2024 Tomato Harvest

 This summer I planned on growing just a few tomato plants that I really love. But somehow a few that I love, turned into over 20+ tomato plants along the fence line mixed in with the flowers. Some new ones that I wanted to try and of course the usual favorites from last season. This has become a new process for me since I am so limited with space in the garden boxes I decided that if I plant one or two and then a flower and then a couple more and then another flower that it is technically not taking up space but sharing the space and they should both benefit from that. The flowers will attract the bees to further aid in pollination of the fruit and visa versa. I also decided that in doing this that Im not really taking up space and if they survive, it was meant to be. I also prepare for loss of new tender plants by over planting but I think this time almost everything survived.

The summer of 2023, I planted 12 San Marzano tomato plants in the large 4x6 raised bed and they were amazing but I had an over abundance of them that didn’t ripen until fall and I sort of felt overwhelmed when I wasn’t able to use them all to make sauces like I intended on early in summer. Instead I harvested them later in the season and only made a few batches and froze the rest of them whole. I skipped the San Marzano this year and stuck to my favorites which have always been the sweet cherry types and the heirloom variety that I can just eat right off the vine. My favorite out of all the heirlooms that I’ve grown so far is Paul Robeson. It has amazing flavor and so meaty and I love that in this tomato!! I love the marbling inside these tomatoes and the colors and textures are so stunning. One tomato that seems to always amaze me is the pineapple tomato. I don’t even remember planting that many this spring but I must have because I had so many of them. And they were not little, they were very large and looked like little pumpkins which were fun giving away and sharing with friends.  

For the 2025 garden I may not grow the pineapple again, but if I do I will try and only grow one or two plants. I do love having a huge variety of tomatoes. The colors are so beautiful!

The newest tomato that I tried this summer was the bumblebee. You can see them on the dish above next to all the sweet cherries. It is also a cherry type but in my opinion has sort of a heirloom taste to it. 

I am super impressed by the long life that these had and stayed fresh for so long.  I noticed that the bumblebee take longer to ripen than the other tomatoes, but it was worth the wait and they have a lovely green striped pattern on them. I bought my seeds from Baker Creek again this year, as I do with so many of my other seeds now. 

 

Of course Luna had to get involved with some of the harvesting this day. I think she might have been actually telling me that it’s time to go for a walk and trying to convince me that I needed to stop for the day. I love her! If you had to guess, who do you think actually won?

Harvesting Dahila Seeds

 This is my second year growing Dahlias and I have learned so much, especially this year. After purchasing my first Dahlia tubers in spring of 2023, I knew very little about this flower. This is now my second season growing them so after learning so much about them I decided that I would try harvesting my own seeds from the Dahlias seed pods that I collected this current season 2024. 

Over this two year period I have read so many of other people’s experiences and watched so many “how to’s” that I finally am feeling like I’m getting it, and also getting hooked too. 

When I first started growing these flowers it seemed very complicated but in just one year I feel like the knowledge I have now has made me feel so much more confident as a grower. 

I am most excited to try growing some new varieties and hopefully develop some really beautiful new flowers of my own. This summer I was really surprised by the dahlias that I grew from seed last year 2023. When I saw how beautiful they were, I suddenly had a new respect and love for this flower because of the unique opportunity to produce something new and one of a kind.

Here you can see that I have harvested some bundles of seed pods but since I am so new to this process I wasn’t sure if these were ripe or not. I did put them into a vase with water as I read that is what I should do when they are still green. 

I saw others that had harvested green pods too and the process from here was to wait and allow them to dry and then separate the seeds. It took several days of allowing the seed heads to dry before I began breaking them open to allow to air dry with fans. 

While harvesting the pods I was also picking the last of the flowers to enjoy since the days were getting shorter and the weather had begun to change making its way for winter and the first frost.

 

Because I am working really fast while it’s still light out, here I have placed some of the pods on paper plates and with a marker labeled them with the flower variety so that later I can stay more organized as they dry out. I feel like this whole process is a blur and things happen so quickly that it’s easy to lose track of what flowers the pods are collected from. 

In the years past it probably wouldn't have mattered as much to me but since I am discovering more about this flower and becoming more involved I want to make sure and keep track of the pollen parent.

After drying out the seeds I spent several days separating the seeds in the evenings after work and allowing them to dry out even more. From here I put them into their own individual bags and labeled them with the date of collection and the pollen parent. The real fun will start in the spring, when I see just how many of these will germinate. The big question that I am asking myself is where do I plan on growing all of these? And I am avoiding the answer and just going to do it and worry about that when the time comes :)

I have found that when it comes to new flowers, I will figure out a way to get them into the garden! 

Just like Luna is changing my life for the better, this garden that I’ve created is also changing my life in a way I never imagined  💕❤️🌸

It’s been a beautiful journey of discovery and learning about myself and what I am capable of creating. In the beginning I set out to make this property a brighter and more livable place for my friend and it’s now a major part of my everyday life. There is no other place that I’d rather be than in the garden among the flowers! And of course hiking and exploring with Luna. I would not have to any other way. 

Preparing for Fall and Dahlia Projects

As the end of the season comes to an end it’s time to get ready for winter preparation and digging up the dahlias very soon. This also comes with the task of making sure that everything is labeled before the freeze and also collecting seeds from the plants before that day comes.

Over the last couple weeks I have been collecting seed pods and have been able to harvest and store several already. In the process of doing this I am learning some things that I had questions about previously. 

Like where do the seeds form after they have been pollinated and my curiosity led me to do some dissecting and took some pictures to share with you. The fact that each seed inside the pod could be a different flower depending on what bee visited and which flowers are pollinated is amazing and it’s blowing my mind a little bit. 

Ive seen a ton of pictures online about tubers and also what they look like and how to recognize the eyes etc, what the seeds look like but I’ve never seen the inside of a pod. Now with my seed collecting project, the information is all coming together for me. I am able to see now what an immature seed and a mature seed looks like and to only collect the large viable ones. The seeds pods that are still slightly green, are left to dry until they turn a sort of papery brown color and I’ve been opening them and allowing them to air dry overnight and this has been sort of my nightly ritual of working on at least one or two seed heads per night until they are separated into their own bags labeled with the seed parent. Most of these first ones that I am currently working on are from dahlias that I grew last year from seeds in 2023 garden and in the fall I collected the tubers and replanted them. These will be labeled so I know who the seed parent is. 

I’m getting really excited about trying to create some new varieties of dahlias to expand on my collection. It’s still fairly small but I’m wanting to definitely create a larger one next summer. 

Now that I know that I can store the tubers with success in my climate and indoors, I am going to keep at it and grow them again next spring as well.

Hiking with Luna at Kings Canyon

This weekend was very productive. Saturday I drove and picked up Luna and took her to Kings Canyon for a small hike. It’s been several weeks since we have walked in this area. The early mornings have been cooler but I didn’t realize it was going to heat up so quickly. It got really hot by 10:30. We hiked farther than we had in the past in this part of the trail. I do have fears of the mountain lion in the area and have seen several signs that they are around, so I’m not as active out by myself as much as I use to be. I try my best to work through my fears though and keep doing the things that I love. It was a nice hike and we made a new friend while we were there too. She has 6 huskies and is very involved in mushing with her little team, she had lots of good information to share with me. I’ve thought about teaching Luna to pull and start training so this winter we can have fun in the snow together. I haven’t explored anything yet so meeting someone who is very experienced was got me excited about it  again. 

After our hike I spent some time in the garden getting things ready for fall. Dug up some weeds and tree suckers and made some flower arrangements and picked some veggies for a friend who stopped by to say hello. 

Today I got a late start, slept in later than usual, then went to the garden and worked on some garden clean up and picked more flowers for the house and more tomatoes. Luna helped ❤️ 

Leaf Cutter Bee in the Zinnias

This is such a cool thing that I discovered last summer in the zinnia flowers!

Based right at the intersection of the leaf and the stem I found this leafy papery shape, like a cocoon of some type. The first thing that popped into my mind was leafcutter bee. No idea where I might have heard that before but possibly when my son was little we read about them. So I looked it up and that’s what it is. So cool!!! I am so very interested in all the workings of the insects in the garden. They all have a purpose here and I’m so happy when I get to see these little miracles in action right in the backyard. 

Now it makes sense why I have been seeing holes cut out of some of the leaves around here. Fun to know! These bees are very beneficial to the garden and they are friendly. From what I’ve read, they don’t sting like other bees. I wish that they would have chosen a safer spot in the garden to make their nest because I needed to now make a mental note not to pick any of these flowers. In order to provide a safe place for them to nest, I decided that I am going to make some nesting boxes for them and that way I can watch them closely and also learn more about them. In my search for more information about these cool bees I ran into a video posted online by OwlTv

Leafcutter bee video by WildOwl Tv

Seeing this video makes me even more excited to build some boxes for them so that they are more protected!

Looking Back at My First Garden - 20 Years Ago

I was looking through some old photos today on my computer and found this picture of my very first garden where I am standing knee deep in the flowers. I look so serious here. I believe the picture was taken in 2003, when we first moved to Nevada. I love visiting old photographs like this. I was beyond excited to have a place that I could create a garden for my family. I was eager to learn everything that I could. It was a tiny garden but I made it amazing and packed as much as I could into the small space that I had to work with. It was at the back side of a hill with open space and no homes behind us and no fencing. I remember it being the perfect little place for me to let my creativity explore.

My favorite thing to grow at that time was tomatoes and made some great canned salsa that year. Sunflowers and zinnia were my favorite flowers. I also started becoming very interested in taking pictures of the flowers in my garden and also enjoyed the beneficial insects that visited. 

Macro photography was a lot of fun and this allowed me to also teach my children about them and share the excitement about the garden.

Here are a few pictures that I took during my first few years as a new gardener.

I had a box with lots of extra tiles, so I sprinkled them loosely on the ground to add a splash of color and add interest. There is one pink spider flower right in the middle of the zinnia to the left.

One of the first things that I grew were zinnias and I remember them being so amazing! If you are new to gardening and want an easy to grow flower, I suggest zinnias. They bloom for a very long time. They are still one of my favorites today and my garden is not complete without them. The ones that are pictured here are California Giants. Now several years forward, my favorites now include Oklahoma Salmon and also the Benary varieties like the Giant wine and also the Carmine Pink. Over the years I have noticed that I am more fond of pink flowers than I ever was before.

I grew these cute sunflowers and created a pretty bouquet standing out in the garden. These cuties are called Teddy Bear Sunflowers. I grew some here in the summer of 2022 but they were not near as stunning as you see pictured here. I think that I could try again next summer and hope they might do better.

Luna Love 💗

I never imagined that my love would develop so strongly for a dog after the things that I’ve experienced, but this beautiful girl is changing my whole world. I have had some trust issues when it comes to large dogs, due to bad past experiences. 

When I was 2 years old, I was on a camping trip in the mountains with my family and I put my arms around our friends dog to give it a hug and it bit my ear off, to where it was only hanging from a tiny piece of skin. My mom said that the doctors were unsure that they would be able to sew it back together because of how badly it was torn, but they did it. This was a very traumatic experience as a small child, but it didn’t surface as a serious issue until my adult life when I was bit a second time by a dog. After that, there was something that occurred inside my body and I was not able to sleep for almost 4 days. This was a difficult time in my life and very scary and I could not figure out what was happening to me and why I could not sleep. I soon discovered that it was a result of my trauma.

It’s changed everything for me in my life today. It’s been 18 years since the second bite and I still cannot sleep without herbal teas and medicines. The one thing that Ive learned through it all, is to be compassionate with myself. There are times when I get down about what I struggle with, but Ive learned to be gentle with myself and accept myself the way I am.

The most important thing is that I’ve learned is to learn to trust again because it is allowing me to heal in many ways. For several years I wouldn’t go near other dogs and was especially fearful of large ones. I avoided them and was upset with myself for having this fear.  I gradually got closer to dogs in 2016 and learned to trust a little more, but I still had an issue with it. 

Just 7 months ago Luna came into our lives. She is mainly meant for my friend, who is in a wheelchair and is in need of a support dog, but she has gradually been helping me to trust again and has been a great support to me as well.

The first week I met her, I was intimidated by her size and I would try and work through that fear by purposely sitting next to her on the couch and I could feel my body shaking and this bothered me a lot. My friend told me that she would never harm me and that she doesn’t have a mean bone in her body and to trust. Everyday it has gotten better and we have bonded now. I can get close to her and put my arms around her and I know she will not hurt me. I feel so connected to her now and she is my best friend. I take her on hikes and we explore trails together. She continues to help me work through my fears and I help her work through hers❤️she came from a tough background as well so I feel like together we are good for each other. 

These pictures were taken when her dad was in the hospital recently and I stayed with her for a week caring for her. I was with her in the garden in the early mornings before leaving for work and it was beautiful being with her and having my morning coffee while visiting all of the flowers and listening to the birds. These moments are precious to me and I’m so happy that I can also provide her with comfort and care when she needs it.