The Continuing, Further, and Not Yet Finished Adventures of a Wannabe Urban Gardener

It has been some time since I've posted anything about my make-shift suburban garden. For the most part there has not been much to add since the garden has been... well... growing. I haven't been adding to it, but I'm letting this year's growth run it's course and am making plans for next year.

Tomatoes

Oh, do I have tomatoes. This picture was taken last week. This week the tomatoes are about red in colour and are all over the vines. It is at the point where I have jokingly suggested growing pigs so I can grow my own bacon and tomato sandwiches.

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Grapes

I might actually get some grapes this year! I don't speak too much about the grapes because I really do not give them much tending. I bought my first pair of grape bushes years ago - I want to say 7 or 8 years ago - when my oldest son was obviously younger. The first couple years the grape vines grew, struggled, died. It was a repeating pattern: grow, struggle, die. The cycle of life.

It had gotten to the point where I usually just let the vines do what they want (which was to die), but I never had the heart to actually pull them out because of the emotional attachment I have with them to my son. This year I decided to give them a little more love and began to feed and fertilize them again, and it might actually pay off with a couple bunches of grapes!

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The amount of vines and leaves necessary to grow a bunch of grapes is astounding, by the way.

Corn

My corn is growing really well, and I'm thrilled about this. More than the corn, I want the corn stalks for autumn.

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I am, literally, growing this corn in left-over cat litter buckets. They are just the right size to hold a yard of soil, and seem to be just the right size to grow a stalk of corn. You can see the corner of one of the buckets in the next picture. My make-shift corn field is definitely going to grow in size next year.

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Pumpkins

I planted some pumpkin seeds in June, late in the season for pumpkins, and was concerned that I was too late.

Well.

This is how they looked a month ago.

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This is how they look now.

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@bdmillergallery, if/when these begin to fruit, I'll gladly trade you a pumpkin for a watermelon. I just need to keep the squirrels and birds away! I covered them with a net this weekend, and think now it might be time for a scarecrow!

Mint

My mint has not dissapointed. I have multiple varieties and I've started to harvest and dry.

Here are a few handfuls of Berries and Cream mint.

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Washed, picked, and placed on a dehydrating tray they look like this.

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And, dehydrated, they begin to look like this.

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I have a really neat herb holder that I've earmarked for mint. I definitely have enough variety to fill all five pockets.

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The big issue with the dehydrating process is that it takes sooo looooooong to do. At a bare minimum I dehydrate the mint for 12 hours at 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I have some other herbs to do as well, but the mint is my favourite; I like to mix it with teas, and I can assure you, it works really well!


(c) All images and photographs, unless otherwise specified, are created and owned by me.
(c) Victor Wiebe


About Me

Amateur photographer. Wannabe author. Game designer. Nerd. 
General all around problem-solver and creative type.

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#digitalpinhole#pinhole#firehydrant

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