
Monday's Homestead Barn Hop 

Flower Photos in the Rain...

It's always good to get a different perspective.  We tend to view life from one way of seeing things, and I think we end up missing out on other stuff because of this tunnel vision we have at times.  This hit me one day while it was raining outside.  I realized we have no problems seeing beauty in life around us while every day is sunny, but when the rains come; can we still see the beauty?  This led me outside to my little front patio.  It's just a small little nook, but I have it filled with flowers as a visual retreat for me and others.   But I noticed something while it was raining...

I noticed that everything was pretty darn amazing!  I mean, the rain brought out the colors of the leaves and flowers, and everything looked so lush...

It all looked clean and refreshed.  The pavement color was richer in color too...a nice short-lived makeover without any work on my part.

The leaves of these coleus were all glistening and shiny...just like Christmas in September!  You could really see the richness of the colors and it's beauty.

So real.  So wet.  So beautiful.

Even the rain drops on the plant were beautiful.  

A totally different perspective.  Seeing beauty during the rain; in the middle of it, (I was trying to get pictures before I got soaked!) and realizing that even on dark, rainy days, life is beautiful.  It takes rain to bring out true loveliness.

It's just learning how to see it through a different lens...

Hope you're able to see the beauty on all your rainy days...blessings!

Linked to these blog parties...Life Rearranged ,Thursday Thoughts ,Farmgirl Friday , Lisa Leonard Online , Homestead Revival , The Country Homemaker Hop, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways