October 31, 2021
Armagarden 2021
In 2017, I got kind of overwhelmed by my enormous garden. It just wasn't fun for me that year. I decided that I needed to simplify the yard a bit.
I somehow decided that it would be easier to build an entire house nearly all by myself than to plant and tend the large backyard garden again.
OK that was much harder but there I was 3 years later (2020), living in a new house that I built nearly all by myself and now I have the gardening bug again.
The backyard is on a steep hill so I spent the better part of 2020 terracing it.
I did manage to plant a few crops in 2020. A row of sunflowers, some tomatoes, peppers and corn. The deer are fierce here in the new neighborhood. because of them, I never got a single pepper or tomato. We did get corn and lots of sunflower seeds though.
We also planted some fruit trees at the end of the 2020 growing season.
We later fenced off the yard so I could resume my mad gardening hobby undeterred. Or at least so I thought.
Garden Map for 2021
I was so excited to start planting, I started sprouting things inside and transplanting them into the garden.
I forgot how deceptive the spring time is. It tricks you into a false security with warm days only to rip it all out from under you with a cold snap.
Most plants died, the ones that did survive didn't grow much. Also this native soil was full of mean and spiteful weeds that had thrived here for centuries.
Insects also did some destruction on my young little seedlings. It seemed like everything I planted was either dying or dying slowly.
The garden barely doing anything and it's May 16th
The only crop that did well early on were the sunflowers.
A few weeks later all the crops started growing quickly and doing well.
The Backyard Garden June 15, 2021
Corn Rows
Corn on the Cob on June 30th
One of my long-time garden goals was to eat home grown corn on the cob on the 4th of July.
Would you believe it? We were eating corn a week before on June 30th!!!!
It was great heating fresh produce from the garden again. Strawberries, tomatoes, corn, onions, squash, tomatillos, egg plant, carrots, and herbs.
I can't wait until next year when we might have raspberries growing in our backyard again.
One of the best things about Mittleider gardening method is its efficient use of water. The food garden (and the entire zeriscaped property) required about 4500 gallons/month throughout the summer months.
