This year's "harvest."

I couldn't help but put quotation marks on the word "harvest" in the title of this post. Last year my efforts at being an urban homesteader were very disappointing--I couldn't even manage to grow a few potatoes. So naturally I figured this year would be better...but I'm not so sure it was!

We did grow some string beans along the fence that did pretty well--we got enough beans for about 3 of our family meals. That's good, since I used leftover seeds from several years ago. And I have left many pods behind to dry out so we can have seeds for next year (although as I'm not sure what kind of seeds they were to begin with, I don't know if they're really sprout. I figured it was worth a try since it would cost nothing.)

And I did get a good amount of calendula for my healing salve. I filled a jar of extra virgin olive oil with dried calendula blossoms. It's been sitting in my back window for a couple of weeks now, and I think it looks so pretty and golden! I have some plantain leaves drying too, and once they are dry I'm going to top up the oil and add them, too.

I planted a number of chamomile plants but the harvest here was pathetic to say the least. I was hoping I would get enough to make tea for the winter...not quite! I think the chamomile must have loathed the damp and shady conditions in my back yard, because I only picked about a hundred tiny tiny straggly little blossoms...so after I dried them I added them to the oil for my healing salve, since the plant is known to be soothing to the skin.

I did make one single cup of weak tea, using a handful of chamomile and some lemon balm leaves...I found it funny. Some day I will do better than this! Some day I will have a lovely sprawling herb garden bursting with bountiful tea-making ingredients...just not right now.

My yarrow plant didn't get big enough to blossom, and my lavender died outright while it was still tiny. We only got 2 miniscule and sickly looking sunflower blossoms from the seeds we planted--so much for the cheerful bouquets the seed packet promised me! My stevia plant grew in leaps and bounds, but now I am not sure what to do with it because the word on the street is that the dried leaves taste terrible...

I am now working on drying some sage, basil, rosemary, and oregano for winter. I would have loved some thyme (which is delicious in my favourite winter meal, beef stew and dumplings) but couldn't find any plants this year. Maybe next year I'll order some seeds.

I planted four parsely seedlings, and they stayed ridiculously tiny! So much for that...

And then, for the pièce de résistance...behold our 2011 tomato harvest in its entirety:

Since the weather has gotten colder and frost has become a possibility, I picked these green, and tossed the plants (with disgust) into the dumpster.

Needless to say, seeing pictures of other people's enormous harvest of juicy red tomatoes has got me feeling a little jealous!

But I know it will not always be this way. Some day I will have a "real" garden...I just have to acquire a much bigger one so there are bound to be at least some accidental successes. We are hoping that maybe we will not be here in this virtually yard-less house by next year's growing season...So I will just keep hoping and praying, that this will be the last year I will have to try to grow things in a shady patch the size of a postage stamp.

Comments

[Meg]

I have had problems with green tomatoes too (northern MN weather) This year I gathered green tomatoes and ripened them in the house in boxes layered in newspaper ....and it worked! It was the first time I have had enough red tomatoes to do something with - good luck in your adventures - we're all always learning.

[Leah]

Hold that thought Laura, you'll get there! Your garden posts so remind me of our last couple years in a town house. I was gardening inside 2 small flower beds and a 4x4 foot box! Anyways, sounds like you got some nice culinary herbs out of your garden, and I love the tomato photo almost as much as your sense of humour about it! If we were neighbours, I'd bring you a box full. Hoping and praying for you too- the right place will come along when the time is right. :)

[Shannon]

You're tomatoes may not be big or red but they are still a sight for sore eyes. All I have outside the window behind me are some rocks, a dead spider and a shrug the local cats like to pee in. Lol...

[Melanie~ Our Ash Grove]

Oh Laura Jeanne, I know how it feels to be disappointed in your garden year! We learn each year as we go- and think of how much you'll know for next year.
Those green tomatoes may be few, but they're beautiful. :) And three meals of green beans is pretty great, it's more than we got!

[Sarah H]

I would love to have your beef and dumpling recipe!! I so understand your tomato situation, our problem was we had vines full of tomatoes but we also have a groundhog friend that loves them before they are ripe....we got 2 picked while they were green and only handfuls of baby tomatoes otherwise ha ha. {;0)